The point is that the faster the object is travelling the less a single g means as it takes more gs to change course than if you were travelling slower. Of course high speed also means that the interception problem is greater. If you try to intercept an object where it is now your interception missile will be where the missile was when your interception missile was launched but of course the target wont be there any more. To intercept you obviously have to extrapolate the targets position based on whether it is climbing or diving, turning left or right and of course its speed. Knowing how fast your missiles are you can work out where the target will be when your missiles get there. It might be 500m in front of a subsonic target, or 1.5km in front of a supersonic target. The point is that the faster the target flys the further ahead you have to aim. And of course a subsonic missile can turn much harder than a supersonic missile, but in effect because the Supersonic missile travels faster the area it could have moved to is much greater. This is an enormous problem for unguided projectiles as with CIWS like Phalanx or Goalkeeper, and is still a serious problem for guided interceptors like Sparrow or Klinok.

Do you know at what distance from the target the Sunburn starts evasive maneuvering?

Cheers,
Sunho

Matter of fact, any jet flying over mach 1 is a supersonic target. AIM-7 was designed to deal with such targets. Where you referring to a specific sub-class of supersonic targets (i.e. a Mach 2+ SSM)?

Yes. More specifically, I am looking for NATO Sea Sparrow’s test records against MQM-8 Vandal, AQM-37 and MA-31 supersonic targets.

Cheers,
Sunho

At one point they tried putting AIM-7 Sparrows and AIM-9 Sidewinders on the SH-2 Seasprite LAMPS for trials in air defense for its parent ship.Needless to say,this was never used routinely.

I posted about it on sci.military.naval six years ago and got a response from the author of ELECTRONIC GREYHOUNDS: THE SPRUANCE-CLASS DESTROYERS. It was not for air defence because the intended targets were Russian missile boats.

See below.

Newsgroups: sci.military.naval
From: Mike Potter
Date: 1999/12/25
Subject: Re: LAMPS armed with AIM-7 Sparrows

My book ELECTRONIC GREYHOUNDS: THE SPRUANCE-CLASS DESTROYERS (Naval Institute Press, 1995) covers these experiments. The intended targets were Russian missile boats. The large forward-aimed radar displaced the SH-2 Seasprite helicopter’s co-pilot. Upon missile launch the helicopter’s inherently slow speed kept it inside the rocket motor’s flaming exhaust plume, which seared through plastic fittings including the windshield and instantly filled the cockpit with opaque smoke. The test pilot, my source, “thought the aircraft had exploded and this was the end. Time got slow. After a while I thought, ‘It still seems to be flying.'”

Sunho Beck wrote:
> I found an interesting article about early LAMPS development in Norman
> Friedman’s _U.S. Destroyers_.
>
> On page 283
> ‘The manned helicopter presented far greater possibilities, however. For
> example, in 1968 attention was beginning to be paid Soviet antiship
> missiles. It was suggested that LAMPS might carry, as an alternative to
> ASW weapons, a pair of Sparrow air-to-air missiles plus radar and other
> avionics.’
> [snip]
> ‘Although the Sparrow was tested, it was not made a standard weapon.’

Cheers,
Sunho

K-CIWS is a developement of Goalkeeper, a system in service with the KDX destroyers and the LPX, that’s what he’s saying I believe. K-CIWS is aiming for the FFX program, a light-weight littoral frigate to replace all the Dong Hae, Pohang and Ulsan class ships.

Yes that’s what I meant. Those on KDX destroyers and the LPX are the original Goalkeeper made by Thales Nederland. The K-CIWS is for FFX frigates.

Regards,
Sunho

Does the Formidable design ring a bell mate?

Some posters in the link below say Daewoo DW-5500D (export name of KDX-II) design is being offered. I guess Thales provides sensors and combat system for the ship and overall project management as well.

http://www.network54.com/Forum/thread?forumid=242808&messageid=1126538982&lp=1127164172