Winston
Lorenzo von Matterhorn
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Just saw this:
The Pentagon Spent Decades Developing Hypersonic Anti-Tank Missiles, Then They Vanished
After nearly four years of development, the hypersonic anti-tank missile disappeared. Now it's more relevant than ever before. So where is it?
4 Sep 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ersonic-anti-tank-missiles-then-they-vanished
As the threat of advanced anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-tank weapons continues to grow, numerous countries, including the United States, are adding active protection systems to their armored vehicles. While being able to defend against some kinds of incoming rounds is very important, it's even more important to kill the threat before it ever has a chance to fire in the first place, or at least be able to attack it in such a way that it too can't defend itself with high-end countermeasures. This is precisely where hypersonic weapons should come into play.
The idea isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. The reality is that the U.S. Army was heavily invested after spending decades developing hypersonic kinetic-kill anti-tank missiles up until a little less than a decade ago. Peculiarly, even today, in a time of supposed great power competition, the concept seems to have largely vanished, at least publicly.
When the Pentagon killed the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program in 2009, it also effectively ended its last known high-speed anti-tank missile project in the process. The service had expected Lockheed Martin’s Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) to arm certain variants of the FCS family of vehicles, as well as existing platforms, such as the tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the wheeled Stryker armored vehicle.
Which led me to these:
MGM-166 LOSAT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-166_LOSAT
The MGM-166 LOSAT (Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank) was a United States anti-tank missile system designed by Lockheed Martin (originally Vought) to defeat tanks and other individual targets. Instead of using a High Explosive Anti-Tank warhead like other anti-tank missiles, the LOSAT employed a solid steel kinetic energy penetrator to punch through armor. The LOSAT is fairly light; it was designed to be mounted onto a Humvee while allowing the vehicle to remain air-portable. LOSAT eventually emerged on an extended-length heavy-duty Humvee with a hard-top containing four KEMs used by special operations. Although LOSAT never "officially" entered service, it was used for the smaller Compact Kinetic Energy Missile.[1]
Compact Kinetic Energy Missile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Kinetic_Energy_Missile
The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) was a developmental program to produce a hypersonic anti-tank guided missile for the U.S. Army. Lockheed Martin was the primary contractor. The program was the third in a series of projects based on kinetic energy missiles that stretches back to 1981's Vought HVM through the 1990s LOSAT and finally to the CKEM. The Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) developed this program as part of the Army's Future Combat Systems. This missile was primarily an anti-tank weapon, and could be mounted on land vehicles and low-altitude aircraft. The goal of these weapons was to demonstrate a state-of-the-art system for the next generation. The program has since been cancelled.
Which led me to this currently fielded MANPAD (anti-air not anti-tank) with a very cool multiple boosted dart interceptor technique:
Starstreak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstreak
When the initial tracking is complete, the operator fires the missile by pressing a button.[6]
The missile then fires the first-stage rocket motor, which launches the missile from the tube – but burns out before leaving the tube to protect the operator. Four meters away from the operator, when the missile is a safe distance away, the second stage fires, which rapidly accelerates the missile to burn out velocity of more than Mach 4. As the second stage burns out, three dart sub-munitions are released.
The dart housing is made from a tungsten alloy. The darts are each 396 millimetres (15.6 in) long with a diameter of 22 millimetres (0.87 in) and weigh about 900 grams (32 oz). Around half the weight of each dart, approximately 450 g (16 oz), is its explosive charge, detonated by a delayed-action, impact activated fuze.[6] Each dart consists of a rotating fore-body with two canard fins attached to a non-rotating rear assembly which has four fins. The rear assembly of each dart also houses the electronics that guide the missile, including a rearwards facing sensor.
The darts do not home in on laser energy reflected from the target but instead the aiming unit projects two laser beams which paint a two dimensional matrix upon the target. The lasers are modulated and by examining these modulations the sub-munition's sensor can determine the dart's location within the matrix, the dart is then steered to keep it in the centre of the matrix. The sub-munitions steer by briefly decelerating the rotating fore-body with a clutch. The front wings then steer the missile in the appropriate direction. The three sub-munitions fly in a formation about 1.5 meters in radius, and have enough kinetic energy to manoeuvre to meet a target evading at 9 g at 7,000 meters.[6]
The Pentagon Spent Decades Developing Hypersonic Anti-Tank Missiles, Then They Vanished
After nearly four years of development, the hypersonic anti-tank missile disappeared. Now it's more relevant than ever before. So where is it?
