Posted on 04/11/2013 1:04:08 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
BAE checks Harpoon fit for anti-ship Typhoon
BAE Systems has conducted first windtunnel tests to assess the suitability of integrating Boeing's AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missile with the Eurofighter Typhoon.
An image released by the UK company showing a model of the Typhoon reveals the combat aircraft carrying three of the air-launched weapons. In this configuration, one would be carried on the aircraft's centre-fuselage stores station - ordinarily reserved for an external fuel tank - and two more beneath its wing.
BAE Systems
BAE says the test activity is intended to assess the aerodynamic characteristics of carrying the Harpoon. "This testing will help to de-risk the clearance process for such weapons to be integrated onto the Typhoon," it adds.
The availability of an air-launched anti-ship weapon with the Typhoon could be of interest to potential customers, such as Malaysia, and to prospective buyers in the Middle East.
Eurofighter
The Eurofighter consortium in 2011 released artwork depicting the aircraft carrying Saab RBS 15 missiles (above), as part of an effort to market the type as a potential aircraft carrier-based strike asset for the Indian navy.
Would the sub-sonic Harpoon be considered a second tier anti-ship missile?
There are several out there supersonic and much more difficult to defend against.
Are you assuming the targets will always be armed and armored warships?
How many mysterious sinkings of BIG container ships could the Chinese economy survive?
Hey, I know the perfect place to do final QA and Acceptance checks on these missiles.
There’s a little place in the South Atlantic that was the test bed for anti-ship missiles, and ASM defense systems, back in the ‘80’s.
It might be time to have some check flights, again, no?
Here’s one..
‘The Moskit is one of the missiles known by the NATO codename SS-N-22 Sunburn. It reaches a speed of Mach 3 at high altitude and Mach 2.2 at low-altitude. This speed is triple the speed of the subsonic American Harpoon. When slower missiles, like the Harpoon or the French Exocet are used, the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship is 120 to 150 seconds. This long response time provides time to launch countermeasures and employ jamming before deploying “hard” defense tactics such as launching missiles and using quick-firing artillery. But the high speed of the 3M82 “Mosquito” missiles reduce the maximum theoretical response time for the defending ship to 25 to 30 seconds. This short response time makes jamming and countermeasures very difficult, and firing missiles and quick-firing artillery even more difficult.....
Another...
‘.... another hypersonic missile designated as CM-400AKG made its debut in real form, though its photo had previously appeared at Paris Airshow. Developed by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corporation (CASIC), ...The 400 kg CM-400AKG is termed by CASIC as hypersonic since it can reach speed greater than Mach 5.5 at its terminal stage,...’
You could have saved time by typing, “no.”
As a young man I tested an shipped the first 4 electromechanical fin actuators for the prototype Harpoon Missile to McDonnell Douglas years ago.
“How many mysterious sinkings of BIG container ships could the Chinese economy survive?”
You’d be surprised how sink every year as it is.
Probably. Do you happen to know? I’m guessing about 1%.
Probably not that high but several a month are lost.
Most all relatively recent ASCMs have an terminal evasive maneuver - the latest Exocets do a randomized spiral, for example.
I probably would have expected them to go with the forthcoming Norwegian Joint Strike Missile, perhaps. Subsonic but ridiculously stealth and flies at an unbelievably low altitude.
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