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Said Aminov
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Олег Радько
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09.03.2010 22:01:26
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Рубрики
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Современность; Флот;
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Re: Просьба -...
Date Posted: 03-Mar-2010
International Defence Review
Bolt from the blue: helicopters tool up to join the littoral fight
A multitude of anti-surface warfare guided weapons are now available to equip maritime rotorcraft. Richard Scott examines the operational drivers and competing technology solutions available on the market
From early in their life naval helicopters were recognised as ideal offboard strike platforms, but it was not until the 1960s that they began to see service with lightweight guided weapons able to tackle fast attack craft-sized targets.
In the UK, for example, the Nord AS.12 wire-guided missile - derived from the SS.11 anti-armour weapon - was fitted on the Royal Navy's (RN's) Westland Wasp and Westland Wessex helicopters. Indeed, AS.12 saw action in the 1982 Falklands (Malvinas) conflict when it was fired from Wasp helicopters to disable the Argentine submarine ARA Santa Fe off South Georgia.
However, it was the emergence of a second-generation of helicopter-launched anti-ship guided weapons from the late 1970s/early 1980s that put maritime rotorcraft into the forefront of offensive anti-surface warfare (ASuW) operations against vessels up to corvette size. This new wave - typified by Aerospatiale's AS.15TT, Kongsberg's Penguin, Oto Melara's Marte and the BAe Dynamics' Sea Skua - adopted a variety of command and guidance techniques, but their common thread was an ability to deliver a potentially disabling effect, at stand-off range, against small warships.
Three decades on, variants and evolutions of all the aforementioned missile types still remain in operational service. Now though, there is a growing emphasis on defeating asymmetric threats in the cluttered confines of the littoral - alongside the enduring contribution of maritime helicopters to countering conventional surface targets. Taken together, these requirements have spurred the development of a new generation of helicopter-launched anti-surface guided weapons, ranging from intermediate weight anti-ship missiles able to neutralise targets up to corvette/frigate size, to more lightweight, low-cost solutions optimised to defeat fast inshore attack craft- [FIAC-] type threats.
Kongsberg Defence Systems has to date sold the helicopter-launched Mk 2 Mod 7 version of the Penguin anti-ship missile to six navies. While the company acknowledges that Penguin very much falls into the category of a mature product, it remains confident of achieving further sales in the coming years.
Tracing its origins back to the late 1960s and first fielding in 1972, Penguin was originally developed by Kongsberg as a ship-launched weapon (Mk 1 and Mk 2) to meet a Norwegian national requirement for a guidedweapon able to successfully prosecute targets in the confined waters of the fjords. Work subsequently began in 1980 to adapt Penguin for fast jet carriage (Mk 3).
Kongsberg conducted early in-house studies for a helicopter-launched version in 1981, but it was the US Navy's (USN's) requirement for a lightweight anti-ship guided weapon to equip the SH-60B LAMPS III helicopter that gave rise to the Mk 2 Mod 7 variant. A development contract was signed in January 1986 for the adaptation of the Penguin missile to the SH-60B air vehicle, with a series production contract following in 1989.
The Penguin Mk 2 Mod 7 variant was given the US designation AGM-119B and represents the marriage of the earlier ship-launched Mk 2 and the fixed-wing capable Mk 3, using the free-rolling airframe of the Mk 2 (modified for helicopter usage with folding mid-body wings) and the guidance and control package of the Mk 3. Flying at high subsonic speed - and employing canards for aerodynamic control - the weapon combines programmable inertial midcourse guidance with a pseudo-imaging infrared (IIR) seeker for terminal homing.
According to Kongsberg, this guidance and homing system is ideally suited to operations in the littoral: the inertial guidance system provides for accurate navigation and tactical waypointing around terrain; while the passive infrared (IR) seeker head provides for excellent target discrimination and selectivity, and good electronic counter-countermeasures (ECCM) performance.
