Posted on 09/29/2008 8:05:04 PM PDT by Flavius
A joint Russian-Indian company has started the development of a cruise missile capable of flying at Mach 5, which will make it 'impossible to intercept'. BrahMos-2 will be the next generation of the highly successful the BrahMos missile already used by Indian military.
(Excerpt) Read more at russiatoday.com ...
That’s good!
Nothing to see here.
Motorola for a time manufactured small proximity fuses for small arms. About the size of what the Phalanx shoots. So these rounds would blow up if it detected a near by object. A supersonic object if it gets any perturbation on the surface the skin it will peal the skin off in a very dramatic fashion.
At the same time we are developing laser weapons that can take out mortar rounds. I think they might be using them in Israel now. In four years when this thing is in inventory it will probably be obsolete.
Oh yeah, the profile of this thing has got big radar signature all over it. From the air intake and speed. So they might get one off but the ship that it came from will be gone in short order. The effective area around one aircraft carrier is probably on the order of 1500 miles.
Of course my supposition is that we will still be funding R&D and have a military. If the Obama gets in all bets are off.
I kind of get from you this is some great Doomsday weapon. I just don't see it as that big of a threat. If they had true (greater than Mach 7) scram-jet technology. I think I would be concerned.
This is slightly faster than an AMRAAM and I think an AMRAAM could be upgraded for this thing.
The weapons are not wonder weapons by any means, and they are not invincible. However they do have some strengths, and those are the main reasons why many modern point-defence systems are moving away from Phalanx and Goalkeeper gun-based systems into short-range anti-missile missile defense systems. A Phalanx style gun system will either not be able to intercept the missile, and even if some rounds manage to impact the missile will be too close, and too fast, that there will still be damage done. Also consider what would happen if the Phalanx system is facing 3 or 4 missiles closing at mach 3?
Anyways, it may not be a wonder-weapon, but it has its benefits within certain parameters. Furthermore, if certain nations were to get similar weapons in a narrow sea-lane, they could easily cause a lot of damage. It only needs one to get through for an average sized ship to get enough damage to either get an outright kill, or at least a mission kill. For instance, that Israeli navy Corvette that was damaged by an anti-ship missile (allegedly Chinese made, via Iran). That was a sub-sonic missile, which only managed to get through since the Israeli ship's defenses were turned off. If that missile had been (even one of the older) super-sonic missiles, the kinetic impact would have been too much for a corvette. Furthermore, if several had been launched, even the defense systems turned on wouldn't have been enough to protect a solitary ship that close. A United States Carrier Group has many layers of defenses, but there are a lot of American allies that do not have, or cannot have, such comprehensive defensive layers. If a country like Iran was to get sufficient numbers of super-sonic missiles (say 15), or a group like Hezbo'llah was to receive say 4 from a proxy (let's say the older Sunburn versions, and China has been developing their own versions of supersonic missiles), then the only Navies that could be more or less protected would be the USN, the French, the Japanese, and the Brits. Most other navies wouldn't be able to protect their solitary ships from a salvo of just 2 to 3 such missiles in certain tight areas.
There are quite a number of sea-lane loci that would be very vulnerable to such a weapon ....and I am not even talking of the Brahmos or the upcoming Brahmos II. Even a super-sonic missile a generation old would leave certain areas only accessible to a truly superb navy like the USN.
Anyways, it is not perfect, and it is not invincible. However, just know if the Israeli ship had been struck by one of those, it would not have limped back home.
You are missing the point for about the third time. The “missile” will intercept the debris. The Russians have a version of the Phalynx it just puts up a wall of debris.
Doesn't even use radar. Pretty effective.
Since we know that these are a threat we tend to track platforms that launch these kinds of weapons. They will be on large ships.
Second, we typically have more than one Phalanx system per ship.
Third, after you get the kill on the first one the next three or four have to fly through that debris. At mach 5 lots of luck.
The speed of the missile and that rather large opening in the front (cavity) gives it a rather nice radar signature.
I didn't see any stealthy design about that missile. None!
BTW, Do you know what a proximity fuse is? It makes it possible so you do not need a direct hit. Again, you only need a debris field in front of a missile. The missile will fly into it. But I repeat myself.
Again, when the some of our laser tech gets more improved.
This weapon will be like a musket. You should do some research on that. It's out there. We have servos and radar that can track mach 5+ which means we can hit it.
Oh yeah EMP. That is also in inventory. Try and out run that.
Oh yeah, It probably uses the Russian GPS. We can jam that too.
I will agree all ships vulnerable. Look at the USS Cole. No high tech there.
First one is always easy. The second one gets a little tougher.
I hope you aren't losing sleep over this.
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