Authors: Wu Boheng, Xu Guanhua, Cui Songzhi
As a key military infrastructure for national security and regional stability, air defense missile systems play a pivotal role in the global strategic defense architecture. It not only plays a vital role in intercepting air threats and maintaining airspace security, but also has significant strategic significance in enhancing joint combat capabilities and demonstrating the military and technological strength of major powers. In the game of international military strategy, the deployment strategy of air defense missile systems directly reflects a country's defense determination and strategic layout, and has become an important embodiment of the country's military and political will.
In the global arms market, the competition for short-range anti-aircraft missile systems is not dominated only by the United States and Russia, and Sweden's Bofors Missile Company also has a place in this area. The company's RBS-70 portable short-range anti-aircraft missile system is one of the most well-known portable anti-aircraft missiles.
R&D background and related performance of RBS-70
In the sixties and seventies of the last century, due to the rapid development of technology and tactics, the ability to strike on the ground in the air was greatly improved. In the face of the situation that the air threat is getting faster and faster, and the attack distance is getting farther and farther, the traditional anti-aircraft artillery is becoming more and more difficult to deal with. Especially in close-range air defense, even small-caliber anti-aircraft guns with a relatively fast rate of fire can hardly hit air targets passing at high speed. Based on practical needs, the Swedish company Bofors proposed the initial design of the RBS-70 portable short-range air defense missile system in 1967, and despite the delay in implementation, the Swedish Army decided to move forward with the development of the system in 1974 in order to meet the air defense needs of its brigade units. The RBS-70 system began mass production in 1975 and entered service with the Swedish Army in 1978, and was subsequently exported to Norway, Tunisia, Bahrain and other countries.
In the face of the dominance of the American "Stinger", Russian "Arrow" and "Needle" series missiles in the market, the export situation of RBS-70 was unfavorable for a time. In order to break through this situation, Bofors has innovatively adopted laser guidance technology and made a key upgrade to the RBS-70. This improvement makes the RBS-70 the world's first portable anti-aircraft missile system equipped with laser guidance equipment, significantly improving its guidance accuracy and anti-jamming capabilities.
As the technology evolved, Bofors Missiles introduced a number of derivatives based on the RBS-70, including the vehicle-mounted RBS70-RBS70VLM, the armored vehicle-mounted RBS70-RBS70-ARMAD, the helicopter-borne RBS70-RBS70HLM, and the carrier-based RBS70-RBS70SLM, thus evolving the RBS-70 system from a single man-portable anti-aircraft missile to a flexible air defense solution for multiple launch platforms.
The basic version of the RBS-70 is composed of three parts: a bracket, an aiming device and a missile, which can be quickly assembled and put into combat within 30 seconds, greatly improving the reaction speed and combat efficiency in wartime. The laser beam guidance technology used in the system gives it excellent anti-electronic jamming ability, with an effective range of 5 kilometers and an altitude of 3 kilometers, and has excellent military strike capabilities. The tail of the missile is equipped with a laser-guided beam receiving hole, which precisely controls the tail through laser signals, and the warhead is equipped with a small projectile that can spread out over a large area, which has strong penetrating power. The fuse system includes two kinds of proximity fuze and trigger fuze, the laser proximity fuze is not susceptible to radio wave interference, and the trigger fuze is suitable for attacking targets close to the ground. Combatants can flexibly choose the type of fuze according to the actual battlefield environment to complete a variety of combat missions.
The importance of RBS-70 and global exports
The RBS-70 is extremely flexible in its approach to combat, both independently and in conjunction with other air defense systems. It can form an integrated air defense weapon system with search radar and other equipment, and provide accurate target data through radar, thereby greatly improving the missile's precision strike capability and the combat effectiveness of the entire combat unit. These characteristics of the RBS-70 system make it indispensable and important equipment and armed forces in modern air defense operations. The RBS-70 portable air defense missile system, as the world's first air defense system using laser beam guidance technology, occupies a milestone position in the entire history of air defense missile development.
This technological breakthrough not only established the technological leadership of RBS-70 in the same generation of anti-aircraft missile systems, but also provided an important reference and enlightenment for the progress of subsequent anti-aircraft missile technology. The high hit rate and significant lethality of this system provide a solid air defense barrier for ground troops, especially in close air defense missions, and significantly improve the battlefield survivability of the troops. The application of laser guidance gives the RBS-70 high anti-jamming performance in a changeable battlefield environment, ensuring its combat efficiency in complex conditions. In addition, the system's night combat capability further expands its application range, allowing the army to maintain an effective air defense state at all times and in various environments.
Since entering service with the Swedish Army in 1978, the RBS-70 portable anti-aircraft missile system has been widely exported to the international market, becoming the first choice of the armies of many countries around the world. According to statistics, Sweden has produced about 1,500 RBS-70 launchers and more than 15,000 missiles of various types. These systems have been widely deployed in the armies of Australia, Argentina, Bahrain, Venezuela, Indonesia, Iran, Ireland, Norway, the United Arab Emirates, Pakistan, Singapore, Thailand and Tunisia, demonstrating the RBS-70's far-reaching influence and outstanding performance in the global anti-aircraft missile market. The success of the RBS-70 is reflected not only in its technological innovation and market recognition, but also in the fact that it has made an important contribution to global air defense security and has become a model for international military cooperation and technical exchanges.
