Großbritannien streicht Meteor-Upgrade zugunsten neuer FASE-Rakete
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-axes-meteor-upgrade-in-favour-of-new-fase-missile/
Von tree_boom
Großbritannien streicht Meteor-Upgrade zugunsten neuer FASE-Rakete
https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-axes-meteor-upgrade-in-favour-of-new-fase-missile/
Von tree_boom
7 Kommentare
That is a pretty bold move considering how many difficulties and failures UK experienced recently on new gen military program.
Seems like a good way to kick a budgetary can down the road.
A weapon from another aeon, built for the last war, costing billions to take out one drone ..
On the face of things, something of a surprise given the perception of Meteor as a world-beating weapon. There have been indications for a long time that the UK did not consider it the appropriate weapon for the long term, with a program running with Japan for a new weapon (albeit based on Meteor) starting in 2014, two years before Meteor itself even entered service…and Meteor is still very young! Particularly in comparison to something like AMRAAM which has been around for an exceptionally long time.
If I had to guess, my guess would be that the changing nature of the threats we’re likely to face is placing Meteor into a range-bracket that is felt unlikely to have many targets in it. The proliferation of ultra-long-range missiles like [PL-17](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PL-17), [R-37](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-37_(missile)) or [AIM-174](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AIM-174B_Gunslinger) intended to kill enablers like AWACS will probably push those platforms back to the point that they’re out of range of Meteor. The proliferation of low-observability fighters will probably mean that they’re not detected by the launch platform’s radar until they’re much closer than Meteor’s full range. It may be that a much longer-ranged weapon (out to the ~400km of the other mentioned missiles) is required, paired with a **shorter** ranged weapon that’s far smaller and can be carried in greater numbers; after all if you can’t detect the other fighter until they’re much closer then there’s not much point carrying a weapon that can shoot out to 200km.
There would be disadvantages with that approach of course; particularly for ’stealth‘ aircraft attacking ’non-stealth‘ ones which would then have to close to much closer ranges than otherwise, so maybe it’s nonsense.
Makes sense honestly, Meteor is still by far best in class and nothing in the next 10-15 years shows any indication of beating it.
In stealth on stealth detection range will be so low that a short range weapon will be the best, ASRAAM, also British, coincidentally the best in class.
At the same time Meteor is made to deal with fighters mostly and to fit into existing bombays like the F-35.
With Tempests enormous size make a massive missile that can hit AEW aircraft from hundreds of miles away as they aren’t stealthy nor maneuverable so the extra size doesn’t really matter, that now removes a huge area of enemy intel. And all the new 6th gen are also big and not as maneuverable so it one is detected at extreme range it also doesn’t matter as much being bigger.
Bigger missiles are also cheaper to make long range as you have more available fuel space and so don’t need to get as fancy with the engineering
It seems there’s not enough money on the UK side for both MLUs and future replacements of Meteors and Scalp/Storm Shadows, so the priority is on the next thing.
I’m a bit surprised by the lack of interest in the Scalp/Storm Shadow though, France has restarted and is expanding production while proceeding with the Mk2 version, but I guess it goes beyond the air launched version.
It’s good that the Comet/FASE is going ahead, it will be interesting to see what it entails, pretty vague for now.
>An MOD official told the briefing that too much of the munitions budget had been going on *“high end complex munitions, very capable but low numbers,”* and that the plan rebalances spending towards weapons that can be produced quickly and at scale
I somehow doubt that either Status LO or FASE/Comet will be on the cheap side.
So no stopgap at the opposite of France with the new Comète missile ? And is there a period planned for the new missile between France and UK ? Other than that i hope for scramjet to be used for this new missile, with ASN4G planning to use it.