Weighing 385 kg and powered by a two-stage boost/sustain solid-propellant rocket motor, the Mk 2 Mod 7 Penguin missile has an effective range in excess of 34 km. It delivers a 120 kg semi-armour-piercing warhead to an impact point just above the waterline.Development for helicopter launch, purchase by the USN, and integration with the SH-60B Seahawk helicopter (together with its S-70B export variant) have seen the Penguin capture significant international business. Indeed, as the anti-ship missile of choice for the Seahawk helicopter community, it has been purchased by Greece, Spain, Turkey and, most recently, Brazil.
The Mk 2 Mod 7 variant of Penguin was also purchased by Australia for integration into the SH-2G(A) Super Seasprite, but the SH-2G(A) programme was cancelled in 2008 and the Penguins were never introduced to service.
Kongsberg has also advertised a helicopter-launched variant of its next-generation Naval Strike Missile (NSM). The 407 kg NSM was developed to meet the Royal Norwegian Navy's requirement for a highly discriminative anti-ship missile able to penetrate shipboard defences and operate effectively in both blue water and littoral environments. Capable of ranges up to 200 km, it is a stealthy and highly manoeuvrable weapon combining GPS-aided midcourse guidance with an advanced dual-band imaging IR seeker.
A preliminary NSM mechanical fit check was conducted with an NH90 helicopter in Marignane in October 2000. However, full avionics and mechanical integration awaits a firm customer.
A descendent of the Sea Killer Mk 2 surface-to-surface anti-ship missile, the first-generation Marte Mk 1 air-launched ASuW guided weapon was brought to market by Oto Melara in the late 1970s. An improved Mk 2 variant followed into Italian Navy service (equipping SH-3D helicopters) in the 1980s.
The second coming of Marte Mk 2 began in November 2000 when MBDA Italia (having consolidated the previously disparate components of Italy's guided weapons industry) was awarded a contract to develop a further enhanced Marte Mk 2/S version to arm the Marina Militare Italiana's new AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopter fleet. The company has also integrated Marte Mk 2/S aboard the NH90 helicopter.
Powered by a two-stage boost/sustain rocket motor, Marte Mk 2/S is a high subsonic, intermediate weight (324 kg), medium-range (>30 km), all-weather sea-skimming missile with inertial midcourse guidance and active radar terminal homing. Described as a 'fire and forget' weapon, it can additionally exploit third party targeting information for 'covert' launch on relayed target co-ordinates.
Following launch, the Marte Mk 2/S missile flies a sea-skimming trajectory at high subsonic speed, using inertial navigation to execute pre-programmed waypoints. Lethal effect is imparted by a 70 kg semi-armour-piercing/high-explosive warhead with impact and proximity fuze activation.
According to MBDA Italia, the Mk 2/S improvement package has been developed to enable Marte to meet Italian Navy requirements for a weapon able to function effectively in littoral environments characterised by strong land returns, significant sea clutter (natural and man-made) and reduced radar cross section (RCS) targets. This has in turn driven requirements for improved target selectivity, clutter discrimination and improved ECCM.
Seek and destroy
These enhancements have been embodied in the shape of an improved Selex Galileo SM-1S active radar seeker (with a new digital data processor), new mission planning functionality, and a new management computer, executing seeker and navigation data fusion, end game optimisation and an evasive terminal manoeuvre. Other features include a redesigned booster/sustainer (offering increased stand-off range and compliant to Insensitive Munition [IM] standards) and an IM warhead.
A contract was signed at the end of 2003 with the Direzione Generale Degli Armamenti Aeronautici for the production of eight launch systems, six pre-production missiles and 33 full production-standard missiles for the Italian Navy's AW 101 fleet. Associated activities included integration of the launch system on a land-based avionics rig, mechanical installation of the missile and its release mechanism aboard the aircraft, and full integration of the launch system aboard the aircraft.
