Shoulder-held killing machine
13 April 2012
- The Igla is a portable surface-to-air missile designed to strike low-level aircraft. It is launched from the shoulder in a kneeling or standing position and can intercept targets up to three miles away and nearly two miles high.
- The heat-seeking Igla (needle) can be used in both cold and humid climates and is considered one of the most alarming elements in the Russian arsenal of former Soviet weaponry to come onto the black market in recent years.
- It is the ideal terrorist weapon, capable of shooting down civilian airliners as they take off and land. It has already been successfully used by Chechen rebels to shoot down Russian helicopters
- It was thought to be behind last week's downing of an Mi8 helicopter as it delivered Russian paratroopers in Chechnya. Three soldiers died. It is also understood to be behind the shooting down of a Russian Mi26 transport helicopter near Khankala airbase in Chechnya, killing 121.
- The Igla is easier to use than the SA-7 shoulder-launched missile but it is so sophisticated and accurate that it can destroy commercial aircraft.
- Known as the SA-16 Gimlet in Nato classification, the Igla is an improvement on an earlier version, the SA-18 Grouse, which first saw service with Soviet forces in 1983.
- Like the Kalashnikov, the Igla is robust and almost foolproof. It is fast, light and travels at nearly twice the speed of sound. Unlike its British equivalents, the Blowpipe and Javelin, it is easy to carry, with the missile and warhead weighing about 12kg.
- It has an infrared guidance warhead, fitted with a selection device which ignores active counter-measures and infrared traps, such as heat flares.
