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Aviation History
1978
1978 - 2730.PDF
1660 FLIGHT International, 4 November /978 FRANCE'S AEROSPACE INDUSTRY merge with those for the US Ahams advanced heavy anti tank missile system. Milan Aerospatiale and MBB are jointly producing 1,600 Milan wire-guided anti-tank missiles and 110 firing posts a month. British Aerospace is beginning production for the British Army. Orders now cover more than 76,000 rounds and 3,000 firing posts for 16 countries including France, Germany, Britain, Belgium, Turkey, Spain, Syria and Greece. The 50,000th missile was delivered at the end of 1977. Hat Nine countries have now ordered Hot heavy anti-tank missiles for launching from ground vehicles and heli copters. Production will reach 800 rounds and 35 firing installations a month by the end of this year. Aerospatiale and MBB are joint manufacturers of the system within Euromissile. Main French Army launch vehicle is the Saviem VAB. Germany now has the RJPZ-3 tracked tank- chaser equipped with Hot and will likewise equip its PAH-1 helicopter. The French Army is receiving its first Hot- armed SA.342 Gazelles. Both SA.361H Dauphin and Lynx have been proved for export with Hot. German and French requirements total 35,000 Hots, and 800 firing installations. Export customers include Egypt, Kuwait, Syria and Iraq. AS.12/SS.12/SS.12M Low-volume production of these first- generation wire-guided missiles continues. The most recent deliveries have been to the Italian Navy, British Army (for Wessex and Wasp) and to various African nations for small naval vessels. Inert missiles are also being manu factured for training. AS.il/SS.ll Low-volume production continues, mainly to replace rounds fired for training. Flash Creusot-Loire, SEP and CSEE are studying a barrage-fired, unguided rocket system as a defence against sea-skimmers for ships down to 250 ton size. Groups of 16 rockets would be fired after the incoming missile is de tected by infra-red/TV and ranged by laser. Crotale Thomson-CSF and Matra have now delivered 250 Crotale vehicles to ten different countries, including the first units for 20 batteries to the French Air Force. Other customers include South Africa (the original Cactus system is now superseded), Egypt (eight batteries), Saudi Arabia (Shahine), Pakistan, Libya and Abu Dhabi. Crotale employs a detection vehicle to control several missile- launching vehicles designed to operate as a battery, pro tecting fixed installations. The detection radar has 60dB sub-clutter visibility allowing it to track an aircraft flying at 50ft from a range of 15km. The system can launch with in six seconds before a radial target has come closer than 8 -5km. It can evaluate threats and can launch one or more missiles against each. Special precautions are taken against false alarms. Shahine Saudi Arabia was first to order this development of Crotale mounted on AMX30 tank chassis and capable of operating on the move with f.ront-line armoured forces. The Crotale missile in Shahine has improved range. Thomson-CSF supplies the SA10 (Sol Air 10km) control system, under which a detection tank controls two or four firing tanks each carrying six, instead of the usual, four missiles. Threat evaluation is automatic and the radar can operate on the move. Missiles can be launched as soon as the firing tank stops. Nato 6S Thomson-CSF is the designated French partner in this short-range ship-borne SAM system, suggested by Nato for the late 1980s. VFW-Fokker (with Kumar) and AEG-Telefunken (with FLaM80) are also participating in the studies. SATCP (Sol-air Tres Courte Portee) This designation covers preliminary studies by Aerospatiale and Matra of shoulder-launched SAMs similar to Blowpipe, Redeye or SA-7. Roland Last year saw delivery of the first operational Roland systems to the French, German and Brazilian armies and of the first licence-produced systems from the Hughes/Boeing consortium to the US Army. Aerospatiale is responsible for the Roland 1 clear-weather system and MBB for the Roland 2 all-weather system. French Rolands are mounted on AMX30 tank chassis and German units on SPZ Marders. The US units will be carried by M109R tracked vehicles. Extended joint tests of the three national units at the White Sands proving ground are designed to ensure interoperability of all three. The US Army will ultimately take 200 vehicles and 5,000 to 7,000 rounds to equip its units in Germany. Franco-German requirements, including non-US exports, cover 773 fire units and 25,885 missiles. Roland 2S is a van-mounted system originally designed for Belgium. Substituting Thomson-CSF radar for Crotale gives increased acquisition range. One detector vehicle and three missile-launching vehicles are said to offer a 50 per cent success rate against simultaneous attack by up to 24 aircraft. Super 530 Operational trials of the Super 530, the princi pal French air-to-air missile, are continuing and squadrons should be equipped during 1980. Super 530 has semd-active radar homing, and can be launched at all levels and snap up or down as much as 17,000ft. Mirage F.ls will first carry Super 530. It will also be the Mirage 2000's principal air-to-air weapon. R.550 Magic Volume production is satisfying a demand for 5,000 of these dog-fight missiles for 12 customers, including the French Air Force and Navy, Oman, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Iraq, India, Egypt, Ecuador, Syria, Abu Dhabi and Pakistan. Magic can be lunched from minimum aircraft speed to over 700kt at targets within a 140° forward sector, and can pull up to 30g to follow the target. Range varies from 0 • 3km to over 10km. R.530 Production of this air-to-air weapon by Matra is virtually complete. As many as 5,000 R.530s in both radar and infra-red versions have been produced. Durandal Matra has begun production of this retard-then- boost runway-busting bomb for the French forces and for export. Beluga Trials of this Matra sub-munition dispensing bomb are nearing completion. Laser-guided bombs Both Thomson-CSF/Matra and Samp are studying laser-guided bombs for use with the Thomson- CSF/Martin Marietta Atlis 2 tracking and designating pod. C.22/CT.20 Aerospatiale is developing the new C22 target drone as a development and training target. It is highly manoeuvrable, can fly high or low, carry 2201b of internal equipment and tow one or two targets at over 500 m.p.h. Propulsion is by Microturbo TRI60 turbojet giving 7701b thrust. The venerable Aerospatiale CT.20 drone, now fitted with up-dated electronics, will continue in production until 1981. The Matra Super 530, now under operational evaluation, is to arm French Air Force Mirage F.I and Mirage 2000 intercepted
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