A 9K34 Strela-3 (SA-14) missile and launch tube. |Type||Man-
portable air-defense systems (MANPADS)| |Place of origin||Soviet
Union| |Weight||10.3 kilograms (23 lb)| |Length||1.47 metres
(4.8 ft)| |Flight altitude||2,300 metres (7,500 ft)| |Speed||410
metre per second (1,500 km/h)| The 9K34 Strela-3 (Russian: 9К34
«Стрела-3»; English: arrow) man-portable air defence missile
system (MANPADS) was developed in the Soviet Union as a response
to the poor performance of the earlier 9K32 Strela 2 (SA-7
Grail) system. "9K34" is its GRAU designation and its NATO
reporting name is SA-14 Gremlin. The missile was largely based
on the earlier Strela 2, and thus development proceeded rapidly.
The new weapon was accepted to service in the Soviet Army in
January 1974. The most significant change over the Strela 2 was
the introduction of an all-new infra-red homing seeker head. The
new seeker worked on FM modulation (con-scan) principle, which
is less vulnerable to jamming and decoy flares than the earlier
AM (spin-scan) seeke