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'FrankenSAM' Systems Are Now Shooting Down Drones in Ukraine

4 points by clouddrover 3y ago

PaulHoule 3y ago
Very high performance AA systems like Patriot and S-300 use a "track with missile" architecture that uses a transmitter on the launcher and a receiver on the missile that sends back a broadband signal which is processed by the base station which knows exactly what it transmitted a certain time ago. That kind of system performs well against fast moving high altitude targets but it can struggle against targets close to the horizon. It's also crazy expensive, can have the downlink jammed, and has to keep the radar on for the whole engagement which makes the base station easy to target. Many recent western systems combine a simple radar with a missile that can guide itself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS usually a missile derived from missiles used on aircraft that are already mass produced. These are cheap and have the big advantage that they can turn the radar off for some of the engagement. Typically they send anticipated GPS coordinates of the target to the missile and the missile locks on with its own sensors (radar or IR) to complete the engagement. In principle you can turn the radar off to make it hard to find although if you can't send updated coordinates before the missile locks on it will not perform that well. The thing that this is a simple and flexible system that doesn't have the close coupling between the radar and the missile, really any system capable of sending GPS coordinates can guide the missile so a system like that could be supported by a radar in a F-35, AWACS or some other platform. Similarly, it is not so hard to get GPS coordinates from a Soviet era radar so it should not be hard at all to use one with modern western missiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM such a missile won't perform as well from the ground as it does launched from a plane but in practice that kind of system is frightfully accurate and does great against cruise missiles and similar targets that fly close to the ground. They're cheap too and any weapon you can have and afford is better than one you can't.

4 points by clouddrover 3y ago

Very high performance AA systems like Patriot and S-300 use a "track with missile" architecture that uses a transmitter on the launcher and a receiver on the missile that sends back a broadband signal which is processed by the base station which knows exactly what it transmitted a certain time ago. That kind of system performs well against fast moving high altitude targets but it can struggle against targets close to the horizon. It's also crazy expensive, can have the downlink jammed, and has to keep the radar on for the whole engagement which makes the base station easy to target. Many recent western systems combine a simple radar with a missile that can guide itself https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASAMS usually a missile derived from missiles used on aircraft that are already mass produced. These are cheap and have the big advantage that they can turn the radar off for some of the engagement. Typically they send anticipated GPS coordinates of the target to the missile and the missile locks on with its own sensors (radar or IR) to complete the engagement. In principle you can turn the radar off to make it hard to find although if you can't send updated coordinates before the missile locks on it will not perform that well. The thing that this is a simple and flexible system that doesn't have the close coupling between the radar and the missile, really any system capable of sending GPS coordinates can guide the missile so a system like that could be supported by a radar in a F-35, AWACS or some other platform. Similarly, it is not so hard to get GPS coordinates from a Soviet era radar so it should not be hard at all to use one with modern western missiles https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-120_AMRAAM such a missile won't perform as well from the ground as it does launched from a plane but in practice that kind of system is frightfully accurate and does great against cruise missiles and similar targets that fly close to the ground. They're cheap too and any weapon you can have and afford is better than one you can't.