A first Marte Mk 2/S qualification test firing was completed from an Italian Navy AW 101 helicopter at the Salto di Quirra test range in Sardinia in March 2005. The missile executed a sea-skimming flight profile over a range of 20 km via a waypoint. Target acquisition was achieved at a range of 5 km, with the missile (fitted with a telemetry section in place of a warhead) successfully overflying the target at an altitude of 16 ft.
Subsequently, two qualification firings of Marte Mk 2/S were conducted from an AW 101 on consecutive days in early May 2006, again on the Salto di Quirra range. The first qualification firing was conducted on 9 May against a target 20 km away, on a bearing 50 degrees off the helicopter's heading, to simulate the engagement of a fast small surface target of opportunity. Released from an altitude of 2,000 ft, the missile adopted a sea-skimming profile, flying via intermediatewaypoints before impacting the target at the specific aim point.
The following day, a low-level, short-range engagement of a FIAC-type threat was conducted to demonstrate the quick reaction capabilities of Marte Mk 2/S. On this occasion, the missile was launched at an altitude of 650 ft at a target 6 km away.
Qualification activities culminated in October 2006 with a further two firings from an AW 101 at the Salto di Quirra range. The first, on 2 October, saw a Marte Mk 2/S missile successfully strike a barge target, positioned off Capo San Lorenzo, at a range of 30 km.
A day later, a second Marte Mk 2/S was launched at target 18 degrees off boresight 27 km away. The missile navigated a series of waypoints during its cruise phase before locking on to the target, then impacting and destroying it.
Delivery of Marte Mk 2/S rounds for the Italian Navy took place between 2007 and 2008. Integration and qualification has been completed on both the AW 101 and the NH90 helicopters.
MBDA Italia has studied further improvements to Marte Mk 2/S. These include the addition of an IR seeker and a datalink to provide an operator-in-the-loop (OITL) capability, and GPS-based navigation to confer a capability against coastal targets.
In mid-2009, the company disclosed company-funded work for an Extended Range (ER) missile, known as Marte ER, which would swap out the existing rocket sustainer for a turbojet powerplant. According to MBDA, Marte ER would have a re-engineered airframe - shorter and lighter (<300 kg) but of a larger diameter to accommodate the new propulsion system, air intakes and fuel tanks - and would be able to achieve a maximum range in excess of 100 km.
Sea Skua was originally developed by what was BAe Dynamics (the activities of which have now been subsumed into MBDA UK) and conceived in the early 1970s to give the RN's then-new Lynx helicopter the necessary punch to counter Soviet-bloc surface targets up to corvette size (notably the heavily-armed Project 1234 'Nanuchka'). Weighing 147 kg, and offering an effective range out to about 16 km, Sea Skua achieves lock-on before launch, using a semi-active radar seeker to home onto the returns from the launch helicopter's Seaspray radar. Following drop launch and motor ignition the missile follows a pre-programmed flight phase before dropping to a pre-selected sea-skimming altitude prior to target impact.
Sea Skua was first used in anger by the RN during the 1982 Falklands conflict, before its formal acceptance into service. A total of eight missiles were fired, with four Argentinian vessels disabled or sunk as a result.
But its finest hour came in the 1991 Gulf War when a total of 26 missiles were fired from RN Lynx helicopters during 15 separate target engagements. The system - incorporating modifications to height-keeping software, attack profile and warhead detonation programmes to offer a capability against small, 'low silhouette' targets - was credited for destroying or disabling a major part of the Iraqi Navy, including five TNC-45 fast attack craft (taken over from the Kuwait Navy), two T43 minesweepers, two Polnochny-class landing ships, two Spasilac-class patrol craft and two Zhuk-class patrol craft.
Evolving threats
As well as equipping the RN's Lynx force, the helicopter-launched variant of Sea Skua has achieved significant export success. Orders were received from Brazil (Lynx); Germany (integrated with the Sea King Mk 41 helicopter); Turkey (equipping the AB 212ASW); South Korea (Super Lynx); and Malaysia (Super Lynx).
