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Developer and manufacturer of guided missile weapons MBDA intends to hinder Brazil’s plans to acquire Russian anti-aircraft missile systems.
MBDA, the European leader in missile weapons, and Avibras Brazil (AVIBRAS) have announced the joint development of a medium-range anti-aircraft missile system that could be an alternative to the Brazilian Ministry of Defense plan to acquire Pantor-C1.
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The joint European-Brazilian air defense missile system received the designation AVIBRAS Missil Media Altura AV-MMA (AVIBRAS Medium Altitude Missile). The anti-aircraft guided missile of this complex can be created on the basis of the CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile) unified modular anti-aircraft guided missile family, but using Avibras’s rocket technologies, as well as units and assemblies produced by Brazilian aerospace companies. As a mobile platform for the European-Brazilian air defense missile system, a MAN vehicle from the Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicle type RMMV (Rheinmetall MAN Military Vehicle) is being developed, which is currently being developed in Germany for the Brazilian ASTROS-2020 multi-launch rocket system (ASTROS 2020). In general, the new ZRK may have 70 percent of locally produced components and meet the requirements of the three types of Brazilian armed forces in the medium-range air defense system.
Currently, the plan of the Brazilian Ministry of Defense provides for the acquisition of 12 self-propelled Russian ZRPK "Pantsir-S1" mounted on the chassis of the RMMV car, of which it is planned to form three air defense batteries (four ZRPK each) for three types of national armed forces - the Air Force, Navy and ground forces. When adapting the Russian ZRPK to the requirements of the buyer, ODT (ODEBRECHT Defesa e Tecnologia) will be involved with the use of Brazilian technologies. However, as MBDA emphasizes, the AV-MMA Euro-Brazilian air defense system can be more profitable for the Brazilian military, as it provides for a more substantial transfer of rocket technology.
In the fleet already hit
The representative of MBDA emphasized the fact that, on the eve of the announcement of the joint development of a European-Brazilian medium-range air defense system, the MBDA created by the Sea Ceptor missile system, which includes the CAMM anti-aircraft missile, was chosen by Brazil to equip promising corvettes Class "Tamandare" (Tamandare) national naval forces. This fact, as European rocket planners believe, may trigger a heightened interest on the part of the Brazilian army to the joint proposal made by MBDA and Avibras, since the Sea Septor is a ship version of the universal ground-based SAM system developed jointly by France and the United Kingdom MBDA in these countries.
Brazil plans to build a total of four Tamandare class corvettes (previously known under the designation “Project CV03”) with a displacement of 2400 tons each. The Brazilian shipbuilding company VARD Niteroi (VARD Niteroi) is due to submit a draft look of the Tamandare in February 2015.
It is assumed that the basis of the project of the new corvette will be based on the concept of the V34 class corvette “Barosso” (Barosso) of the Brazilian Navy. The ships like the "Tamandare" are expected to become multipurpose. They will be equipped with anti-ship systems and air defense systems. The structure of weapons integrate artillery, as well as auxiliary means of fire destruction. It is assumed that one helicopter will be based on promising corvettes.
Brazil, will you be third?
According to MBDA, the Brazilian Navy was the third to choose the C Septor air defense system. Earlier, similar decisions were made by the British and New Zealand Navy.
MBDA was awarded a contract worth 250 million pounds from the Department of Defense of the United Kingdom for the production of the C Septor air defense system in 2013. The structure of the air defense system includes SAM CAMM and related equipment. The contract was issued to replace the outdated Seawolf from the 2016 of the year on the frigates of the 23 (Type 23) project. With the start of the replacement of the 23 frigates with the promising 26 (Type 26) frigates, the C Septor air defense missile system will be removed from the obsolete ships removed from the structure of the British Navy and installed on new ones. The 26 frigates will replace their predecessors in the 2020s and will serve as air defense ships. Currently, the British Navy has 16 frigates of the 23 project, built from 1990 to 2002 year.
“SE Septor” air defense system provides all-weather round-the-clock defense of the ship against attacks from group targets, including anti-ship missiles with a flat flight path over the water surface, helicopters and high-speed combat aircraft. According to the MBDA development company, in the face of massive attacks, the C Septor air defense system benefits from integrated advanced technologies, as well as an active radar homing head (RLGSN). This complex can also be used to destroy surface ships.
