Posted on 07/21/2011 9:19:39 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Success of A-Darter programme opens way for two more SA-Brazil projects
By: Keith Campbell
22nd July 2011
The Brazilian Navy is negotiating with South Africa on the joint development of a new version of the Umkhonto (‘spear’) naval surface- to-air missile (SAM). These are official talks, designed to establish the official framework within which the joint development programme would take place. In addition, there are less advanced discussions under way between Brazil and South Africa concerning the development of an SAM version of the A-Darter air-to-air missile (AAM), which would be for the Brazilian Army.
The Umkhonto is a product of Denel Dynamics, part of South Africa’s State-owned Denel defence industrial group. It is in service with the South African Navy (SAN) and the Finnish Navy and uses infrared guidance. The Denel Dynamics public brochure for it states that it has a range of 12 000 m and a ceiling of 8 000 m. This version of the SAM is sometimes referred to as the Umkhonto-IR.
But Denel Dynamics has long had ambitions to develop a longer ranged version of the missile, which would use radar homing. This project is known as Umkhonto-R, and this is almost certainly what the Brazilian Navy is interested in. The Department of Defence is believed to be supplying limited funding to Denel Dynamics for the Umkhonto-R project, enough to keep the concept alive but not enough to actually develop the missile.
As a consequence, the company has been looking for a foreign partner to codevelop the Umkhonto-R. Indeed, in 2008 Engineering News reported that Denel had approached the Brazilian Navy about a joint development programme.
The Brazilian Navy is known to be seeking an SAM with a range of more than 30 km but less than 50 km to equip the new generation of large frigates that it is planning to acquire during this decade. There will be five of these frigates, each of which will displace about 6 000 t. In comparison, the SAN’s Valour-class frigates each displace about 3 600 t. (Fitting the Umkhonto-R to the Valour-class ships would greatly increase the operational capabilities of the SAN.) Clearly, the proposed joint programme would involve the development of a new seeker head and a extra stage for the missile.
Regarding the possible SAM version of the A-Darter, the Brazilian Army needs to modernise its air defence capabilities for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Olympics. An SAM version of this AAM would not need a new seeker head, but would require a new or additional booster and a launcher system.
Although the Brazilian Army has a dedicated air defence brigade (the 1st Antiaircraft Artillery Brigade) with five battalions, it is mostly equipped with obsolete systems. Currently, the only modern air defence systems it possesses are a small number of Russian 9K38 Igla (‘needle’) man- portable SAMs.
According to the Brazilian weekly Época, the Brazilian Army has budgeted between $1.5-billion and $4.5-billion to acquire new SAMs, anti-aircraft guns and radars, as well as to upgrade existing systems. Note that the Brazilian Army is likely to seek to acquire more than one type of SAM, as there different categories of these weapons (very short range, short range, medium range and long range).
The Brazilian Navy’s probable, and the Brazilian Army’s possible, joint missile development programmes with South Africa are both inspired by and would be based on the highly successful programme to develop the A-Darter. The Brazilians are very happy with this AAM programme.
The Brazilian companies involved in the A-Darter are Mectron, Avibrás and Opto Eletrônica, as well as technical specialists from the Brazilian Air Force itself. Mectron is Brazil’s missile manufacturer, producing all the country’s missiles, namely the MAA-1 and MAA-1B Piranha IR-homing AAMs, the MAR-1 antiradar missile and the MSS-1.2 anti-armour missile.
Avibrás is best known for its Astros family of surface-to-surface bombardment rockets. In the A-Darter programme, it is involved in the development of the rocket motor for the missile. Opto Eletrônica produces lenses, mirrors and proximity fuses, and has supplied components to Brazilian national missile projects, as well as to the country’s space programme. It is participating in the development of the missile’s seeker head.
It is not known which of these would be involved in an Umkhonto-R programme, although Mectron seems a safe bet. Originally a small, independent company, since March, Mectron has been part of the giant Brazilian multinational conglomerate, Odebrecht (which earned revenues of about $33.4-billion last year), forming a key element of the group’s new business arm, Odebrecht Defesa e Tecnologia.
Edited by: Martin Zhuwakinyu
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