Perhaps one of the most interesting finds during the 2003 OIF invasion of Iraq were examples of the indigenous hybridisation of the 3M9 SAM round with the seeker section from the Molniya/Vympel R-60 / AA-8 Aphid heatseeking air to air missile, procured during the Cold War to arm Iraq's numerous Soviet supplied fighters. The motives for this development effort were clear - Coalition jamming of the CW seeker on the 3M9 missile round during Operation Northern/Southern Watch rendered the standard missile round ineffective. The intent was to produce an electronic countermeasures resistant variant of the missile with infrared terminal homing rather than CW semi-active radar homing. The basic 3M9/9M9 Gainful round is flown through its midcourse phase by command link from the 1S91 Straight Flush, using a tracking beacon in the tail of the missile.
The most detailed public description of the design was produced by Doug Richardson, Editor of Janes Missiles and Rockets, in his April 23, 2003, article “Iraqi heat-seeking Gainfuls found”. Some imagery also emerged during that period.
It would appear that Iraqi engineers stripped down R-60/60M rounds from remaining post 1991 warstocks to remove the OGS-60TI “Komar” / OGS-75 “Komar M” seeker section, which was installed in a re-engineered front section for the 3M9 fuselage, with a conical fairing and Aphid nose replacing the original guidance section containing the 1SB4 series CW SARH seeker. Adaptor hardware would be required to match the analogue pitch/yaw outputs from the R-60 seeker. The R-60 OGS-60TI “Komar”, and OGS-75 “Komar M” seekers, built by Arsenal in the Ukraine, are conventional single colour scanning detector designs with a cited ±12° off-boresight capability, ±17-20° in the later OGS-75 “Komar M” variant, and a 35°/sec tracking rate. The all aspect R-60M is credited with a 42 G capability. Overall the later model Komar M seeker compares closely to the US AIM-9L Sidewinder “all aspect” seeker.
While the resulting heatseeking 3M9 round would retain similar susceptibility to flares or more recently, infrared jammers, the missile engagement sequence would be devoid of the CW illumination for the terminal phase of the missile's flight, as a result of which aircraft under attack only have the command uplink signals and terminal phase 1S91 tracking signals to warn of an approaching missile. Where the defensive countermeasures suite relies on the CW signal to trigger angle/range jamming, the heatseeking 3M9 could be potentially very effective.
While multiple rounds were captured in Iraq, it is not known publicly how mature the design was or whether any attempt was made to use this weapon operationally. The design presents a good case study of how a nation even with a limited domestic technology base and under embargo was able to develop an asymmetric capability. More advanced infrared seekers retrofitted to any legacy or current production SAM design would present similar difficulties to the use of mixed seeker types in AAMs such as the R-27 / AA-10 Alamo, especially if these are countermeasures resistant two colour or imaging array designs.