Yet it remains a fact that Sea Skua has changed relatively little since its introduction to service over a quarter of a century ago, and its effectiveness has progressively degraded against an evolving threat. It is also an uncomfortable fact that, in an era where ship defences are improving, Sea Skua's semi-active radar seeker requires that missiles lock-on before launch, and demands that the launch helicopter maintains radar lock on the target up to the point of impact.
Accordingly, the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW) requirement was raised by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to deliver a solution to the emerging requirement for a Sea Skua replacement. Initial approval to begin drafting a User Requirement Document was sanctioned in April 1999. At that time, work was solely focused on the requirement to meet the need for a new air-launched ASuW weapon to meet the perceived threat from vessels up to corvette size, whilst affording a high level of offensive force protection capability.
Associated operational analysis concluded that helicopters remained the most cost-effective ASuW weapons platforms to meet the proposed threat, particularly in areas of high background, non-hostile shipping density and where stringent rules of engagement may provide additional challenges. FASGW would address an expanded target set encompassing both ASuW and some degree of coastal suppression.
However, study outcomes promulgated during 2005 saw the evolving FASGW requirement split into distinct 'Light' and 'Heavy' components. Operational analysis identified a clear split in the FASGW target set between those that will not have an organic air-defence capability - FIACs and below - and those that will. This segmentation drove a twin-track approach, the combination of FASGW(Light) - FASGW(L) - and FASGW(Heavy) - FASGW(H) - offering the capability to defeat the wide target set encountered in today's maritime and littoral theatre of operations.
FASGW(L) is characterised as a lightweight precision-guided weapon capable of providing multiple channels of fire and delivering a proportional and precise effect against the lower end of the FASGW target set (such as FIACs, rigid inflatable boats, and jet ski-type watercraft). Meanwhile, FASGW(H) is intended to counter the threat posed by fast attack craft and corvettes (up to about 1,000 tonnes), while additionally conferring a capability to strike static and 'soft' coastal targets (these could include fixed communications nodes, radar stations and missile batteries).
Solutions to both requirements are now being developed in parallel by Thales UK and MBDA UK under the umbrella of Team Complex Weapons. Assessment activities were launched in July 2008, with both types being groomed for the RN's new Lynx Wildcat helicopter.
The Lightweight Modular Missile (LMM), as the preferred technical solution for FASGW(L), is a new low-cost, laser beam-riding missile conceived by Thales to engage a wide range of air, land and sea targets at ranges of about 8 km. Building on the pedigree of the company's existing Starburst and Starstreak surface-to-air missiles, the new weapon is intended to exploit proven subsystems and technologies while also emphasising a value-engineered approach. For example, LMM will use a new Roxel-developed two-stage solid rocket motor that, while loosely based on that of Starstreak, is expected to come in at between half and one-third the cost.
Sized to fit inside the same canister as the Starburst/Starstreak missile, LMM features four flip-out, movable canards in the nose plus four fixed fins aft, while the fixed-fin Starstreak rolls in flight, the point accuracy sought by Thales for LMM requires that the missile flies 'nose stable', demanding a new control actuation system and fully controlled forward canard fins to impart skid-to-turn commands.
The missile's tail assembly is based on that of Javelin/Starburst. Initial versions will be laser-guided, with two laser receiver pods mounted in the tail section as per Starstreak. Thales is in parallel working on an alternative semi-active laser (SAL) seeker, and sees potential for a multi-mode guidance system using both laser beam-riding and SAL to offer increased flexibility.
Close co-operation
A 3 kg blast fragmentation/shaped charge warhead is baselined, which combines localised effect with good armour penetration. The laser proximity fuze, using simple low-cost gate technology set at the point of launch, is designed to ensure that the missile can successfully engage very-low metal, semi-solid targets, such as rigid inflatables, which many rockets pass through before detonating.
