Shouldn't that have been destroyed on impact?
Most weapons of this type have a body that is mostly a cylinder shaped claymore like device.
The guiding “head” would be sheared off just like in the photos
No. the mid/rear blows up when the missile reaches a certain point of proximity. Not like a dumb bomb with a nose detonator.
Looks to be possibly from a fragmentation blast warhead which is not a point detonated warhead where the whole fron of the missile would be blown to pieces.
Maybe it penetrated a softer part of the plane, and then was effectively protected from further damage due to its position in the falling wreckage.
The nose section carries the control surfaces and actuators used in supersonic flight so it is a pretty robust piece of kit
The missile is not designed to impact the target, its designed to get close and detonate a shape charge that shoots out a pattern of metal projectiles.
Kind of like a shotgun
These missiles have a proximity fuse that blows up near the plane. The nosecone blows off in the explosion and may not even touch the plane.
It is proximity fused. This exact ordnance has datalink with the launcher programming fuses in real-time to detonate at optimal position to a target for a maximum efficient kill based on speeds and angles of approach between aircraft and ordnance. It doesn’t kill on impact. The part you see is for guidance and steering, the warhead it the middle of the missile.
If the photo is authentic the mystery solved. That’s a ‘Thor’ SAM.