The “SE Septor” air defense system uses the rocket launch technology with its preliminary release from the launch canister with compressed air and subsequent engine start-up, which makes it possible to abandon the torch control system of the engine exhaust products and place the air defense missile system on small-sized ships.
According to Western experts, the unified CAMM missile defense system has high characteristics to counter all modern and future air threats. The completion of the design of the rocket is confirmed in important tests carried out in recent months. In particular, the new concept of vertical launch of the rocket with its preliminary release from the container (Soft Vertical Launch) was successfully demonstrated on May 20 at the MBDA test center in Bedfordshire. There is progress in the development of the CAMM RLGSN missiles, which were successfully tested without separation from the carrier at the beginning of the year.
Lockheed to help
MBDA began to cooperate with the American company Lockheed Martin to launch the Sea Septor complex to the naval armament market, with the Mk41 vertical launcher widely represented on the world market. It is planned to integrate the CAMM rocket into this TLU.
She, along with the newest British air defense missile system of a similar name in 2017 – 2020, is planning to replace the aging Rapier system in the land forces of Her Majesty. About this at the exhibition of weapons "Eurosatory-2014" (Eurosatory 2014), a representative of the marketing department of MBDA Mike Taylor.
The CAMM complex is a ground-based version of the universal air defense missile system, the corresponding adapted versions of which will also come into service with the Air Force and the British Navy. The main difference of CAMM from other manufacturers' SAM systems is the ability to receive target designation data from virtually any radar and other external sensors. Two-channel supersonic SAMs can hit targets in any weather conditions over a distance of more than 25 kilometers. In addition to the standard GOS with radar guidance, infrared installation is allowed. Vertical launch technology can significantly reduce the likelihood of missile detection. The CAMM complex is likely to be exported.
MBDA conducted two successful tests of the X-NUMX XRUM SE and the June 29 at the Vidsel training ground in Sweden. These shots were the first for the universal CAMM SAM, in which the GOS was involved. A two-way communication channel was used for data exchange with the C Septor air defense system.
The tests carried out have shown in action the monitoring and control system of the air defense missile system, as well as its ability to process data obtained from another radar, and to apply them when detecting and destroying targets. In both cases, the CAMM rocket using the RLGSN detected the target immediately after launch and carried out a controlled flight before its destruction.
It is assumed that the CAMM SAM will be used in the C Sea Septor air defense system of the New Zealand Navy, as well as in the ground defense system FLAADS (Future Local Area Air Defense System), which the United Kingdom plans to deploy.
“The success of these tests has a positive effect on the development of the FLAADS program. They also strengthen MBDA’s reputation as a supplier of precision weapons built on the principles of modularity and versatility at an affordable cost, ”said Dave Armstrong, head of the MBDA development department for the near and medium range of MBDA. Previous tests Zour and its GOS conducted in April of this year.
21 May New Zealand has signed an agreement to purchase the C Septor air defense system for the national Navy. And the UK has 22 January entered into a contract with MBDA, which began the stage of evaluating the effectiveness of the project to create a new air defense system FLAADS.
As for the European-American cooperation on the removal of the CAMM rocket to the world market, MBDA and Lockheed Martin have already carried out the first test launch of this SAM from TLU Mk 41, equipped with the ExSible Launching System basic pull-out system. According to MBDA, this was the first test to test the possibility of launching European missiles from the US TLU Mk 41 and the ExLS family. The technology of the so-called cold start was used, when the CAMM rocket was ejected from the container into the position in which the main engine should be launched during normal operation. The test was to confirm the possibility of installing CAMM SAM in retractable ship-based ExLS using the Mk 41 TLU, or in separate three-container ExLS CAMM PU.
MBDA and Lockheed Martin intend to offer customers using Mk 41, widely used around the world, the ability to load into them and launch CAMM SAM. This TLU is compatible with guided missiles of various types and purposes.
The CAMM SAM can also be launched from the developed ExLS CAMM PUs and can be used by those Navy on whose warships are not placed large 8-container TLU Mk 41.
So, the new SAM system created by MBDA with a unified modular CAMM rocket is actively moving into the world market at the development stage. In this regard, it is hardly worth discounting the fact that the choice of C-septor air defense system with the CAMM rocket command of the Brazilian Navy, which has close ties with the French defense industry, can initiate a campaign of pressure on the command of the land forces of this country. The main vector will be preventing Brazil from acquiring the Russian PIR-C1 air defense missile system and reorienting to the proposal made by MBDA and Avibras.
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