Douglas Barrie/LONDON
Python Four and Super-Darter are likely to be the names most spoken about by those visitors who are interested in missiles at the Paris air show this year.
After years of remaining coy about its follow-on to the Python 3 infra-red (IR) guided air-to-air missile (AAM), Israel's Rafael is likely to display at least a sanitised variant of Python 4 at the show. The missile is believed to have entered service in 1992, and Rafael is now pushing hard to export it.
The company has already made an informal offer to the UK to supply an interim combat stock of the Python 4 until the British Aerospace advanced short-range air-to-air missile (ASRAAM) enters service around the turn of the century. Australia has already been offered the missile to meet its Sidewinder replacement programme.
The Python 4 is a highly agile short-range dogfight weapon with a high off-boresight (HOBS) engagement capability. Lift is generated from both the body and the tail, with fore-body canards and destabilisers providing control.
South Africa may also spring a few surprises at the show, with missile developer Kentron revealing several programmes for the first time. The company has begun conceptual design work on a beyond-visual range (BVR) active-radar AAM (dubbed Super-Darter), and thought to be aimed at filling a South African Air Force requirement beyond 2005. The source of the active-radar seeker for the missile remains an area of considerable speculation.
RAMJET PROPULSION
The design is based on a 180mm-diameter missile, with conventional rear-control surfaces. The airframe has no mid- or fore-body wings, and is rocket/ramjet propelled.
Somchem, another member of the Denel group, has been working on ramjet propulsion over the past decade, with ballistic test firings of the motor already having been carried out.
Kentron could also show a model of a ramjet-powered variant of its SAHV surface-to-air missile, which is now under development. The ramjet-powered variant provides a significant increase in range over the conventional solid-rocket design.
Kentron, like Rafael, is also eyeing the potentially large market for a replacement imaging infra-red (IIR)-guided short-range missile to supplant the AIM-9 Sidewinder, which is rapidly approaching the end of its service life. Kentron is offering its IIR-guided U-Darter as a readily available AIM-9 replacement.
British Aerospace is also positioning itself, and its partner-in-waiting Matra, with the advanced short-range air-to-air Missile (ASRAAM) for the export market. Both BAe and Rafael are also offering their IIR missiles as contenders to meet the US Navy/US Air Force AIM-9X Sidewinder replacement programme.
The two weapons reflect markedly different design philosophies, and it is as yet unclear exactly which path the USA will take. While the Python 4, with its numerous canard control surfaces, destabilisers and mid-body wings presents a particularly draggy design, the ASRAAM, by comparison, with its tail-control configuration, has a low drag coefficient.
While this gives ASRAAM a longer engagement range - more than double that of the Python 4 - the advantage of near-instantaneous manoeuvrability off the launch rail rests with the Python Four. This is compounded by the motor-burn profiles of the two weapons. The Python 4's initial motor burn is thought to be considerably less than that of the ASRAAM, effectively reducing its turning circle for very-close-in high-off-boresight engagements.
The differences in the two weapon designs are the result of differing operational requirements. The ASRAAM is intended to provide an extended-range IIR capability, including a head-on closing engagement, while the Python 4 design is thought to have been predicated on an Israeli air force philosophy of a visual-identification pass, coupled with a close in HOBS -capability missile.
Alongside their overseas competitors, US companies may also be showing their possible Sidewinder replacements. Raytheon and Hughes are looking to pursue the US Navy/Air Force competition, with tail-control configured missiles at their favoured approach.
The Python 4's Russian equivalent, the Vympel R-73 (AA-11 Archer), a weapon generally considered to be substantially superior to the AIM-9, will also be on show. It is now the standard IR-guided missile for the Mikoyan MiG-29 Fulcrum and Su-27 Flanker. Vympel is working on a follow-on missile, which, like its Western counterparts, will have an IIR seeker.
Vympel's R-77 (AA-X-12 Adder) fully active beyond-visual-range missile will also be on the flight line at Paris. The display aircraft are not flown with the missile's lattice rear-control surfaces fitted to the mock-up weapons. This is likely to be because they impart considerable drag.
Both Vympel and seeker design house Agat claim that the Adder has entered service with the air force, although only in limited numbers. Agat officials also say that Malaysia is the first export customer for the missile.
Along with the outstanding questions surrounding the Adder, Vympel could also begin to discuss its follow-on missile to the R-33 (AA-9 Amos). The R-37, likely to carry the NATO designation AA-13 when it enters service, has been under test at the air force's Ahktubinsk combat centre. The missile may have semi-active and active-radar seekers.
Dual-mode front ends will also be the focus for several of the Western manufacturers as they look to either upgrade or replace the Hughes AIM-120 advanced medium-range air-to-air missile (AMRAAM).
In the UK, the Staff Requirement (Air)1239 for the Ministry of Defence (MoD), has become the focus for the collaborative, S225X active-radar-guided missile. The S225X is likely to be a rocket/ramjet weapon, with initially only a single-mode seeker. A dual-mode seeker, however, coupling active radar and IIR could be introduced as part of a mid-life upgrade to the weapon.
Hughes appears to be concentrating on improving the kinematics of its AMRAAM missile, particularly in engaging a manoeuvring target at long range. This will be the main thrust of the AIM-120 planned production-improvement programme (P3I). Given the USAF's classified budget, however, and repeated rumours of a dual-mode AAM-seeker programme, the appearance of such a front end on the AMRAAM is a distinct possibility.
Several air-to-surface programmes will demand attention. Bids for the UK's Staff Requirement (Air)1238 for a stand-off air-launched anti-armour weapon are about to be submitted, while bids for Staff Requirement (Air) 1236 for a conventional stand-off missile are due to be received by the MoD in July.
BAE UNVEILING?
BAe may take the opportunity of Paris, to divulge exactly, what its Matra Apache-based bid for SR(A)1236 will look like. Having romanced GEC-Marconi, in teaming to offer the Pegasus missile, BAe jilted its erstwhile partner in favour of its French competitor for a merger, which has still to happen.
Rafael, meanwhile, could also unveil an extended-range derivative of its Popeye missile, fitted with a turbofan engine. This missile is now in flight test, and is likely to be the basis for at least part of its conventional stand off missile (CASOM) offer to the UK. It could offer the Popeye 2 immediately, to be replaced at a later date with the extended-range variant.
Another stand off weapon programme, which will be taxing companies, is that of the US tri-service stand off missile (TSSAM). The Northrop Grumman missile was dropped by Congress, because of its expense and it had also been bedeviled with technical problems.
Striking the programme off the Department of Defense's books, however, has not got rid of the requirement. "Son of TSSAM", as it has been dubbed, will be attracting the attention of both US and foreign manufacturers, keen to try and exploit Northrop Grumman's misfortune.
In the air-defence arena, most of the major programmes are slightly further down the line. The show may give those taking part in the US/European "son-of-CorpsSAM" project the opportunity to explain exactly what kind of a missile the Medium Extended Air Defense project will produce in meeting the requirement for a Raytheon Hawk replacement.
The EUROSAM Aster missile will figure in some shape or form in the above programme, and also in the multi-national Horizon frigate project. Companies are now beginning to look at the Inner Layer Missile System for this project.
Defence budgets have been reduced, but the UK's SR(A)1238 and SR(A) 1236 will consume the better part of £2 billion ($3.15 billion). With programmes like this, the shop talk among manufacturers procurers and users will be as animated as any at Paris ever was.
Source: Flight International