MBDA unveils prop-driven loitering missile

“cost benefits aside” – er, well, I don’t think you can really exclude them.

With this system you don’t need a runway. Predators – and even more, Reapers – are expensive, so you’re not going to have many. Operate them continuously, loitering for targets of opportunity, & you fall foul of their high accident rate: one of the costs of UAVs which is often ignored. This thing looks slow, & will take a while to get on station, but it won’t take anywhere near as long as a Reaper coming from a runway a lot further away.

Maybe but I am assuming that this is a one way craft, ie once its launched thats it, at least with a Reaper if it does not find a target it can come home. I would also be intrigued to know how they intend on targetting this thing, if it has its own sensor package it cant be abything special becouse of cost reasons, if it needs a seperate platform then you may as well just have SDB armed Reapers and be done with it. However I would agree this is an interesting concept, if a cheap enough truck portable long endurance ramp launched UAV could be provided which could move with the launch vehicles I certainly think it could have alot of potential. Something like Phoenix for instance or in more secured and prepared areas Watchkeeper.

…. But cost benefits aside, why not use a UCAV like the RQ-1 Predator armed with AGM-114s instead?

“cost benefits aside” – er, well, I don’t think you can really exclude them.

With this system you don’t need a runway. Predators – and even more, Reapers – are expensive, so you’re not going to have many. Operate them continuously, loitering for targets of opportunity, & you fall foul of their high accident rate: one of the costs of UAVs which is often ignored. This thing looks slow, & will take a while to get on station, but it won’t take anywhere near as long as a Reaper coming from a runway a lot further away.

I strikes me that this missile sounds like a good enough idea, though I always wondered why Britain never thought about putting something like Sea Eagle or Harpoon in a land based launcher. It would have given the Army a precision strike capability, out to around 150-200km, which would be a very useful ability! The real problem of course with this missile is that, being prop driven, it may have long endurance, but it will take a long time to reach the target…

Becouse that sort of talk upsets the RAF.;)

Hmm, for the firebases I would just increase their provision of 81mm mortars, heavy machineguns, and probably claymores. These would be the most effective in most cases for the last ditch. For hitting the Taliban further out, I would actually want to speed up the Nimrod MRA-4 procurement, since it is supposedly able to carry 16 500lb JDAMs internally, and should be able to carry four multiple ejector racks on the wings, each with six 500lb JDAMs. This would, theoretically, give it the ability to carry as many as 40 JDAMs (I’m not sure about other 500lb types, since LGBs are longer, due to the seeker head), which would come in very handy in Afghanistan…

I strikes me that this missile sounds like a good enough idea, though I always wondered why Britain never thought about putting something like Sea Eagle or Harpoon in a land based launcher. It would have given the Army a precision strike capability, out to around 150-200km, which would be a very useful ability! The real problem of course with this missile is that, being prop driven, it may have long endurance, but it will take a long time to reach the target…

If it really is capable of loitering for ten hours, it would be useful for neutralizing pop-up targets or threats to friendly ground forces. But cost benefits aside, why not use a UCAV like the RQ-1 Predator armed with AGM-114s instead?

Or the new Reaper with SDB, that was my thought, and you get a better sensor package and it would probably work out cheaper over time as your not destroying your engine and sensors when you hit the target. I dont think threat of interception is a problem where this thing would be used in the Ghan or the Sandbox.

Looks like an interesting and effective design for providing a loitering capability over a theater of operations. I’d assume it wouldn’t be very expensive to operate since it’s propeller-driven.

Only limitations I would see is that it would be easier to intercept than most other munitions while loitering over the battlefield. Unless it has a third-state rocket motor for use when engaging a selected target, it would not be very effective against moving targets (if it’s even capable of targeting them in the first place).

If it really is capable of loitering for ten hours, it would be useful for neutralizing pop-up targets or threats to friendly ground forces. But cost benefits aside, why not use a UCAV like the RQ-1 Predator armed with AGM-114s instead?

It looks like the trucks in the picture can carry twelve rounds. I wonder how usefull a system like this would be in siege type situation like the Brits have been finding themselves in in the ghan would be?

Any mention of the size and weight of this missile?

—–JT—–

More than 150 kilometres range, more than 10 hours endurance, low cost solution designed by Team Complex Weapons, main gate probably 2011. 🙂

Any more information on it?