This recently came up. The Army is becoming more articulate with what it wants to buy/use and how it wants to do so. After the constant issuance and withdrawal of RFIs for almost everything, this is rather heartening to see. I do hope they keep building tech competency and better plan for the equipment they need.
The carrier vehicle is stated to be a 4x4 in-service vehicle with 2.5 ton payload capacity. The one that fits the bill is this : Tata Defence Load Carrier LPTA 713.
The missile is supposed to have 25 km range, accuracy of 2m CEP, with on-board navigation and terminal guidance with a passive IR seeker. The one that comes to my mind is this : Stand-off Anti-Tank(SANT) missile.
Speculated to have a range around 20 kms with a terminal stage active seeker(W-band), meant to be launched from airborne platforms.(helos, drones, CAS aircraft). It was flight tested from a Mi-35 Hind.
It would need to be altered a bit for the Army's needs but its no big deal. Range would need to be increased from 20 to 25 kms, active seeker to be replaced by a passive one(just use the one from NAG/MPATGM) and there you have what you need, more or less.
The weapon load out is just confusing. They want one or two pods to be carried, each firing 24 missiles. So that's 24 to 48 missiles on each truck. The payload capacity of the truck is 2.5 tons. Assuming a truck is carrying 48 missiles simple division gives you 52.08 kg/missile. The "pods", hydraulics, support systems etc. will have some weight of its own. So each missile will have to be less than or ~50 kg each. We don't know the weight of the SANT as it was never published but it would be reasonable to assume that this is the biggest hurdle of this project would be the weight. DRDO has a long and unpleasant history of making things over-weight.
But let's assume they get it done. The possibilities are immense. The missile could be hand loaded if needed, I mean this is the Artillery Regiment we are talking about, they deal with heavy artillery rounds everyday.
What are your thoughts ? @Parthu @randomradio @BlackOpsIndia @vstol Jockey @Falcon @Ashwin
The carrier vehicle is stated to be a 4x4 in-service vehicle with 2.5 ton payload capacity. The one that fits the bill is this : Tata Defence Load Carrier LPTA 713.
The missile is supposed to have 25 km range, accuracy of 2m CEP, with on-board navigation and terminal guidance with a passive IR seeker. The one that comes to my mind is this : Stand-off Anti-Tank(SANT) missile.
Speculated to have a range around 20 kms with a terminal stage active seeker(W-band), meant to be launched from airborne platforms.(helos, drones, CAS aircraft). It was flight tested from a Mi-35 Hind.
It would need to be altered a bit for the Army's needs but its no big deal. Range would need to be increased from 20 to 25 kms, active seeker to be replaced by a passive one(just use the one from NAG/MPATGM) and there you have what you need, more or less.
The weapon load out is just confusing. They want one or two pods to be carried, each firing 24 missiles. So that's 24 to 48 missiles on each truck. The payload capacity of the truck is 2.5 tons. Assuming a truck is carrying 48 missiles simple division gives you 52.08 kg/missile. The "pods", hydraulics, support systems etc. will have some weight of its own. So each missile will have to be less than or ~50 kg each. We don't know the weight of the SANT as it was never published but it would be reasonable to assume that this is the biggest hurdle of this project would be the weight. DRDO has a long and unpleasant history of making things over-weight.
But let's assume they get it done. The possibilities are immense. The missile could be hand loaded if needed, I mean this is the Artillery Regiment we are talking about, they deal with heavy artillery rounds everyday.
What are your thoughts ? @Parthu @randomradio @BlackOpsIndia @vstol Jockey @Falcon @Ashwin
