AASM vs. PGM

That’s why it can use INS navigation only.

JDAM used INS navigation with GPS correction. INS is always on, GPS helps with accuracy.

Can somebody indicate what sort of speed does AASM achieve with it’s rocket booster? Can it be considered as equivalent to Kh25, 29, 38 series missiles with the booster?

Any weapon that is GPS guided are vunerable to be jammed these days .

Which is the reason new GPS systems employ SAASM.

Any weapon that is GPS guided are vunerable to be jammed these days . This is probably the Achilee’s heel of AASM which for some strange reasons manufacturers here in the US are un willing to address.

You mean the very same manufacturers that completely missed the “ramjet gen” missiles?

Any weapon that is GPS guided are vunerable to be jammed these days

That’s why it can use INS navigation only.

Any weapon that is GPS guided are vunerable to be jammed these days . This is probably the Achilee’s heel of AASM which for some strange reasons manufacturers here in the US are un willing to address.

Don’t forget accuracy.

The (unofficial) number I’ve seen following the deployment in Afghanistan was a CEP of <3m in pure INS/GPS mode.

This means a “standard” AASM is almost as accurate against a fixed target than an EPWII (CEP <2m). It also explain the downward revision of the IR version orders as it’s not needed in most cases.

What makes AASM unique is its low level release – rocket enabled pop up capability and off flightpath / boresite attack capability. Don’t see anything similar with PGM 500 which is more like on of those Israeli dumb to smart and range extension kits.

Absolutely agree. In the end, AASM (specially with tri seeker incoming according to Air&Cosmos) main strength is its versatility. Main weak point being price. All n all, far from a “niche ” weapon as advertised by a well reknown journalist on some places :dev2:. It definitely has its flaws/limitations/compromises (whatever one call it), but also its awesome capabilities.
As usual, everything depending on intended use and mission profile.

What makes AASM unique is its low level release – rocket enabled pop up capability and off flightpath / boresite attack capability. Don’t see anything similar with PGM 500 which is more like on of those Israeli dumb to smart and range extension kits.

The recent discussion about the PGM/Hakim family of, er, PGMs in relation to a possible second-hand sale of the UAE’s M2000-9 fleet has made me wonder why it was not developed further or exported to more customers. According to the info I could find, Hakim is very similar in concept to the more recent (and highly acclaimed) AASM. Both are kits which use dumb bombs as warheads and are thus available in several sizes, both have multiple guidance options and both seem to have rocket motors to extend range*.

There are a few notable differences though: AASM has INS/GPS guidance while the Hakim can be fitted with laser (never actually seen the laser variant, though!) or man-in-the-loop TV seekers. Similar options are being mooted for the AASM however and the folding tail is also a useful feature since it makes the weapon compact enough to be carried on MERs, unlike the bulky PGMs.

So why was the Hakim not marketed more aggressively and upgraded with GPS/INS guidance (which should be very straight-forward) years ago? It is only quite recently that MBDA (which inherited the originally British PGM-family) acquired an interest in Sagem’s AASM via a cooperative project. What if the weapon had been integrated on the Typhoon to steal some of Rafale’s multirole-thunder? Or, less confrontationally, given the close Anglo-French cooperation in the air-launched weapons field that was brought about by the creation of MBDA, why fund AASM at all rather than putting Hakim on Rafale?

*like the AGM-123 & -130, although these missiles were not developed based on a common modular philosophy, so I’m ignoring them here.

Aouch VERY HOT topic (see discussions on Rafale thread :eek:)
Just a little precision (hope you appreciate the joke :rolleyes:) AASM exist in three versions (in service, others being developed) : GPS/INS ; GPS/INS/laser ; GPS/INS/IR (terminal ir image recognition guidance).

I didn’t even know there was speculation that the hakim missiles were intended for Iraq… strange as the Iraqis were (in the 1980s) interested in licence producing the AS-30L and had large number of X-29s… but I suppose around that time TPTB were “upselling” Iraq as some sort of fourth reich wannabe or something, for political ends so they saw bogeymen everywhere…

[Thread necromancy inspired by yet more discussion of the possible sale of the M2K-9s]

Perhaps the interesting history of the weapon & the companies which designed & made it may have something to do with it.

http://www.iraqwatch.org/government/UK/Scott%20Report/e5.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Signal_and_Control