Type Anti-tank missile Diameter 0.152 m | ||
Wars 2006 Lebanon WarSyrian Civil War Length 1.16 m (probe folded)1.45 m (probe extended) | ||
Toophan (Persian: توفان, meaning "Typhoon" in Persian) is a series of Iranian anti-tank missiles. Toophan 1 is a reverse-engineered copy of the US military BGM-71 TOW missile. The Toophan-1's payload is a 3.6 kg high-explosive anti-tank warhead that can penetrate up to 550mm of steel armor. The range is 3,850m, the top speed 310 m/s. The manufacturer is the Aerospace Industries Organization of Iran, which has produced the missile since 2000. Several other variants are also built with more penetration power.
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Operational history
Iran was among the earliest countries to import the TOW missile, as far back as 1971. Extensive repair and assembly facilities were set up at the Iran Electronics Industries (IEI) by the Texas-based Emerson Energy Systems, as well as Hughes Missile Systems, to repair TOW and FGM-77A Dragon missiles.
In May 1975, negotiations between Iran and Hughes Missile Systems on co-production of TOW and AGM-65 Maverick missiles stalled over disagreements in the pricing structure. Hughes set the royalty and initial investment costs for Iran at $20 million for the TOW and $25 million for the Maverick. The subsequent Iranian Revolution in 1979 ended all plans for such co-production.
Hezbollah reportedly used Toophan missiles against Israeli Merkava tanks during the 2006 Lebanon War.
Iran has continued to develop the Toophan and in December 2016 demonstrated the missile against naval targets.