Producer: Popular Science China
Author: Lan Shunzheng
Planning: Song Yajuan Tu Ziyi
Producer: Guangming Network Science Popularization Division
Recently, the British Navy's new aircraft carrier battle group completed the sea test firing of the "Martle" light multi-purpose missile with the AW159 helicopter during the exercise operation in the Pacific.
Small "all-rounder"
The Europa Yan missile is a lightweight, multi-purpose missile system developed for the UK by Thales Air Defence and can be launched from a variety of tactical platforms, including fixed-wing or rotary-wing drones and a variety of ground and surface platforms. The "Europhragm" is a generalist, which can carry out surface-to-air, air-to-ground and surface-to-ground strike missions, including wheeled vehicles or tracked vehicles, towed artillery or various stationary ground targets; surface targets such as various small ships and fast coastal attack boats, as well as various air threats represented by light aircraft and helicopters.
A Single Wildcat helicopter can carry up to 20 Europa Yan missiles
The "Europa Yan" missile is small in size and light in weight, with a missile length of 1.3 meters, a bullet diameter of 76 mm, a wingspan of 260 haum meters, and a maximum weight of 13 kg, which can be easily carried by individual soldiers, far smaller than the precision-guided missiles used by infantry. It is understood that a Wildcat attack gunship in the United Kingdom can carry up to 20 "Europa Swallow" missiles, and because of its light weight, it can be manually mounted on the "Wildcat" without special handling equipment. At the same time, in order to have a better storage environment, the missile is also packaged in a separate sealed barrel, and its maximum shelf life is up to 15 years, which greatly reduces the huge cost of daily maintenance of the missile. The Europatrade has no recoil at launch, the slender projectile body can be rapidly accelerated to Mach 1.5, the maximum range can reach 8 km, and its warhead consists of a multifunctional concentrated charge and a prefabricated fragmented warhead, which can choose three different working modes according to the target: trigger, air bomb or delay.
In terms of guidance, the Europhragm uses semi-active laser beam guidance, observers on the helicopter before launch use a stable EO camera and automatic target tracker (ATT) to lock the laser pointer to the target, the laser pointer emits a low-power beam with code, and the two receivers installed at the tail of the missile after launch will detect the laser energy and remain locked until the target is concentrated.
Battleship's "melee bodyguard"
At present, how to prevent small boats from using the "sea bee swarm" tactic to harass warships is one of the key research projects of the navies of various countries. Helicopters, on the other hand, have the advantages of speed, maneuverability, and open field of view, and are able to engage the enemy at a safer distance from the ship. Each "Wildcat" helicopter can be mounted with 20 "European Swallow" missiles, which can attack fixed targets and moving targets at sea, especially after the replacement of the infrared seeker, the "European Swallow" will have the ability to launch after firing, when the cluster target is found, the helicopter can launch all 20 "European Swallow" missiles at the same time, so as to achieve the greatest lethal effect, so the shipboard "European Swallow" as another layer of close defense is very meaningful.
The threat of the dinghy "swarm" to modern warships cannot be ignored
According to the report, the AW159 Wildcat helicopter of the 815 squadron of the Naval Aviation Corps (HMS Defender) launched the Europatra missile at the sea inflatable target ship known as the "Big Red Tomato". 0.3 seconds after the missile separated from the Wildcat Mk2 helicopter, it accelerated to Mach 1.5 and flew towards the target. The British Navy said that the aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, the frigate "Kent", the frigate "Richmond" and the Type 45 destroyer "Diamond" can all carry "Wildcat" helicopters, which can add a layer of protection around the British Navy's aircraft carrier battle group. It is reported that in the future, in addition to replacing the British Army and Marine Corps's "Starlight" short-range individual air defense missiles, the future "Euro-Yan" missile will also replace the European Missile Company's FASGW(H)/ANL anti-ship missiles, including "Sea Venom" and AS15TT anti-tank missiles.
A small dictionary of military affairs
"Sea swarm" tactics: refers to the concentrated use of super mobile ability, and has a light sea power with strike firepower, in the form of a surprise attack, quickly concentrate fire from multiple directions to attack the enemy, and then quickly withdraw from the battlefield.
Source: Popular Science China - Frontiers of Military Science and Technology