It is time to present you the beginning of my next series of thematic articles. I fishy that you very much like to read about tanks and such, but from the position of upgrading the Polish Army, as well as eliminating certain myths, artillery is simply a very crucial topic. And what's more, already a fewer articles written here on the blog were about the subject of "Queen Battles" or were close to it. I don't estimation how many articles I'm going to write, mostly I mean putting in order what I'm publishing here. One of our army's biggest problems is, of course, anti-aircraft defense. Although the Programme for method Modernisation includes the Vistula and Narew programmes, the subject of the modernisation of anti-aircraft measures at the brigade level is completely abandoned. There are now leading all anti-aircraft anti-aircraft kits of 23 mm, which are no longer considered effective in combating air purposes, let alone drones and C-RAM tasks. To date, these systems have been upgraded by, among another things, the addition of MANPADS and modern ammunition, so that the harm ceiling has increased from 1500 m to 2500 m for artillery stricte sets or to 3500 m for rockets. Nevertheless, this is inactive insufficient to meet the military's existing needs. The best solution is to replace the 23 mm in the first line with 35 mm. This caliber has been developed in our country for any time, resulting in towed anti-aircraft cannons utilizing this ammunition. A-35 / AG-35, as mentioned, would solve the subject of towed ZU-23-2 as well as it is possible to make a self-propelled version on the truck chassis. However, this does not solve the problem of successors of Szyłek and White. And today's article - the first in this series - will address this problem.
Memory of the Loar
Many of you most likely remember a very well-crafted anti-aircraft kit Loara. It has been developed since the early 1990s as the successor of Szyłek and next to Gromów was to be the basis of the Polish anti-aircraft defence level VSHORAD. Unfortunately, the deficiency of mark anti-aircraft missiles to the rocket Loire (about which I will compose an article) caused the program to close after producing the prototype, and in place of Loary it was decided to upgrade the Shiłeks to the White version and make Hibnerites, which initially did not disagree in appearance from the guntrucks utilized in the mediate East. However, at present, in the age of improvement of unmanned flying vessels and precision artillery ammunition, it is essential to make its own anti-aircraft strategy which would be capable of combating not only helicopters (mainly) but besides to defend against UAVs and to be able to carry out C-RAM tasks. And here, the 23 mm caliber is not enough, so the full vehicle must be completely new. any blocks in the form of an automatic 35 mm cannon and anti-aircraft missiles Grom / Grom-M we already have available. The mark carrier and the concept of the form and operation of the anti-aircraft vehicle are important. In this case, HSW presented a miniaturized model of the fresh Loire at last year's MSPO. The concept mostly remained unchanged in comparison with the original, but the full task was powerfully refreshed - apart from a fresh carrier in the form of UPG-NG an unmanned tower and fresh radar systems for mark tracking and fire control are proposed. And as I late learned, the concept Loire-NG will be pushed by PIT-RADWAR in MON.
Reduced model of Loire NG / photograph Marcin Negligence
The Loire 2 concept is convincing especially for those who would like to reactivate the anti-aircraft set from the late 1990s (and conceptually even from the 1960s), and do not see another ideas to solve the problem of modern SPAAG. But that thought doesn't convince me. 4 basic problems can be seen throughout the concept: - separation of tasks between an artillery vehicle and a rocket vehicle resulting in a weakening of the capability of an OPL sub-chapter not equipped with any of the specified vehicles - hypothetically very advanced cost of vehicle improvement and production, mainly due to the planned presence of as many as 2 anti-aircraft radars (following and early detection) on each vehicle - no mark anti-aircraft mid-range missiles (10 - 15 km) to the rocket vehicle - deficiency of modular anti-aircraft strategy "Loara would only be adapted to caterpillar chassis, characterized by advanced DMC (in this case I mean the Crab chassis). Therefore, the alternate would be a inexpensive self-propelled anti-aircraft kit, armed with both 35 mm anti-aircraft cannon and presently available Grom/Grom-M anti-aircraft missiles, which would be based on any self-propelled carrier. We've worked on this strategy before, and it was called Sopel.
Compared to the original, everything would should be changed. The most crucial component here is the tower in which the weapons would be placed. Sopel was of course adapted for installation of anti-aircraft cannon KDA caliber 35 mm, but after more than 20 years, it can be concluded that a new, unmanned tower would be a better solution. In terms of the cost of development, it is most profitable to adapt to this intent a ship's artillery strategy called Triton - as was the case with the first Sopl, modeled on the ship's Sparrow. Triton was constructed for the needs of the min Kormoran destroyers as their main weaponry, but tower tests were carried out on the corvette of the combat of the Kashub submarines. Theoretically, therefore, there is simply a chance that Tryton will displace the Sparrow sets from the weapons of Navy ships. But I'll go back to Sopla-NG. The main nonsubjective should be to make the artillery rocket strategy completely modular. Tryton, thanks to the optimal tower mass, 3300 kg, will be able to be easy applied on any modern wheeled or caterpillar carrier, and the discard of the main weaponry, which is only 29.4 kN, will not interfere with its usage besides on vehicles with DMC up to 20 tonnes. Moreover, an existing maritime platform would be a good solution to make an additional semi-stationary system, equivalent to the German Skyshield. To do that, you gotta bend over this problem of radar in a fire battery. As I mentioned earlier, the Loara 2 would have as many as 2 aerial surveillance radars - 1 liable for the early detection of threats, based on the ZDPSR Bystra, and the another utilized to direct the weapons fire. specified a decision on the part of PIT-RADWAR shows that they deliberately plan to exceed the price of the product, disproportionate to its capacity. An early detection radar is completely unnecessary on any vehicle, and Bystra already exists in a self-propelled version.
