US Army LOSAT ATGM Units v.1.0 August 3, 2003 Roger Houston, Jim Milne, & Ravi Rikhye The LOSAT Missile The Line-Of-Sight Anti-Tank missile is a new ATGM produced by Lockheed Martin designed to defeat any existing or foreseeable armor. It will be used by deploying light forces, giving them a capability to protect themselves till heavy armor arrives, or even in heavy armor’s absence. Its characteristics are: • •
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Type o Kinetic Energy Long Rod Penetrator, Direct fire Dimensions o 174 pounds weight o 6.4 inch diameter o 114 inch length [9 ½ feet] Performance o Range: more than 4000 meters o Speed: 5000 feet per second o Acceleration: reaches top speed within 4 seconds Warhead o Energy delivered on target: 40 Megajoule [compare to M-1 tank’s M829 sabot round which delivers 7-10 MJ] Launcher o M-1114 Heavy Humvee chassis [armored Humvee] o Protects against 7.62mm AP round, 12-lb AT mines, and 155mm round airburst o Four rounds in two packs o 2-man crew o Can operate autonomously or networked with other systems o Reloads carried in trailer towed by separate Humvee Fire Control System o Acquires and auto-tracks up to 3 targets simultaneously o After launch consent, FCS automatically initializes and sequentially guides missiles to target, sending timed updates to missiles o Second-generation FLIR/video acquisition sensor o CO2 laser: determines range to the target and provides updates to the missile. “In its simplest sense, the fire unit transmits target location information through a series of laser pulses. The pulses are received through the aft looking receiver at the rear [of the missile”] [Reference: AUSA article, below] o All-weather, night/day, all cloud/haze conditions Program Status o Approximately 50 developmental firings have taken place o Engineering Development Flight 1 [EDF-1] fired on June 11, 2003 o Number of EDFs planned: Unknown o Production Qualification Testing: follows EDFs, 10 months, 18 rounds fired o Low Rate Initial Production 1 decision: during Fiscal Year 2004 Development Challenge o Said to be not the missile, but the tracking/guidance system