Antiship Missiles Engage Diverse Targets
May 6, 2009 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:2px } html.ie6 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:0px; } div.storyContent p { margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 14px; } html.ie6 div.storyContent p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; } #mainNav { margin-top:0px; } div.storyContent td { float:left; font-size:10pt; padding:6px 6px 6px 7px; } html.ie6 div.storyContent td { float:left; font-size:10pt; padding:6px 6px 6px 17px; }
By Bill Sweetman
The heavy version aims to produce a 100-kg. weapon to replace the Royal Navy’s Sea Skua antiship helicopter missile and the French navy’s AS-15TT antiship weapon.
One challenge to overcome is in guidance systems—the Royal Navy prefers radar-guided weapons, while the French lean towards electro-optic guidance. If the issue cannot be resolved with one system, MBDA will likely develop a modular design.
Delivery dates for the weapons are flexible: FASGW-light could be an Urgent Operational Requirement for the Royal Navy, while FASGW-heavy is set for deliveries from 2013.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is working on Gabriel 5, a missile that will be a primary strike weapon for ships. The latest member of the Gabriel family of missiles, its improvements focus on use in littoral waters. It has an advanced active radar seeker, backed by a sophisticated weapon-control system to optimize effectiveness in target-congested battlespace. The Gabriel 5 is designed to defeat softkill and hardkill defenses with electronic counter-countermeasures.
The weapon will be part of a new offensive and defensive suite under development at IAI’s Missiles and Space Div. This family of weapons will include the Barak-8 wide-area, long-range air-defense missile, an integrated combat-management system and the IAI/Elta multifunction EL/M-2248 MF-STAR shipborne phased-array radar.
IAI is also developing a loitering drone that hunts elusive ground and naval targets, antiaircraft systems and mobile or concealed ballistic missile launchers. Called Harop, the propeller-driven drone can be launched into an area of interest without acquiring a specific target. With a 540-naut.-mi. range, the UAV can loiter over a suspected area for hours, spot targets as they are exposed and attack immediately. IAI is negotiating sales of the weapon to India and Turkey.
Another Israeli antishipping missile is Delilah from Israel Military Industries. It originated as an armed decoy for supression-of-enemy air-defense missions, but has been built in ground- and ship-launched forms as well as a helicopter-launched version. (The latter is offered internationally with Rheinmetall.)
Delilah’s imaging sensors, smart mission control and two-way data link enable human-in-the-loop control, which, with extended loitering, improves combat capabilities. One advantage in its antishipping role is the ability to strike a specific part of a target, for example, the command center, with precision, disabling it without destroying the vessel.
With David Eshel in Tel Aviv, Andy Nativi in Genoa and Francis Tusa in London.
2 pages
Link
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/ANTI050609.xml
May 6, 2009 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:2px } html.ie6 #content td div img { padding-right:10px; padding-bottom:0px; } div.storyContent p { margin-top: 2px; margin-bottom: 14px; } html.ie6 div.storyContent p { margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 10px; } #mainNav { margin-top:0px; } div.storyContent td { float:left; font-size:10pt; padding:6px 6px 6px 7px; } html.ie6 div.storyContent td { float:left; font-size:10pt; padding:6px 6px 6px 17px; }
By Bill Sweetman
One challenge to overcome is in guidance systems—the Royal Navy prefers radar-guided weapons, while the French lean towards electro-optic guidance. If the issue cannot be resolved with one system, MBDA will likely develop a modular design.
Delivery dates for the weapons are flexible: FASGW-light could be an Urgent Operational Requirement for the Royal Navy, while FASGW-heavy is set for deliveries from 2013.
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is working on Gabriel 5, a missile that will be a primary strike weapon for ships. The latest member of the Gabriel family of missiles, its improvements focus on use in littoral waters. It has an advanced active radar seeker, backed by a sophisticated weapon-control system to optimize effectiveness in target-congested battlespace. The Gabriel 5 is designed to defeat softkill and hardkill defenses with electronic counter-countermeasures.
The weapon will be part of a new offensive and defensive suite under development at IAI’s Missiles and Space Div. This family of weapons will include the Barak-8 wide-area, long-range air-defense missile, an integrated combat-management system and the IAI/Elta multifunction EL/M-2248 MF-STAR shipborne phased-array radar.
IAI is also developing a loitering drone that hunts elusive ground and naval targets, antiaircraft systems and mobile or concealed ballistic missile launchers. Called Harop, the propeller-driven drone can be launched into an area of interest without acquiring a specific target. With a 540-naut.-mi. range, the UAV can loiter over a suspected area for hours, spot targets as they are exposed and attack immediately. IAI is negotiating sales of the weapon to India and Turkey.
Another Israeli antishipping missile is Delilah from Israel Military Industries. It originated as an armed decoy for supression-of-enemy air-defense missions, but has been built in ground- and ship-launched forms as well as a helicopter-launched version. (The latter is offered internationally with Rheinmetall.)
Delilah’s imaging sensors, smart mission control and two-way data link enable human-in-the-loop control, which, with extended loitering, improves combat capabilities. One advantage in its antishipping role is the ability to strike a specific part of a target, for example, the command center, with precision, disabling it without destroying the vessel.
With David Eshel in Tel Aviv, Andy Nativi in Genoa and Francis Tusa in London.
2 pages
Link
http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/story_generic.jsp?channel=dti&id=news/ANTI050609.xml