Turkish anti-aircraft strategy Korkut
In this case, a good model is freshly introduced to the service of the Turkish Korkut - there the anti-aircraft vehicle is equipped with an optoelectronic head and fire steering radar, while the early informing radar and additional head are placed on a separate vehicle, which accounts for 1 per full fire battery. Returning to Triton, his only serious disadvantage would be the tallness of the tower itself, which would be higher than 1705 mm (not including protruding targeting instruments), i.e. it is more than twice as many as the towers utilized in standard combat vehicles. In addition, Thunder/Grom-M anti-aircraft missiles would be added to the utilized 35 mm automatic gun. However, rockets with a scope of up to 5 to 6 km reproduce to a crucial degree the performance of a 35 mm caliber cannon, so they will undercut the possible of a complete anti-aircraft system. Therefore, the "Sopel-NG" should yet receive a larger scope of anti-aircraft missiles (10 - 15 km) and a ceiling (min. 5000 m). Unfortunately, due to the mediocre market, these missiles request to be developed by their own forces. And "the last but not least" - as Americans have late shown on the AUSA 2017 crucial for specified a self-propelled anti-aircraft kit is besides equipping it with systems for non-physical combating drones. The "Sopla-NG" armament in AUDS is in my opinion necessary, given that the spare ammunition in Triton is tiny (200 35 mm rounds).
Battery command vehicle / anti-aircraft platoon
A major deficiency in the plan of Tryton is the deficiency of an integral optoelectronic head. Therefore, for the intent of equipping the fire module, the command vehicle should be included. It would be based on the solution utilized in the case of Blenda and Noteci, which would include an optoelectronic head. ZGS-158 (originally utilized at Triton) included with tracking radar. This solution will let you to track targets located in the distance to 29 km (in the case of missiles, effective scope would theoretically fall to about 9 km, and mortar and tiny drones - about 5 km). Moreover, tracking radar would besides be able to act as an early detection radar, but its scope would then be effective 17 km (in the above mentioned conditions it is only 5 and 3 km).
WD-35 command wagon - designed for usage in OPL Noteć system
This means that this OPL strategy must be supported by dedicated early detection radar. And the candidates are presently being exploited here Salts and planned for implementation Smart. They would increase the scope of rocket detection by an anti-aircraft battery to 16 (for Salt) or 25 km (to Bystrej). For maximum effectiveness, the early detection radar shall be fitted to each anti-aircraft battery, connected to its command vehicle. After all, only 1 head per full fire module makes the same module only have 1 fire channel in autonomous mode (i.e. can fight only 1 object simultaneously). For this reason, the construction of the tower itself should be somewhat modified to mount the head ZGS-158 on each anti-aircraft vehicle with the maximum passive effectors inactive maintained. This would increase the number of fire ducts, as well as each anti-aircraft kit would have the ability to track targets independently up to 12 km. At the same time, it is desirable that a number of retrofits should be created in order to let for the anticipation of any SPAAG equipment besides in the previously mentioned tracking radars.
Summary
"Sopel-NG" in my opinion would be an economical substitute for "anti-aircraft tanks" as a solution for the protection of armored-mechanized divisions mainly from drones, artillery and aviation ammunition. The structure of these SPAAG fire batteries would not disagree from what is presently in subunits equipped with ZSU-23-4MP. It would consist of: - 4 artillery rocket anti-aircraft kits, - OPL command car - Early detection radar ZDPSR Soła or Bystra In addition, the battery could be supplemented by at least 1 anti-aircraft squad with portable anti-aircraft systems Grom / Grom-M, and the full would be tensed utilizing the OPL Hunting-Rega command system. However, the anti-aircraft kit discussed in this article would be profitable mainly as a shield for units equipped with BWP caterpillar caterpillars and tanks at battalion level and possibly brigade level. In the case of motorized units, even cheaper, but equally effective option would be to plant San artillery anti-aircraft kits (A-35 / AG-35) on the chassis of a truck. But the alternate for this is besides the usage of Tryton in the container version, which was shown in PIT-RADWAR visualizations. However, on the stubborn infantry transporters could supply anti-aircraft defence for themselves, but the problem would be a limited angle for lifting the barrel in the HITFIST-30P and the ZSSW-30, amounting to 60° and no coupling with the anti-aircraft SKO. For comparison, the angle of lifting the barrel in Triton is as much as 85°. Therefore, it is essential to equip our army with modern self-propelled anti-aircraft kits. Bibliography The large Return of Loara or Loire of fresh Generation (Army Journal.pl) Automatic Marine Cannon strategy AM-35 – not only for the Navy? (defence24.pl) RSKu-253 for artillery (altair.com.pl) Salt - Direct defence Radar (defence24.pl)