The FASGW(L) fit envisaged for Wildcat will feature a pylon-mounted pannier incorporating seven canistered missile rounds. Two would typically be fitted (one on either weapon station port and starboard).
While the LMM technical solution for FASGW(L) is now quite mature, work to define the larger FASGW(H) is now continuing under a joint Anglo-French arrangement. This is building on work already performed by MBDA UK and the MoD over a number of years.
As design authority for Sea Skua, MBDA has for some time studied various evolutions,adaptations and enhancements to the existing missile to assess how it might evolve the FASGW(H) requirements set. In 2006 the company unveiled its Sea Skua Mk 2 concept which replaced the semi-active radar seeker with a new active radar seeker so as to confer a land attack capability, de-couple the missile from the launch helicopter's radar, and maintain an all-weather capability.
Subsequent operational analysis and user evaluations saw the emphasis switch by mid-2008 to a new Sea Skua IR baseline, characterised by the MoD and MBDA as a '100 kg'-class missile featuring an IIR seeker and a two-way datalink to enable operator-in-the-loop capability. Based on modularity and technology re-use, the weapon was also seen to establish a baseline for the UK fast jet force's projected SPEAR 2 (Selected Precision Effects At Range) future air-to-ground missile.
As presented in mid-2008, the Sea Skua IR concept retained many of the characteristics of its progenitor. For example, the general external dimensions and all-up-mass were similar, thereby enabling existing ship storage and transportation infrastructure to be used without modification.
Internally, Sea Skua IR was re-engineered so as to deliver a substantial increase in precision and range. Foremost is the preference for an IIR seeker option which, in conjunction with a datalink, will allow the target image to be relayed back to the launch platform for OITL control.
The practicality and desirability of OITL guidance - whereby an operator receives imagery downlinked from the homing head to enable the missile to be guided all the way to impact - has been a key part of FASGW(H) studies performed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory. Advocates reason that this will allow the operator to uplink changes to the missile flight profile right up to the point of impact, offering a high level of target discrimination, some degree of aimpoint selection and, if necessary, mission abort.
The baseline propulsion option for Sea Skua IR was similar to Sea Skua - combining solid rocket boost and sustainer motors - although improvements in motor technology would see range extended out to about 30 km. In parallel, MBDA examined the case for swapping out the sustainer for a small turbojet powerplant, an engineering change that would offer reduced weight, a significant extension in range (out to about 60 km) and a major reduction in through-life costs.
Joint assessment
In March 2008 the governments of the UK and France signed a statement of intent to allow France to participate in the FASGW(H) assessment activity in respect to the latter's Anti-Navire Léger (ANL) requirement. The outline requirement for ANL is broadly similar, and in-service dates of FASGW(H) and ANL are both aligned to 2015.
This bilateral co-operation was cemented in September 2009 when the UK and French governments launched a 27-month joint Assessment Phase programme valued at GBP35 million (USD54 million). Work is being carried forward through the Team Complex Weapons enabling contract placed with MBDA UK in 2008, with costs shared between the two nations. Building on the UK's earlier work - and examining technology re-use opportunities from other programmes - the joint assessment phase is investigating appropriate technologies for a common FASGW(H)/ANL solution.
The French Navy, which wants a successor to the AS.15TT anti-ship missile, plans to deploy ANL from NH90 and Panther helicopters. It is understood that the weight/carriage constraints of the latter type are reflected in the French desire for a weapon that may be somewhat lighter than was originally foreseen for FASGW(H).
MBDA says that FASGW(H)/ANL progress "has continued to be solid with the design maturing in accordance with the original Sea Skua IR concept", adding: "The missile is based on a Band 3 IR seeker, a two-way datalink and will be capable of delivering a 30 kg warhead at ranges in excess of 15 km.
"The missile will continue to mature throughout the joint assessment. We expect to undertake a number of design reviews, as the programme continues, that will chill the design over the coming months."
