Page 25 - Australian Defence Magazine April 2023

APRIL 2023 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
DEFENCE BUSINESS AVALON 2023 25
Tamir, with a range of around 70 kilometres, is the pri- mary effector for Israel’s Iron Dome air defence system first fielded in 2011, with a claimed 90 per cent success rate against rockets fired towards Israeli population centres.
Under project Land 19, Australia is acquiring the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), a short to medium range air defence system able to
use AIM-120 AMRAAM or AIM-9X missiles
Further, Tamir has an extensive operational record with more than 2000 successful interceptions of rockets fired mostly from Gaza.
The missile uses an electro-optical guidance system and is launched from a transportable launcher holding 20 missiles.
Zlotnik said
Tamir’s open architecture design meant it could be readily integrated into NASAMS, which for the ADF, uses an Australian CEA radar.
Israel has sold Iron Dome and Tamir interceptors to a number of countries in- cluding the US which purchased a pair of systems for trials. Others have expressed interest, among them Singapore, Saudi Arabia and South Korea.
Should Australia acquire Tamir, the mis- siles might be able to be manufactured lo- cally, with none of the export restrictions of USA-made missiles.
The ADF is acquiring Rafael’s Spike an- missile, with a joint venture of Rafael and
with ranges out to around 50 kilometres. Both missiles are in service with the RAAF but neither is cheap, around US$1 million per
AMRAAM and US$400,00 per AIM-9X. According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, a Tamir costs US$100,000, though US Army
documents say US$180,000.
Rafael director of business development
and marketing Gershon Zlotnik said the com- pany would offer Tamir to the ADF for NA- SAMS as a short to medium range effector.
“EVERY SHOW HAS A STAR AND AT AVALON THE STANDOUT STATIC DISPLAY FEATURED THE STRIX MULTIMISSION UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM”
A significant advantage, he told ADM at
the Avalon Airshow, is lower cost, around a tenth of the price of missiles such as AMRAAM.
Tamir is also around five per cent of the price of a single Patriot missile, although Patriot has a longer range and ca- pability against ballistic missiles.
ti-tank guided
Newcastle company Varley planning local production. ■
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ADM writers and staff Max Blenkin, Roya Ghodsi, Julian Kerr, Ewen Levick and Nigel Pittaway contributed to this article.
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