During the IDEX defence exhibition in Abu Dhabi, the Ukrainian state-owned Kiev Luch Design Bureau showed two new anti-tank missiles, writes Miroslav Gyurosi.
The ALTA is a proposed heavy anti-tank missile guided by a millimetric-wave radar seeker, while the R-2V anti-tank missile forms part of the Barier-V (Vertolyotniy = for helicopter) system.
Barier-V is being marketed mainly as an upgrade for Mil Mi-24 'Hind' combat helicopters. Designed to engage and destroy stationary or moving armoured vehicles and other ground targets, the system consists of a helicopter-mounted fire-control system and R-2V anti-tank missiles. According to Luch, the system's gyro-stabilised turret is of European manufacture, but the bureau would not provide further details.
The R-2V anti-tank missile is 130 mm in diameter and only slightly shorter than its 182.5 cm long transporting-launching container. A loaded container weighs 44 kg.
As its designation suggests, the R-2V has considerable commonality with the R-2 used in the Barier anti-tank system. This ground-based version is only 127 cm in length.
The extra length of the R-2V is due to air-launched weapons having a much longer solid-propellant rocket motor. This has two nozzles and gives the missile a range of up to 7.5 km. A thermal imager in the helicopter's stabilised turret automatically tracks the target, and the missile is guided to its target by commands transmitted via a laser beam.
The tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead is larger in diameter than the rocket motor (another feature this design shares with the earlier R-2). It weighs 6.4 kg, and is intended to penetrate more than 800 mm of the armour protected by explosive-reactive armour (ERA). A first-round hit probability of 0.7-0.85 is claimed.
Currently a project study, ALTA is the first Ukrainian anti-tank missile to use dual-mode guidance. In the first stage of powered flight, the missile is guided by a laser beam. Once close to the target, it would home under the command of a nose-mounted onboard active-radar seeker operating at millimetric wavelengths.
The ALTA missile is about 165 cm long and 170 mm in diameter. It would be launched from a 200 cm long transporting-launching container. The missile weighs 55 kg, and 70 kg when packed in the container.
Control is via four cruciform moving surfaces at the rear of the fuselage. Like the cruciform wings, these unfold after launch.
The missile would fly under the power of a single-pulse solid-propellant rocket motor. Maximum range of the missile is 7.0-7.5 km, while the seeker has a maximum range of 3 km. The combined HEAT/fragmentation warhead is designed to defeat up to 1,200 mm of armour protected by ERA. Single-shot kill probability is predicted to be 0.9.
Although ALTA is being offered primarily as a helicopter-launched missile, the design bureau sees armoured personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles and small attack craft as potential platforms.
Фото:
Although the ALTA is similar in general configuration to the BGM-71 TOW, the wings move rearward as they unfold, while the location of the side-mounted nozzles shows that a single-pulse motor is used, rather than separate TOW-style launch and flight motors.
(Miroslav Gyurosi)
The electro-optical sensors at the rear of the ALTA missile resemble those used on the R-2V missile.
(Miroslav Gyurosi)
The nose section of the R-2V is of greater diameter than the rocket motor, and houses a tandem high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) warhead.
(Miroslav Gyurosi)
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