Page 109 - Australian Defence Magazine September 2018

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Air 6500 Joint Battle Management and In- tegrated Air and Missile Defence program. This includes investigating the poten- tial integration of the CEA cueing and tactical radars to replace NASAMS’ MPQ-64F1 Raytheon Sentinel high resolution, three-dimensional surveil- lance radar. Both options include the potential integration into NASAMS of
ADF trucks and Hawkei.
Option 1 involves a fire distribution
centre in a truck-mounted shelter, the Sentinel radar, and a standard six-missile canister launcher carried on the tray of medium-weight trucks equipped with integrated load-handling systems. Be- fore firing the canister must be placed on the ground, powered up and connected to the fire distribution centre.
“The heart and brains of the system is the fire distribution centre; the launcher’s main job is to position missiles in a partic- ular direction and elevation spot to allow them to fire,” COL Mallett explained.
Trade offs
Within the first RMA work package, particular focus was placed on assessing the capability benefits, tradeoffs, risk and limitation of a potential counter- rocket, artillery and mortar (C-RAM) interceptor, given that the large and ex- pensive AMRAAM is not optimised to combat small, non-manoeuvring targets.
“We’re paying attention to a US pro- gram being competed by Sky Hunter (a Raytheon version of the Tamir intercep- tor missile used in Israel’s Iron Dome system), the Raytheon LCAS (Low Cost Active Seeker) missile, and Lock- heed Martin’s Miniature Hit-to-Kill (MHTK) missile,” COL Mallett said.
“These are smaller and less capable mis- siles but they could cost-effectively fill a NASAMS gap at the smaller end of the threat catalogue. So we’re interested in ca- pability, cost, and their suitability for po- tential future integration to the system.”
The work package also investigated the recent addition of an electro-optical infrared (EOR) sensor that enables NA- SAMS to engage targets without radiat- ing as well as providing visual raid and kill assessments for operators.
This has resulted in a proposal by Ray- theon Australia to utilise the same for- ward-looking infrared (FLIR) ball that fits under the chin of the RAN’s MH- 60R multi-mission helicopters to create a more capable, cheaper mast-mounted
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