Posted on 01/10/2011 7:45:22 PM PST by sukhoi-30mki
PHOTOs: Sizzler approximator unveiled
By Stephen Trimble on January 10, 2011
Photos of the first ATK-built ZGQM-173A multi-stage supersonic target (MSST) have now appeared on the web. The US Navy is developing MSST to simulate the flight profile of Russia's Novator 3M-54 Klub, which is also named the SS-N-27 Sizzler by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
If it's pointed at you, the Klub is a hard missile to beat. It's designed to skim over wave-tops subsonically, boost to near-hypersonic speeds in a brief climb, dive back to the surface and then weave its way toward the intended target -- usually, the hull of a ship or submarine. All that zig-zagging with speed, altitude and direction makes the missile hard to track and even harder to stop.
When the MSST finally enters service in Fiscal 2014, the US Navy will finally be able to test defenses designed to overcome the threat.
ATK also has revealed that the MSST consists of a subsonic bus derived from the CEi BQM-167 target and a M3.5 rocket adapted from the ATK Mk-114 vertical launch anti-submarine rocket (VLA). A briefing in October by an ATK executive claims the first flight of the ZGQM-173A prototype was scheduled on 17 November, but it's not clear whether that event took place.
(Photos courtesy of ATK.)
The Threat
Looks like something from the Thunderbirds.
... yes, painted to look like a decoy of some sort, no doubt ....
Waiting for the usual "AEGIS is invulnerable!" crowd. Or those that think hitting a ton of metal traveling in at mach 3+, 500 yds away will do a heckuva lot to protect you from the debris........Mebbe the bullet will not kill you, but the shotgun blast will.
Uhh....hmmm. I seriously doubt the Klub is an ASW weapon. Flight Global is usually a pretty decent source, I wonder if some sort of mention that the Klub can be sub-LAUNCHED got mis-edited.
Also hypersonic is generally described as Mach 5. Mach 3-ish is pretty ridiculously fast, but it's not near Mach 5.
Yes there is an anti-sub version with a torpedo. Sort of like an ASROC
http://img33.imageshack.us/img33/8995/f15saudi7561x1024.jpg
Eh, I should have said the 3M-54E Klub; there are a zillion confusinngly-designated versions of it. The ATK MSST discussed in the article emulates the 3M-54E, and the 3M-54E only.
The 91RE1 and 91RE2 torpedo-carrying versions are not sea-skimmers, and don’t have a terminal weave.
barrage balloons might work
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