9M133-1 / 9K135 - Kornet (AT-14 Spriggan)

The 9M133 Kornet (export designation Kornet-E) is a modern Russian man-portable anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) intended for use against main battle tanks. The NATO reporting name AT-14 Spriggan is derived from the spriggan, a legendary creature from Cornish fairy lore. It was first introduced into service with the Russian Army in 1998. The Kornet is among the most capable Russian ATGMs. It is not intended to fully replace previous systems, due to its high cost.

The Kornet can be considered a longer range and more capable alternative to the 9K113 Konkurs (AT-5 Spandrel). The Kornet is also more expensive and heavier. The Kornet-E complex of the third generation, developed by GUP KBP and put into service in 1998 with a laser beam guidance system, was the first ATGM to provide complete noise immunity and the ability to fire from mobile carriers.

Currently, the Kornet-E ATGM with a firing range of 5500 m is the most modern example of a multi-purpose tactical weapon of a near-range tactical zone, the ammunition of which includes missiles with a cumulative tandem warhead, designed primarily to destroy highly protected objects (tanks, DOT etc.) and missiles with high-explosive warheads to defeat a wide range of targets representing a danger on the battlefield. The main direction of the development of anti-tank systems abroad was the creation of complexes of the third generation, operating on the principle of "shot and forgotten", the implementation of which is ensured by the autonomous homing of ATGM.

In October 1994, the KPB Instrument Design Bureau introduced the Kornet (AT-14) ATGM system. The Kornet was developed introducing a laser beam-riding missile with automatic command-to-line of sight (SACLOS) guidance. The operator simply has to keep the sight on the target to ensure a hit. The laser beam-riding system is also less vulnerable to countermeasures. The Kornet was specifically designed to replace the Konkurs, which has been in service with the former Soviet and Russian armies for over twenty years.

The AT-14 Kornet is a wire-guided missile system. In such a system, the missile literally pulls a thin wire along behind it as it moves toward its target. Those who fire the Kornet control it by keeping the sights of their launcher trained on the target. That way, the missile can be guided at moving targets like tanks and armored troop carriers. As a direct-fire weapon, the missile travels in a straight line, rather than in an arc, as it would with mortar or howitzer artillery. Direct fire is considered more effective than indirect-fire weapons like the mortar artillery because the person who is firing the weapon can see the target himself, rather than relying on forward troops to spot and provide information on where the target is. But the need to keep a Kornet launcher's sights locked on the target means that it must remain stationery after it has fired. After a Kornet missile has traveled 3.5 kilometers, the guidance wire has completely uncoiled and breaks. The missile then becomes erratic, no longer able to lock onto the target. Another disadvantage of wire-guided missiles is that they cannot be fired over trees, power lines, telephone lines, or water. That's because the wire will snag and break, or will malfunction, disabling the guidance system.

The AT-14 Kornet has a range of 3.5 kilometers. The Kornet, which has a claimed ability to penetrate 1100 to 1200 millimeters of steel armor protected by explosive armor, provided a formidable antitank weapon system. However, even with the improved capabilities the Kornet has over earlier systems, an ATGM with all-weather, day or night, immunity to countermeasures, and fire and forget capabilities was still highly desired.

The cost of 9M133-1 missiles is 3-4 times less than the cost of other ATGW missiles, and at the same combat effectiveness. And the complex "Kornet" can hit 3-4 times more targets. Advantages and application features: versatility, defeat all the targets outside the effective return fire of the enemy; ensuring combat operation in the "lying", "kneeling", "standing in the trenches" with the trained and untrained gun positions; vsesutochnost application, defeat all of these types of targets by day and night; laser beam encoding makes two launchers by simultaneous cross and parallel firing two close targets; full protection against the radiation optical jamming stations like "Blind-1" (Russia), Pomals Piano Violin Mk1 (Israel); the possibility of placing on a wide variety of wheeled and tracked vehicles; simultaneous firing two missiles at one target automated launcher increases the probability of hitting the target and provides jamming protection; implemented in the control system riding missile laser beam allows to fire on the move with the trained and untrained positions (including salt marshes on the coast, above the water surface).

Training facilities include field and classroom computer simulators. Maintenance facilities allow checking the launcher and thermal sight.

During the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom, US troops encountered an unanticipated, and formidable, weapon in the Iraqi arsenal -- Russian-built Kornet antitank missiles. Iraqi soldiers used the wire-guided missile system against American tanks, but the US military previously did not know they possessed. It emerged as the Iraqis' most effective direct-fire weapon against U.S. armor in the desert of southern Iraq. Iraqi commandos traveling in three-man teams dressed in black civilian robes and riding in Nissan pickup trucks moved against the flanks of columns of armor from the US Army's 3rd Infantry Division and launched broadside attacks from several kilometers away using the system. Those attacks had disabled at least two Abrahms tanks and one Bradley armored troop carrier in the opening week of the war. US military intelligence officials were extremely interested in capturing one of the missiles intact. They also instructed American soldiers who destroy one of the Kornet launchers to save the remains of the system for close inspection.

The US State Department accused KBP of supplying Iraq with the Kornet missiles, something KBP and Moscow have vehemently denied. In a phone call on 24 March 2003 with U.S. President George W. Bush, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the American allegations of Russian sales of missiles, night-vision goggles, and radio-jamming equipment were "groundless."

The Kornet has been widely exported and is produced under license in several countries. It was first used in combat in 2003 and has since been used in many conflicts.

Since 2014, its serial production has been resumed for the domestic market with the designation B05YA01.