Werewolf wrote:
The hellfire would lose one of its advantages if they had moved the missile seeker to the back and made it a LBR. It would lose the ability for LOAL capability and would need it to sue manually on target, even tho this is common practice for skilled WSO's for rapid Hellfire engagements for several idling tanks like seen in some cases in iraq.
Vikhr had a version proposal but it never gone forward due to cost for missile unit aswell since the program for mast mounted Arbalet was closed.
Thanks, Werewolf. The Vikhr is a better missile in most instances and can be used effectively without breaking the bank, and if fire-and-forget missiles are needed the Hermes Missile is light years ahead of the Hellfire missile. The speed, range and warhead advantages this missile has over other missiles is just obscene.
Garry B wrote:Fire and forget is over rated...
I remember recently seeing video of missiles fired by Havocs missing targets in Syria and it reminded me of similar footage of Hellfires missing targets in Iraq.
Very simply the Vikhr has an auto target tracker so the missile will be guided to impact to the target without interference from the operator.
The difference is that the Vikhr is a much faster missile and will get to the target in a shorter period of time so the time spent lasing the target will be much shorter and also even right up until the point of impact the operator can abort the attack.
With fire and forget you really can't tell what it will actually lock on to... a tank already hit several times still has the same MMW radar signature because a small hole in its side does not change its radar signature.
For that matter the sun shining on a rock during the heat of the day can look like a tank with its engine running.... a heat source is a heat source.
In comparison the Vikhr can pretty much be aimed at anything with an IR or radar signature or not. It can be aimed at the third window on the fourth floor in a 15 story building, or a log bunker... or the top of a tree.
Vikhr is much cheaper because it is fire and forget but the launch aircraft is safer because of the missile range and speed.
There is no doubt that the Vikhr missile is a far better missile and is significantly more cost effective -- something that is obviously of tremendous importance to any military, even wasteful militaries like that of the United States. I get what you're saying but don't dual-mode seekers solve this problem, albeit at a prohibitevly higher cost? The Vikhr missile is perfectly suitable for virtually every engagement and in the rare cases in which a fire-and-forget missile was absolutely required, the Hermes missile accomplishes that objective ten fold. I was surprised by how much more accurate the Mokopa missile is in comparison to the Hellfire missile