Iran lifts lid on its anti-tank missiles used in the field against Israel
Iranian ATGWs Tophan 5 with extended probe (front) and Thunder 114 (rear). (Photo: author)
Iran’s anti-tank guided weapons (ATGWs) are generally lesser known but at the Partner 2025 exhibition in Serbia late last month systems were put on display, many of them based on US weapons.
The Islamic Republic of Iran is banned from most of the international defence shows but showed up in force at the recent Partner 2025 exhibition in Serbia. They exhibited a complete series of missiles which ranged from ship-launched, coastal defence and air defence to ATGW.
Notably the ATGW missiles were based on reverse-engineered US or Israeli designs that had been captured or passed onto Iran.
One of these is the Tophan 5 which is based on Raytheon’s tube-launched optically tracked wire-guided (TOW) missile which was provided before the fall of the Shah of Iran in the 1970s.
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