Naval Countermeasures:Armada
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Naval Countermeasures
Sagem’s New Generation Dagaie System family of modular trainable launchers include a low-radar cross section unit employing Lacroix’s Seaclad new-generation family of 62 and 150 mm decoys. The French Navy’s new Horizon destroyers and Fremm multirole frigates (also delivered to Morocco) carry a 12-barrel configuration with conventional shield launcher. (Armada/Luca Peruzzi)
types include the Mk 36 associated with 130 mm Super Rapid Blooming Offboard Chaff/Nato Sea Gnat munitions, and Terma’s Soft-kill Weapon System (SKWS). Recently rebranded C-Guard and designed to protect naval platforms against coordinated multithreat/multi-directional attacks by missiles and torpedoes, and relying on combat proven 130 mm Nato decoys together with a proven mechanical launcher design without moving parts, it is in service in more than 150 systems worldwide. The C-Guard is offered in DL-6T guise with six tubes or DL-12T twelve-tube configuration. Their multi-angular pair sets provides advanced decision-making for the operator and supports distraction and seduction mode in order to obtain the best defence against multi-directional attacks by missiles. The system’s algorithm uses a classified customer-owned database which can be modified to accommodate new threats and tactics that may appear in the future. In combination with the right decoys, the algorithm ensures that decoys are placed to counter any threat including the newest missiles with small range gates. In the same fixed launcher installation sector, French Lacroix defence group is
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marketing the Sylena system, capable of engaging both air and underwater threats, with the full range of the same company’s Seaclad family of advanced countermeasures, including Sealem Corner Reflector RF and Salir Morphologic IR decoys, together with anti-wake and DCNS Canto electro-acoustic anti-torpedo ammunitions and the Seamosc electro-optic-laser screening/masking decoys. Easy to integrate according to its manufacturer, lightweight and reduced footprint capabilities, together with claimed very low life cycle costs, the Sylena decoy launcher family is offered in four different versions: Sylena LW or lightweight model capable to deploy anti RF/IR missiles decoys (up to 10 stations), the baseline Sylena Mk 1 and Mk2, which differs for the second being also capable to deploy electro-acoustic torpedo countermeasures in addition to anti RF/IR missiles decoys (up to 16 stations + 3 anti-torpedo decoy stations), and the Sylena Mk2. The Sylena LW is fully operational and integrated with Thales EW sensors in the DCNS Polaris combat system on board the Gowind patrol vessel L’Adroit in service with French Navy and has been contracted in the baseline version for the Al-Ofouq-class patrol vessels under construction and fitting-out by Singapore’s ST Marine for Royal Omani Navy.
In addition to the latest generation family of decoys supplied to the Israeli Navy (including both IR and RF programmable munitions), Rafael is promoting its Integrated Decoy System (IDS), which features three lines of defence with real-time optimised decoy deployment, a fixed or trainable launching system, and a computerised decoy controller. (Armada/Luca Peruzzi)
Recently renamed C-Guard, Terma’s Soft-kill Weapon System is designed to protect naval platforms against coordinated multithreat/multi-directional attacks by missiles and torpedoes, relying on combat proven 130 mm Nato decoys together with a proven mechanical launcher design featuring no moving parts. ( Terma) I RADAR-GUIDED MISSILE THREAT
In the three decades since the 1980s, when the Falklands War in the South Atlantic and the Tanker War in the Arabian Gulf showed the importance of effective soft-kill defence, the technology and techniques applied to antiship missiles has developed rapidly amongst leading European, Russian and Chinese producers towards terminal guidance suites that are more discriminative and less susceptible to electronic countermeasures. Although most anti-ship missiles seekers have been developed to operate in J-band for increased robustness and all-weather tolerance, the Ka-band millimetre-wave (mmW) radar guidance of a new generation of Chinese anti-ship missiles has become increasingly common in the Arabian Gulf region. Moreover, the asymmetric threats in the littoral warfare arena have pushed industries and navies to require and develop defence capabilities also against EO/IR and laser guided surface-to-surface missiles. With the emergence of more advanced threats, navies have been re-examining their strategies against RF missiles, as the more traditional countermeasures will be increasingly ineffective against these latest missiles. However, active RF decoys have only entered service with a handful of navies.