China Pumps Silicon For a Stronger ARM

The Strategy Page ^ | 11/13/2009 | The Strategy Page

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

China has revealed that it has upgraded 200 Russian Kh-31P ARM (anti-radiation missiles) it imported in the 1980s. The Chinese were dissatisfied with the Russian seekers (that detected and homed in on radar transmissions), and developed one of their own. The Chinese seeker detects more radar frequencies (2-18 Ghz) and will hit within 8-10 meters of the radar transmission. The Kh-31 was originally developed as an anti-ship missile. The Russians quickly realized that, with a different seeker, the missile would also work well as an anti-radiation weapon. The anti-ship version has a range of 50 kilometers, while the ARM version is good for 110 kilometers. The .6 ton missile has an 87 kilogram (191 pound) warhead.

The U.S. equivalent is the .36 ton AGM-88. The latest version of this is the AGM-88E. The first production models of the "E" version will be delivered next year, after more than a decade of development effort. Over 23,000 AGM-88s, of all models, have been produced in the last 27 years.

The current model, the AGM-88D, uses GPS so that the missile, which normally homes in on radar transmissions, can be used to attack targets by location alone. The AGM-88 moves at high speed (2,200 kilometers an hour, or 36 kilometers a minute) to hit targets 100 kilometers away. This version of the AGM-88 costs nearly $100,000 each. The standard version uses more complex sensors which can detect and guide the missile to a wide variety of radar signals. These versions cost about $300,000 each. GPS enables HARM (or the aircraft carrying it) to locate a radar when it is turned on, store the GPS location, then go after the target regardless of whether the ground radar is turned on or off.

[pappyone]

2-18 Ghz, isn’t that the low band radar?

[ErnstStavroBlofeld]

In the world of countermeasures,countermeasures that alter the electromagnetic, acoustic or other signature(s) of a target thereby altering the tracking and sensing behavior of an incoming threat (e.g., guided missile) are designated softkill measures.Softkill measures are applied when it is expected that a sensor-based weapon system can be successfully interfered with. The threat sensor can be either an artificial one, e.g., a solid-state infrared detector, or the human sensory system (eye and/or ear).

Softkill measures generally interfere with the signature of the target to be protected. In the following the term signature refers to the electromagnetic signature of an object in either the ultraviolet (wavelength: 0.3-0.4 µm), visual (0.4-0.8 µm), or infrared (0.8 - 14 µm) spectral range as well as cm-radar range (frequency: 2-18 GHz), mmw-radar (35, 94, 144 GHz) and finally sonar range (either 50 Hz - 3 kHz and/or 3- 15 kHz).