Date Posted: 12-Feb-2004

JANE’S MISSILES AND ROCKETS – MARCH 01, 2004

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Hermes – the 40km-range tank killer
Piotr Butowski

Konstruktorskoye Byuro Priborostroyeniya (KBP) instrument design bureau of Tula, Russia, has completed tests of its new Hermes long-range anti-tank guided missile, which is now ready for series production, writes Piotr Butowski. It is being offered in variants with maximum ranges of 15km, 40km or 100km.

KBP, which is headed by Arkadiy Shipunow, first announced the Hermes system in early 1999. In summer 2003, the bureau reported that Hermes missiles would be used on the Ka-52 attack helicopter instead of the Vikhr missile system. It has now released the first data of the system, plus illustrations of the hardware.

The requirements for the Hermes system were:

a range exceeding that of the weapons defending a typical target;
the ability to penetrate 1,000mm of armour; and
round-the-clock and all-weather operation ability.
The missile guidance system is dual-mode. In the initial phase of flight, the missile is controlled by inertial navigation system (for version with range 15km) or by radio commands (for versions with range 40km and 100km).
A semi-active laser seeker is used for terminal homing in all versions. Laser designation of the target may be carried out by the launch vehicle, or by an external illuminator located near the target by ground forces, or aboard a reconnaissance helicopter or unmanned air vehicle. The fire unit has two channels, which allow the simultaneous launch and guidance of two missiles.

Two alternative patterns of terminal-homing head are already under test – a passive infrared seeker and active radar seeker. These will allow the creation of fire-and-forget variants, up to 12 of which could be launched in a single salvo.

The missile’s high-explosive/fragmentation warhead has an explosive power equivalent to 15kg of TNT.

There are several versions of Hermes system; these have different ranges and are based on various platforms. Tests have already begun of a missile with a more powerful booster. This would have a range of 100km.

The ground-based system consists of a multi-round missile launcher installed on a cross-country vehicle. The vehicle also has a radar to track the missile in flight, and radio command transmitter to adjust the flight path. A separate command-surveillance vehicle has a retractable mast that carries electro-optical sensors used to search for, identify, track and designate the target. When shooting from positions which do not offer a direct line of sight, additional reconnaissance and target designation sensors are needed.

This version of Hermes has a maximum range of 40km or more, rather than the 3-8km of a typical anti-tank missile, so can be regarded as a tactical missile rather than a pure anti-tank weapon. It can also be used against stationary targets such a bunkers, small ships of 100-ton displacement, and slow- and low-flying air targets such as helicopters and unmanned air vehicles.

For coastal defence, the system can be vehicle-mounted, or deployed as a static installation.

Hermes-A (Aviatsionnyi = airborne) is intended to replace the Vikhr missile system for combat helicopters, which was only made in small numbers. It is currently being tested on the Kamov Ka-52, the only pattern of helicopter to have been armed with the system. The range of Hermes-A is 15-18km, which is well beyond that of typical anti-aircraft threats to which a helicopters is likely to face over the battlefield. The helicopter-mounted aiming system includes a millimetre radar, plus an electro-optical turret with thermal-imaging and television cameras, and a two-channel laser target designator combined with automatic target-tracking device.

Hermes-K (Korabelnyi = shipborne) is for use aboard small naval vessels. The version for use on patrol craft is designed for use against sea targets at ranges of up to 15km and relies on homing guidance. A longer-range version is available for use on landing craft and larger warships.

KBP Hermes missile specification Maximum range 15km, 40km or 100km
Mid-course guidance Inertial (short-range version) or radio command (long-range versions)
Terminal homing Semi-active laser
Maximum speed 1,000m/s
Mid-course speed for 40km range missile500m/s
Missile weight (with launch container)110kg
Warhead weight 28kg
Armour penetration capability Up to 1,000 mm behind explosive reactive armour
Missile calibre 130mm
Booster calibre, standard 170mm
Booster calibre, extended range 210mm
Missile length (with launch container) 3,500mm

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Although, the radome could provide significant lift at large angles of attack. At any rate, the AWACS isn’t going to be swerving like a Maserati, more like a Greyhound bus.

The AC-130 is strictly a weapons platform, so vibration doesn’t matter a whole lot. The AWACS on the other hand has a lot of sensitive equipment and electronics, so you don’t want vibration, no matter how many anechoic tiles you put in.

Thank you matt, cheers to you too.

In regards to the excess weight of the radome; just recall the Indian indigenous AWACS image that some fellows posted a few weeks back (sorry, I forget its name). The supporting frame broke, and the plane crashed. I think we’re talking about some serious weight here, not to mention the effects of the very placement of an un-aerodynamic radome on the top of the fuselage would have on maneuverability.

They probably use some variant of a FOTD- fiber optic towed decoy.

It doesn’t matter how the UAV flies as long as it decoys the missile and takes the hit.

Originally posted by plawolf
not that simple, the UAV will have to fly close to the a/c its protecting or else the missile might ignore it completely; it cant fly too close or it might do the job of the enemy missile instead. and do remeber that itself and the AWACS will be doing highly unpredicatble and fast manuvers to try to throw off the incoming missile at this time. maned a/c would be hard pressed to do all that, and i strongely doubt that current UAV guidence tech is up for the job.

and besides, UAVs with endurance that can match AWACS’ have got to be the size of preditors, which costs millions apiece. add the cost of the new nav computers and sensors needed to do the job of imitating the AWACS intelegently and safely, and the bill might easily run into tens of millions. might be cheaper to just assign a fighter or two to each AWACS and have them go out and try to shoot down any incoming missiles.

Most of the UAVs can be controlled manually, so put an operator on the awacs and let him control it. I would be surprised if the uavs did not have some sort of backup manual control. No real fancy maneuvering required. As for the price, well, it’s still cheaper than losing an awacs and all its operators (who cost millions to train).