Modernization and improvement of the RBS-70
The RBS-70 missile system is constantly being updated and improved, and its improvement is mainly focused on the missile. In 1982, the second-generation RBS-70 had a larger range coverage area, and by 1990, the third-generation RBS-70MkII missile was successfully developed, adding night vision devices and battlefield management terminals. In 2003, the fourth-generation missile adopted a digitized uncooled laser diode (No Freon), a BOLIDE all-target missile, a BORC thermal imager, a digital IFF identification device, a target data receiver, a PC-based weapon simulator and an external power supply. At the beginning of the research and development of the RBS70 air defense missile, the laser beam guidance with high precision and strong anti-jamming ability was directly selected, which directly led to the huge size of its control unit, so it was only erected on a tripod for use, so it was not convenient to carry and transport.
It needs to be continuously irradiated before the missile hits the target, which is difficult to track and easy to be killed by counterattack fire. Therefore, the latest modification of the RBS-70 missile, the RBS-70NG, is designed to solve this shortcoming, in which NG is the abbreviation of Next Generation. The developers of the RBS-70NG worked on reducing the guidance station, simplifying the tracking mode and operation process, and upgraded the guidance system. The RBS-70NG is equipped with a new targeting system with three-dimensional target indication and automatic target tracking capabilities, which no longer needs to rely on the operator to manually aim at the target, which greatly improves the accuracy of the missile, as well as the ability to control under complex conditions, and also improves the ability to deal with small targets such as UAVs and cruise missiles. However, the RBS-70NG also retains the manual control function to adapt to the unexpected situations that may arise in the complex battlefield environment.
The new generation RBS-70NG is newly equipped with a BORC thermal imaging sighting system with night vision. The new generation of integrated sighting system integrates an enhanced shooter assistance system, combined with high-precision, long-range, anti-jamming combined laser guidance technology to produce a ground-based air defense system with world-leading capabilities. The RBS-70NG has a modular design, which allows it to use all existing RBS-70 missiles, up to the new BOLIDE 4th generation all-target VSHORAD missile. When using BOLIDE missiles, the RBS-70 NG is capable of dealing with small-sized targets, from fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft to cruise missiles and UAVs.
In general, the RBS-70 NG, while retaining the advantages of the RBS-70's high accuracy and long range, has further improved its accuracy and enhanced night vision. More importantly, its ability to deal with lighter and smaller non-traditional air targets such as cruise missiles and unmanned aerial vehicles has been greatly strengthened, and its ability to adapt to the new battlefield environment has become more prominent.
On December 24, 2023, the 47th Separate Mechanized Brigade of Ukraine successfully shot down a Russian reconnaissance drone "Supercam" using the Swedish-made RBS 70NG system. According to Ukrainian military sources, since the deployment of RBS-70 NG man-portable air defense systems in Ukraine, they have played an important role in strengthening the country's air defense. It is worth noting that the system, in addition to destroying cruise and patrol missiles, shot down a Russian Ka-52 helicopter, demonstrating its versatility and accuracy. Its ease of operation, combined with its effective range and ability to strike various types of targets, make it an important asset in Ukraine's defense arsenal. The use case of the RBS-70NG in the modern battlefield highlights the strategic value of the RBS-70NG in the modern and future battlefields.
The importance and significance of man-portable anti-aircraft missiles
RBS-70 NG point of view, portable air defense missile has a huge strategic advantage, so that its modern battlefield and even the future battlefield will occupy an important position, it has high cost performance, good durability, small shape, short combat reaction time, flexible mobility, accurate guidance, easy operation and other advantages, from the marching state to the combat state generally takes less than 1 minute, even in the harsh terrain environment, soldiers can carry the missile on their shoulders to launch. Therefore, this missile is a very effective weapon against low-flying fixed-wing aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, and helicopter gunships. In addition, a portable air defense missile that costs only tens of thousands of dollars can scrap an aircraft costing tens of millions of dollars.
With the development of technology and tactics, the targets that today's MANPADS have to face have changed dramatically. UAVs and cruise missiles became the main targets that MANPADS now have to deal with. Compared to jet engines, drone engines have weak thermal signatures and small targets, making it difficult for conventional infrared-guided missiles to track and hit. In July 2016, the Israeli Air Force sent fighter jets to intercept a drone that had intruded into its airspace, but the infrared-guided missile fired failed to shoot down the drone. It has been proved that the hit rate of traditional infrared-guided missiles against UAVs will be significantly reduced, but this problem does not exist for new portable anti-aircraft missiles equipped with laser-guided beams.
Even if the traditional bad weather adversely affects the laser, the long-wave laser in the 10.6 micron band can accurately hit the target. In addition, with the gradual diversification of the types of seeker used in man-portable anti-aircraft missiles, their multi-purpose combat capabilities will also be greatly expanded. If you change to an infrared thermal imaging seeker and a semi-active laser seeker, it is quite possible to achieve an attack on ground as well as sea surface targets.
Judging from the development trend of portable air defense missiles, in addition to the further improvement of the flexibility, intelligence, and operability of this missile in the future, it will also continue to improve and upgrade in guidance, especially with the use of the new infrared decoy missile directional infrared jamming system of fighter jets, in order to ensure the combat effectiveness of the missile, the future portable air defense missile will also use infrared gaze imaging and multi-mode composite guidance technology to improve the anti-jamming capability.
Since its inception, MANPADS has always attracted the attention of the world, and has played a vital role in witnessing victory in war after war in the process of upgrading. On the battlefield of the future, portable anti-aircraft missiles still have a lot to offer!