U.S. Air Force jets will defend themselves with a new weapon designed to take out anti-aircraft
missiles before they hit them.
The weapon is a small interceptor missile and Raytheon is currently working on this.
Viewers may note that Raytheon was awarded the contract to deliver the first interceptor
missile for flight testing by 2023 as part of the Miniature Self-Defense Missile or MSDM
program.
The Air Force Research Laboratory’s munitions directorate had taken up the initiative in
2015 and Raytheon got the better of Boeing & Lockheed Martin to clinch the deal.
The contract is worth $375 million.
This could pave the way for 'hard kill' protection for the jets.
In this video Defense Updates analyzes how U.S jets will counter incoming enemy missiles
with Miniature Self-Defense Missile?
Let's get into the details.
This video is sponsored by War Thunder.
If you are, like us, fascinated by military vehicles and technology, I recommend you give
War Thunder a try.
It's a military vehicle combat game which you can download and play for free on PC,
PlayStation4 and Xbox One - with cross-platform support.
It has a huge variety of more than 1200 playable aircraft, tanks, helicopters and ships from
the 1930s to the 1990s, which you can take to battle on land, in the air and at sea on
more than 80 theaters of war.
War Thunder has been kind enough to offer all Defense Updates viewers a special bonus,
which will grant you a free premium tank or aircraft or ship and three days of premium
account time for registering using our link in the description below.
So, take the plunge and join the more than 20 million players from all over the world!
Over the years, missile tech has improved significantly.
At present several Beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles are available that can hit aircraft
from long ranges.
For example, Chinese PL-15, American AIM-120D and European Meteor have the capability to
take down aircraft from a range of around 100 miles or 160 km.
Similarly, integrated long-range air defense systems make it difficult for a fighter jet
to penetrate well-protected airspace.
One of the best specimens will be Russian S-400
S-400 Triumph is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed by Russia’s Almaz Central Design
Bureau in the 1990s as an upgrade of the S-300 family.
it has been in service with the Russian armed forces since 2007.
It is designed to defend against aircraft including 5th generation stealth fighters,
bombers, AWACS, cruise missiles, and even ballistic missiles.
S-400 can track hundreds of targets at a time, engage up to 36 targets in parallel and simultaneously
launch 72 missiles and can engage a target at a distance of up to 250 miles or 400 km.
Importantly air to air or ground-to-air missiles are far cheaper than a fighter jet.
So, even if a barrage of these is used to take out a single jet, it is still a good
proposition.
Also, another goal of MSDM would be to protect high-value asset aircraft (HVAA) such as Airborne
Early Warning and Control aircraft, tankers, and large cargo aircraft
The HVAA are even more vulnerable to advanced air-to-air missiles, and long-range surface-to-air
missile systems since they are a bigger target, are slower and can't maneuver rapidly.
Currently, fighter jets are limited to ‘passive' defenses against incoming missiles.
Pilots can take high G evasive maneuvers to shake the missile off its back, fire flares
to distract an infrared missile seeker, or launch strips of aluminum foil, known as “chaff,”
to confuse a missile guided by radar.
But these methods are not very dependable against modern missiles.
For example, the Meteor missile developed by MBDA which has a range of 150 km or 93
miles is capable of engaging fast agile jets to small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles as well
as cruise missiles in extreme weather conditions.
Meteor has excellent aerodynamics and propulsion performance enabling it to pull off intense
turn angles when pursuing an agile target like a modern super maneuverable fighter.
The missile has a no-escape zone of 60 km or about 38 miles.
Clearly, the effectiveness of the passive defensive system will reduce in the coming days.
According to a U.S DoD press release, “The MSDM will support miniaturized weapon
capabilities for air superiority by enabling close-in platform self-defense and penetration
into contested A2/AD (that is Anti-Access/Area Denial) environment with little to no impact
to payload capacity.”
It was added, "Contractor will work to increase the number of missiles carried on a single
sortie, increase the effectiveness of each missile, and enhance the platform survivability
against all threats in an anti-access, area-denial environment”
Miniature Self-Defense Missile or MSDM is conceptualized to be a kinetic weapon that
will be capable of homing in on an incoming missile and taking it out by ramming it in
mid-flight.
The task is complex since a missile is small when compared to an aircraft and would potentially
be coming in at a speed of around Mach 4 or more.
This is like hitting a bullet with a bullet.
A similar idea is being implemented to protect Main Battle Tanks - Israel has 'Trophy' for
Merkava and Russia is developing 'Afganit' Active Protection system for T-14 Armata.
As of now, Raytheon has not provided any details regarding how it intends to achieve this.
The missile is expected to be pretty small.
Air Force Research Laboratory or AFRL briefing slides points to “extremely-agile, highly-responsive”
It will likely be a meter long which makes it 1/3 of the size of the AIM-9X Sidewinder
which currently one of the smallest air-to-air missiles in the U.S inventory.
It is plausible that each jet could carry 3-6 of these interceptors.
When a fighter gets an incoming missile warning through its self-defense suit, it will fire
MSDM.
MSDM will be most likely be guided by the fighter's radar in the initial part of the
flight and in the terminal phase, it could use its own sensors to home in on the target.
The sensor could be some form of imaging infrared seeker which would enable the missile to detect
& track incoming missiles that are immune to electronic warfare jamming.
MDSM will be the last line of defense for a fighter when everything else fails.
The U.S has always been at the forefront when it comes to innovative weapon systems - for
example, America was the first one to develop a stealthy jet.
This has kept the U.S ahead of the rivals and it is exactly what is being tried now.
While the idea seems difficult to implement, we need to take into account that Raytheon
has the expertise to pull it off.
Though MSDM will not provide 100% protection it will certainly decrease the effectiveness
of air defense systems and air-to-air missiles.
This will help American tacticians to plan the missions with more freedom and potentially
enable U.S Air Force to penetrate airspace which would have been prohibitively risky
early.