The famous American anti-tank guided missile AGM-114 Hellfire was successfully copied in Iran.
Couple photos of Iranian Ghaem 114 air-to-ground guided missile. pic.twitter.com/7fO0mDmfUg
— Yuri Lyamin (@imp_navigator) December 1, 2020
As you know, this ATGM is the standard armament of the AH-64 Apache, AH-1Z Viper, OH-58 Kiowa helicopters, as well as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper attack drones.
The created clone, which received the designation Ghaem-114, is currently being demonstrated at the exhibition of achievements and advanced developments intended for the naval forces held in Tehran.
As noted by military expert Yuri Lyamin, the existence of such weapons became known in February of this year, when missiles were spotted in photos of one of the upgraded Bell-214A helicopters of the Islamic revolutionary guard Corps. But then they were shown from afar, and now you can already see a close-up.
Given that the US has been actively using Hellfire for many years in neighboring Iraq and Afghanistan, it probably wasn't difficult for the Iranians to get them.
Judging by the photo, the four missiles shown have different guidance heads: thermal imaging, television, semi-active laser and, it is assumed, active radar. If Iran actually managed to recreate the fourth option, which can operate on the principle of "shot-forgot", then this can be considered a great achievement of the military industry of the Islamic Republic.
This is not the first case of such reverse engineering of American technologies. It is known that earlier Iranians successfully copied the M47 Dragon and BGM-71 TOW. The latter are produced in various modifications, including tandem cumulative warheads. These anti-tank systems were used in Syria, Iraq, Lebanon and Yemen.
Alexey Moiseev