While the USN acquired the Kongsberg AGM-119 Penguin in limited numbers to equip the SH-60B helicopter, it has also equipped the SH-60B, SH-60F, HH-60H and the latest MH-60R with the Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire II SAL-guided air-to-surface missile. The AGM-114 Hellfire II missile can be employed as a lock-on before or lock-on after launch weapon, and has an effective range from 0.5 km to more than 8 km.
Integration with the H-60 nose-mounted forward-looking infrared (FLIR) and laser designator was undertaken by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division at Patuxent River between 1995 and 1997. Hellfire was integrated with the H-60 airframe to meet a USN requirement for a lowercost air-to-surface weapon for multiple engagements against small surface targets. The USN has brought the AGM-114B (high explosive warhead), -114K (high explosive warhead) and -114M (blast fragmentation warhead) variants into inventory. While the original SH-60B/HH-60H fit provides for the carriage of four weapons on an M299 launcher on the single port-side pylon, the MH-60R is qualified to take up to eight missile rounds (four on M299 launchers fitted on pylons port and starboard).
A first USN fleet firing was performed in January 1998, with an Atlantic Fleet SH-60B LAMPS III helicopter sinking a target vessel at a fleet testing range off Puerto Rico. The aircraft, armed with two AGM-114B Hellfires with live warheads, was launched from the guided missile cruiser USS Monterey during a Navy Joint Force Exercise. The first AGM-114 scored a direct hit on a 56-ft target (designed to simulate a FIAC type craft); the second missile was generally carried as a spare and not fired.
A first Hellfire live-firing by a deployable MH-60R squadron occurred in April 2008. This was performed by the Pacific Fleet-based Helicopter Maritime Strike Squadron 71. In 2007 Lockheed Martin announced that Greece was acquiring additional quantities of Hellfire missiles under a Foreign Military Sales contract. This included weapons to equip the Hellenic Navy's SH-60B Seahawk helicopter fleet.
Raytheon's AGM-65D Maverick air-to-surface missile has also found its sea legs, equipping the Royal New Zealand Navy's five SH-2G(NZ) Super Seasprite helicopters (flown by naval crews but parented by 6 Squadron Royal New Zealand Air Force). Designed for close air support, interdiction and defence suppression missions against a range of surface targets (including armour, air defence formations, vehicles and surface targets), the missile uses an IR seeker and delivers a 125 lb-shaped charge warhead.
Proven pedigree
The rail-launched AGM-65 was cleared for use from the SH-2G by Kaman, the company conducting three successful live firings at the US Army's Yuma proving grounds in February 1996. This was a company-funded activity in support of Kaman's own SH-2G international marketing efforts.
New Zealand selected the SH-2G to meet its Replacement Maritime Helicopter requirement in 1997, and in parallel selected Maverick over the competing Sea Skua. While the AGM-65 entered service in 2001, a first in-service firing was not conducted until September 2008 when an SH-2G(NZ) operating from the frigate HMNZS Te Kaha fired two missiles at floating targets east of Great Barrier Island.
A second firing trial was conducted in March 2009, this time to prove the SH-2G(NZ)'s capability to utilise the Maverick at night against a small target. Secondary to this objective was proving the interoperability between the missile and night vision goggles which, until this time, has been untested by the New Zealand Defence Force during a missile firing. On this occasion an SH-2G operating from the frigate HMNZS Te Mana fired a single missile to destroy a small IR-augmented surface target.
Drawing on the proven pedigree of the air-launched Delilah stand-off air-to-surface guided weapon, Israel Military Industries (IMI) has developed a helicopter-launched Delilah-HL variant. Combining an electro-optical seeker and OITL control, to enable real-time, positive identification and discrimination of targets, the 230 kg Delilah-HL is claimed to be able to operate over extended ranges of up to 150 km. Rheinmetall has partnered IMI to offer Delilah HL into the German market.