Russia made anti-air versions of ATGMs in last time. First was special version of Ataka ATGM with HE-frag warhead and proximity fuse, which is used by helicopters and on the ground by BMPT and Uran-9 robot.
I have cheated and looked it up and the Shturm comes in HE and HEAT versions, but its replacement the Ataka actually comes in three models, HEAT and HE Frag, but also rod, which is a proximity fused anti aircraft missile version.
The Vikhr was a multirole missile and it could be selected before launch as to whether it is blast fragmentation or HEAT... I presume for the former a specific fuse sets off the explosive to form the plasma armour penetrating beam or in the latter other fuses detonate it from different directions and it just explodes without forming a beam.
This has the advantage of being able to do both without having to load a specific warhead equipped version.
Why would they go for anti-air version of missile?. One reason is laser guidance of missile, so it is cheap and simple for production and second is price
The missile uses laser beam riding guidance but the actual launch control system has a target auto tracker which means you can have it automatically track something or manually track something yourself with the enormous advantage that the target does not need a IR signature to make it stand out, or a significant radar cross section to get a lock... you can fire it at anything the system will track or you can follow manually... and it is cheap and very accurate.
Sosna is bigger and is placed on BMP-3, MT-LB or BTR-82 vehicle, while Gibka-S and Kornet-D1 are placed on Tigr-M or Typhoon-K 4x4. Smaller and faster vehicles, more suitable for convoy protection and fast deployments.
Sosna has the same advantages of Kornet in being laser beam riding, but it is also very very fast... it reaches its target at 10km in about 12 seconds, and it is not that heavy... it is about 42kgs with its solid rocket booster in the launch tube, and about 30kg after booster separation. Kornet is about 33kgs... Ataka and Khrisantema is about 40-45kgs.
So that is an advantage of Igla-S and Verba and the new missile that they are 1/3rd the weight, but as you mention their IR seekers and proximity fuses tend to make them rather more expensive.
For shooting down helicopters the extra cost might be worth it, but for shooting at cheap simple drones it isn't.
Bulat seems to be a lightweight Kornet for armoured vehicles that don't need 1.2m of penetration to deal with.
As such a HE warhead equipped Bulat might be even better for engaging drones... especially if you are carrying them in big numbers anyway.
So seems the Russkies found this way better method of obsolete gear disposal much before the UK waste NLAWs
It is their better understanding of combat where they know accurate ATGMs are not just going to be used against tanks and their precision and standoff range actually makes them very very useful in combat... so making them cheap means you can make them in enormous numbers.
They might not have the paper performance of Javelin but how many of those can you afford...
I can't imagine things like AT-2 ATGW will still be in storage and 180mm artillery rounds the former was phased out long ago,
Actually they have a broad range of simulators based on obsolete gear... the OSA for example is excellent because it is command guided so you have a mobile self contained system that can launch 6 supersonic targets that can be manouvered in ways to simulate an enemy attack and they have enormous numbers of missiles available still.
However I doubt Russia still produces the sagger munitions and missiles don't last forever. And it was a popular weapon so chances are that they may have cleared stocks of it even though it was vastly produced.
Reports from the mid 1990s said that the Igla MANPADS was tested with Malyutka target missiles flying below 25m altitude simulating cruise missile targets.
9 Iglas were fired and 5 missiles made contact with the target and destroyed it.... four missiles did not make direct contact with the rather small missile, which led directly to the development of the Igla-S which amongst its other improvements added a proximity fuse so not making contact with a target does not prevent the missile shooting it down.
Improved updated Malyutkas were advertised for sale in the 2002 and 2004 Arms catalogue... 800mm armour penetration... which is 50mm better than Javelin.
Either way Russia most likely saved itself a job of disposal of munitions by sending to Syria. The west doesn't stock pile much munitions as older systems are sold on with the munitions and many munitions are disposed of.
Saving money and at the same time killing terrorists is a good thing all round I think.
This radar kornet may be a replacement for the khrisantema-S.
Or maybe it is a unified launcher that can use both... the original Khrisantema was laser beam riding and radar homing but for compatibility and to improve performance they added laser beam riding guidance to Ataka so the Mi-28NM and BMPT don't need the black thimble radio command control antenna to use them.
able to fire the guided missile called Bulat that Russia has made, Bulat I believe is 57mm,
I don't think it is 57mm calibre. It looks about half the calibre of the Kornet and the Kornet is 152mm calibre so it is probably closer to 75-80mm calibre at best.
and currently the SPG-9 is 73mm a newer gun that's designed to be lighter and with newer technology on rounds it could be a fraction smaller even if the new gun is the same size as spg-9
The SPG-9 is a 73mm calibre weapon and is very much like the 73mm gun on the BMP-1 except that gun has a closed rear end so it uses less propellent but also has recoil.
The SPG-9 obviously being a recoilless rifle.
The early RPG-7 launchers had rockets of about a 73mm calibre but the rocket tube was a 40mm calibre so the size of the rocket limited its velocity and performance.
The intended replacement for the RPG-7 was the RPG-16 which confused the hell out of everyone in the west who thought it was an RPG-7 scaled up to a 58mm calibre launch tube that would use oversized rocket of large calibre too, but actually it fired 57mm calibre rockets that were loaded inside the tube completely without sticking out the end when loaded.
Despite having a relatively small calibre it had better penetration and the larger calibre rocket was faster and could go further than the RPG-7, but of course limiting the calibre to the calibre of the tube meant less growth potential... the RPG-7 could get bigger and bigger warheads with better penetration than any sub 58mm calibre rocket warhead could achieve so they went back to the RPG-7.
Considering it is not about super penetration (for that there is Bulat and Kornet and Metis and a range of other missiles)... a direct fire HE and HEAT round is what they want so perhaps going to a 57mm calibre weapon might be interesting in terms of mobility and cost... with good enough performance... it not longer has to deal with heavy armour...
You could add smoke and illumination rockets as well as jamming or even a drone rocket...
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