4 Sep 2018
https://www.thedrive.com/the-war-zo...ersonic-anti-tank-missiles-then-they-vanished
As the threat of advanced anti-tank guided missiles and other infantry anti-tank weapons continues to grow, numerous countries, including the United States, are adding active protection systems to their armored vehicles. While being able to defend against some kinds of incoming rounds is very important, it's even more important to kill the threat before it ever has a chance to fire in the first place, or at least be able to attack it in such a way that it too can't defend itself with high-end countermeasures. This is precisely where hypersonic weapons should come into play.
The idea isn't as far-fetched as it sounds. The reality is that the U.S. Army was heavily invested after spending decades developing hypersonic kinetic-kill anti-tank missiles up until a little less than a decade ago. Peculiarly, even today, in a time of supposed great power competition, the concept seems to have largely vanished, at least publicly.
When the Pentagon killed the Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) program in 2009, it also effectively ended its last known high-speed anti-tank missile project in the process. The service had expected Lockheed Martin’s Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) to arm certain variants of the FCS family of vehicles, as well as existing platforms, such as the tracked Bradley Fighting Vehicle and the wheeled Stryker armored vehicle.
Which led me to these:
MGM-166 LOSAT
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MGM-166_LOSAT
The MGM-166 LOSAT (Line-of-Sight Anti-Tank) was a United States anti-tank missile system designed by Lockheed Martin (originally Vought) to defeat tanks and other individual targets. Instead of using a High Explosive Anti-Tank warhead like other anti-tank missiles, the LOSAT employed a solid steel kinetic energy penetrator to punch through armor. The LOSAT is fairly light; it was designed to be mounted onto a Humvee while allowing the vehicle to remain air-portable. LOSAT eventually emerged on an extended-length heavy-duty Humvee with a hard-top containing four KEMs used by special operations. Although LOSAT never "officially" entered service, it was used for the smaller Compact Kinetic Energy Missile.[1]
Compact Kinetic Energy Missile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compact_Kinetic_Energy_Missile
The Compact Kinetic Energy Missile (CKEM) was a developmental program to produce a hypersonic anti-tank guided missile for the U.S. Army. Lockheed Martin was the primary contractor. The program was the third in a series of projects based on kinetic energy missiles that stretches back to 1981's Vought HVM through the 1990s LOSAT and finally to the CKEM. The Army Aviation and Missile Command (AMCOM) developed this program as part of the Army's Future Combat Systems. This missile was primarily an anti-tank weapon, and could be mounted on land vehicles and low-altitude aircraft. The goal of these weapons was to demonstrate a state-of-the-art system for the next generation. The program has since been cancelled.
Which led me to this currently fielded MANPAD (anti-air not anti-tank) with a very cool multiple boosted dart interceptor technique:
Starstreak
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starstreak
When the initial tracking is complete, the operator fires the missile by pressing a button.[6]
The missile then fires the first-stage rocket motor, which launches the missile from the tube – but burns out before leaving the tube to protect the operator. Four meters away from the operator, when the missile is a safe distance away, the second stage fires, which rapidly accelerates the missile to burn out velocity of more than Mach 4. As the second stage burns out, three dart sub-munitions are released.
The dart housing is made from a tungsten alloy. The darts are each 396 millimetres (15.6 in) long with a diameter of 22 millimetres (0.87 in) and weigh about 900 grams (32 oz). Around half the weight of each dart, approximately 450 g (16 oz), is its explosive charge, detonated by a delayed-action, impact activated fuze.[6] Each dart consists of a rotating fore-body with two canard fins attached to a non-rotating rear assembly which has four fins. The rear assembly of each dart also houses the electronics that guide the missile, including a rearwards facing sensor.
The darts do not home in on laser energy reflected from the target but instead the aiming unit projects two laser beams which paint a two dimensional matrix upon the target. The lasers are modulated and by examining these modulations the sub-munition's sensor can determine the dart's location within the matrix, the dart is then steered to keep it in the centre of the matrix. The sub-munitions steer by briefly decelerating the rotating fore-body with a clutch. The front wings then steer the missile in the appropriate direction. The three sub-munitions fly in a formation about 1.5 meters in radius, and have enough kinetic energy to manoeuvre to meet a target evading at 9 g at 7,000 meters.[6]
