Some figures:

-radar horizon for the 92N6 GRAVE STONE radar used in the S-400 mounted on the 38 meter mast assembly is 27,000 feet at a range of 400 kilometers.

-radar horizon for the radar at ground level when they recaptured the missile during the 400 kilometer test firing was 583 kilometers with the missile recaptured at 20,000 meters altitude. It could have guided to a target as low as 9500 meters before the target was below the radar horizon (figuring a max range of 400 kilometers).

And that’s different than the Russian one how? And it’s not like control surfaces are completely useless until you hit 30,000 feet and then they start working again. Standard’s always kept the strakes to improve lift at high altitude.

It’s not different from the Russian one at all. They both have the same problem.

How so? It’s the Block IV that they can’t use the full range of as you have a line of sight issue with SAR homing (It would have been the limit with Typhon LR back in the day as well). What questions would it raise that any other SAR homing missile doesn’t have to deal with? (Including the Russian ones.)

You won’t have an LOS issue for every target, only those at lower altitudes. Which you won’t be able to see to fire at in the first place anyway, or track to provide midcourse update to your missile. So, if you can see the target at 400 km to fire at it, and still see it at range to provide midcourse updates, what it says about AEGIS is that the SARH guidance function is incapable of operating over those ranges. All you have to do is be able to defeat the active seeker, which is less complicated than dealing with a combined guidance system. Not necessarily easy, just less complicated.

That’s the problem, your control surfaces aren’t going to do much of anything at those altitudes. Hence the 1985 48N6 test I was talking about earlier. The whole point is that at those kinds of ranges you are giving your target a larger window to maneuver. Better to rely on off-board targeting to ensure a greater pK. That was the second issue Almaz dealt with after proving the missile could go 400 km, repackaging the required guidance systems, having the range and resolving power to be worth a damn at 400 km, into a package no larger than that used with the S-300PS. Otherwise it would’ve just been a simple physics exercise!

Well THAT would be a bit of a disappointment. Fired like that even RIM-67C (newest of the Terrier line- Standard SM-2ER) had a 168km altitude and 550km ballistic range and RIM-67D had an even better upper stage motor than the C. Ah well. It also happens to be how they’re going to get a ton of range out of SM-6 (fly the profile you described and then use the active seeker to finish up).

The key phrase there is “upper stage motor”. The 48N6 is a single stage missile and weighs about 500 kg more than the Standard. The difference is that the SAGG guidance of the 48N6 will give it greater accuracy at range than the active seeker of Standard. Flying out that far means that your target has a lot of room to maneuver and get outside the range of your seeker. Using SAGG gives you the ability to recapture and then redirect the missile.

48N6DM speed ranges from 2.1 km/s to 2.5 km/s (This data vary on different sources) and then it would be feasible this kind of shot.
On the other hand official info about june-2007 tests talk about an interception of a ballistic target at 45 km altitude.

The intercept altitude of 45 km against a ballistic target is fine, it’s point and shoot against a non-maneuvering ballistic target anyway. It then becomes all about the accuracy of the guidance system. As for missile velocity, 2100 meters per second is what I’ve seen for the 48N6/48N6E, with the same for the 48N6DM.

I didn’t know that they could win the Premier League and declare themselves the champions of England…expecially after failing to reach the finals for the FA Cup and the Football League Cup. I should stick to American football, it’s less complicated I guess :diablo:

If Man U was the best team in England, wouldn’t they have beaten Portsmouth…?

😀

Can anyone ID the chase plane in sferrin’s pic?

F-16. The main gear gives it away. Dunno about calling it a “chase” plane for a Blackbird, though, maybe “observer” is more accurate, as in “it observed the SR-71 light the ‘burners and blast out of the area” 😀