9K34 Strela - 3 The 9K34 Strela - 3 ( ; ) 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 . Description . 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 ) seekers , which were easily fooled by flare s and even the most primitive infrared jammer s . Most importantly , the new seeker also introduced detector element cooling in the form of a pressurized nitrogen bottle attached to the launcher . The effect of cooling was to expand the seeker ' s lead sulphide detector element ' s sensitivity range to longer wavelength s ( slightly over 4 µm as opposed to 2 . 8 µm of uncooled PbS elements ) . In practice this made possible the tracking of cooler targets over longer ranges , and enabled forward - hemisphere engagement of jets under favourable circumstances . The seeker also had better tracking rate , enabling the missile to track maneuvering of fast and approaching targets . A negative side effect from the aforementioned improvements was increased missile weight , which caused a slight decrease in the kinematic performance of the original Strela - 2 ( SA - 7 ) . Against relatively slow , low - altitude battlefield air threats the overall effectiveness was much improved . Strela - 3 missiles have been exported to over 30 countries . The original Strela - 3 missile was the 9M36 . The follow - on to the Strela - 3 was Igla . The naval version of this missile has the NATO reporting name of SA - N - 8 . Operational history . Iraq . During Operation Desert Storm on 17 February 1991 an F - 16 and a Tornado GR1 of XV Squadron RAF was shot down by Strela - 3 . An Airbus A300 cargo plane was hit by a Strela - 3 missile after takeoff from Baghdad International Airport , and despite losing hydraulic power managed to land safely . Abkhazia . During the War in Abkhazia ( 1992 - 1993 ) , a Russian Mi - 8 helicopter was shot down by a Georgian Army SA - 14 on December 14 , 1992 , resulting in the death of 3 crew and 58 passengers , most of them Russian refugees . A Georgian Air Force Su - 25 was shot down over Nizhnaya Eshera on July 4 , 1993 by SA - 14 , and several other aircraft on both sides may have been shot down by SA - 14s . Former Yugoslavia . One BAE Sea Harrier of the 801 Naval Air Squadron , operating from the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal , was shot down during its attack two Serbian T - 55 tank in Bosnia . The pilot , Lieutenant Nick Richardson , ejected and landed in territory controlled by friendly Bosnian Muslims ( 16 April 1994 ) . DRC Congo . A Zimbabwe Air Force Il - 76 was shot down by Congolese rebels using an SA - 14 on October 11 , 1998 during the Second Congo War , resulting in the death of 40 troops and crew . Afghanistan . SA - 14s used by the Northern Alliance are credited with having shot down 8 Taliban MiG - 21 and Su - 22 fighters during the Taliban ' s 2000 offensive against Taloqan . Angola . It is reported that an Su - 27 was shot down by a Strela - 3 fired by UNITA forces as it was landing on 19 November 2000 .