Sosna Strela-10ML – The newest Russian-made short-range air defense missile system

According to Sputnik News, The Russian Defence Ministry will introduce into service the nation’s newest anti-aircraft missile system ‘Sosna ‘.

Cross-branch tests of the Strela-10ML anti-aircraft missile system, called Sosna anti-aircraft missile system when made for export, were completed successful in May 2019. The Russian Defence Ministry has decided to introduce the system into service. Machine delivery is planned for 2022.

The missile system was presented at the Army forum. The 5th International Military-Technical Forum Army-2019 was be held from June 25 to June 30, 2019 at the Patriot Convention and Exhibition Center, located at the Kubinka air base just outside Moscow. 62 nations have confirmed their participation in the event. The system was first presented at the 2018 edition of the annual Army International Military-Technical Forum. Today we will take a brief look at this new Russian missile system, the Sosna anti-aircraft missile system.

Since its introduction at Army-2018 International Military-Technical Forum, Russia’s Sosna air defense missile system has received special attention from customers in Southeast Asia and the Middle East.

The Sosna is a Russian-made short-range air defense missile system designed and manufactured by the Company Nudelman Presicion Engineering Design Bureau.

The new Sosna mobile short-range surface-to-air missile system is intended to protect against all types of air threats including high-precision weapons e.g. cruise missiles and guided aircraft missiles in the area of the system responsibility: in a range – up to 10 km, in altitude – up to 5 km.

In December 2015, it was announced the first trials of the Sosna short-range air defense missile system. The system is expected to replace SA-13 Gopher Strela-10M air defense systems in service with the Russian armed forces.

The weapon system of the Sosna consists of 12 Sosna-R missile launchers mounted on a turret which can turn on 360 degrees. The turret also includes air search and target tracking equipment, missile flight control units that are combined by an integrated high-precision ECM-protected electro-optical control system.

The Sosna can be used as a part of the battery, including the battery of mixed air defense unit, receiving target designation from a battery control post, from the commander’s vehicle, or independently.

A battery of Sosna can use the sector search and thus can operate without external target designation, carrying out all-around surveillance and target designation in a passive mode that does impossible the attacks of antiradiation missiles.

The Sosna air defense missile system uses the MT-LB tracked chassis. The hull of the MT-LB is all-welded steel armor with the crew compartment at the front, engine immediately behind the crew compartment on the left side and the troop compartment at the rear of the hull. The all-welded steel armor provides the occupants with protection from small arms fire and shell splinters. The missile weapon station of the Sosna is mounted on the vehicle roof center. The small turret of the standard version of the MT-LB is removed and replaced by a single hatch. The driver and gunner have a windscreen in front of their positions which, when in action, is covered by a flap hinged at the top. There is three hatches at the front of the vehicle roof.

The MT-LB torsion bar suspension either side consists of six roadwheels with the drive sprocket at the front and the idler at the rear with hydraulic shock-absorbers on swing arms on the first and last roadwheel stations. There are no track-return rollers as the top of the track rests on the top of the roadwheels. The MT-LB is motorized with YaMZ 238, V-8 cylinder diesel developing 240 horsepower. The vehicle has a maximum road speed of 62 km/h with a maximum road range of 500km.

In fact, Sosna does not take the form of a specific combat vehicle. It is a rocket launcher module with an optical sensor suite, which includes a long-range thermal camera that is used for target acquisition and fire control. So Sosna can be mounted on any type of transport with a capacity of over 3.5 tons.

Sosna can be customized according to customer requirements such as adding firecrackers, artillery-missile combinations or just using cannons

This makes equipping and deploying Sosna anti-air missile complexes extremely flexible and easily adaptable to many combat conditions.

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The system is armed with 12 9M340 missiles that are held in their transport-launch containers and arranged in two banks of six, one bank on either side of the turret. The missiles are of a layout similar to the 9M331 missiles used by the 2K22 Tunguska system, with their large boosters and dart-like unpowered guided missile, but use laser-beam-riding guidance and not radio-frequency control. The 38 kg missile incorporates a large high-explosive warhead with impact and proximity fuzes. Each bank of missiles can be independently elevated. The missiles have a maximum linear range of 10 km and up to 5 km in altitude. The 132 mm booster gives the missile a maximum speed of 900 m/s at burnout, after which the low-drag 72 mm dart portion flies unpowered.

According to Sputnik, a modernized version of the missile system will be presented at an upcoming edition of the Army forum. The 5th International Military-Technical Forum Army-2019 will be held from 25 June to 30 June at the Patriot Convention and Exhibition Center, located at the Kubinka air base just outside Moscow.

Reference Sources: Wikipedia; Armyrecognition; Janes;