WE Branch Fanatic
23rd Feb 2002, 04:07
Here's a (possibly not very good) idea for a cheap air to surface missile...
Take the Sea Eagle anti ship missile, remove the radar homing head, and fit a GPS based naviation system in its place.
Alright, it won't be as good as "proper" ASMs but, it'd be cheap to develop....and quick as well.
Just a thought....
Nozzles
24th Feb 2002, 22:04
Sounds like a great idea in principle, WEBF. However, such 're-role' projects sometimes turn out to be more troublesome than if you designed the thing from scratch. Our American friends developed SLAM from Harpoon and its disappointing operational performance led to a major re-work, in the form of SLAM-ER. The Sea Eagle was designed for a very specific mission and I think you would have to change a lot more than the seekerhead/nav platform to turn it into a GP ASM. For example, any warhead/Target Detector Device system that is designed to damage ships is unlikely to be effective against other target types. Just look at all the different warheads Maverick has to accommodate various target types. . .Missile manufacturers are generally reluctant to place total navigational reliance on GPS due to it's vulnerability to cheap, easily constructed jammers. It's not a big problem if your munition is a cheap bomb (although a miss may cause collateral damage) but it's not considered worth the risk with an expensive ASM. So now you're looking at either interfacing the GPS into the current nav system, or if you can't, installing a strapdown RLG INS. If you do that, you are going to need a new aircraft/missile interface. I can just smell the cost/delivery date over-runs already! Now you've got to shoe-horn all your new kit into an airframe that wasn't part of your drawing-board idea. At the end of the day you will get a limited capability weapon, as you pointed out, but the cost savings may be so small that you would be better off paying for a new, highly capable weapon that will have a significantly longer operational life.. .Then again, perhaps someone at BAE systems may well prove me wrong!
Speed is groovy. Tally-ho is life :)