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Reply To: Sea Flash vs Sea Sparrow

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Doug97
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The follow-on to the Skyflash is the Improved Skyflash, the principal design changes were a series of upgrades to the SARH seeker and a Kinematic Upgrade program, which saw aerodynamic changes to reduce airframe drag and changes to the control system.

The seeker employed by the Active Skyflash is a Thompson-CSF design, a pulse Doppler high PRF (Pulse Repetition Frequency) active radar seeker with a slotted flat plate planar array antenna. The antenna is gimballed to provide a 55 degree off boresight limit, and is rate stabilised and directly driven by geared motors. In this respect it is similar to the AMRAAM seeker.

Where the seeker differs fundamentally from AMRAAM is in the use of an injection locked solid state transmitter, this approach was initially sought by AMRAAM designers but had to be rejected due reliability problems in the then immature high power microwave transistors. The state of the art has progressed since, and the Skyflash seeker exploits the newer and more power efficient technology, which avoids the need for a high voltage power supply, with its associated penalty in weight, volume and power drain. The transmitter is fed from a high purity microwave source, the reference signal from which is amplified by the transmitter chain.

More here: http://www.ausairpower.net/skyflash-slammer.html