ok so why isnt replaced
Fairly obvious isn't it?
All three weapons are fairly cheap and the Russian military has enormous stocks of Shturm and Ataka... with all the exercises they are doing now they will likely be working their way through those stocks.
Krisantema is likely a little more expensive but when bought in numbers will be rather cheaper than Hermes and Vikhr.
The point is that Krisanthema uses SARH which means it needs a MMW radar to paint the target or it uses laser beam riding guidance.
The Ka-52 can provide the latter as the Vikhr uses the same guidance, but the thimble nose guidance system on the Mi-28 and Mi-24/35 is a radio transmitter... not a radar. The Ka-52 has its radar and could in theory use Krisantema right away but the Russian Government has clearly decided to use Vikhr with the Kamov, so for the Havoc to use Krisatema to its full all weather day/night potential it needs the radars recently cleared for service to be fitted... so there is not rush to get them into service.
By 2018 when most of the Mi-28s have been upgraded to M level and new Ms are in production the Krisantema will be in production as the cheap simple ATGM for the Mi-28M while the Hermes will be the heavy long range system. The Kamov will have the Vikhr and Hermes respectively in production for the same roles.
Right now Ataka is good enough and in stock... the Mi-24/35s will likely be using up stocks of Shturm and Ataka too... they are still effective missiles for most purposes.
The operator must keep line of sight there is input its from a computer its not true fire and forget
The operator must do nothing... it uses an autotracker to track the missile and the target...
If the operator still had to follow the target with his crosshairs then it would be CLOS... like older systems from the 1980s.
the enemy migh be trying to hide and jav can using top attack go where metis cant
When fitted with a thermal sight the Metis-M1 can see anything the Javelin can see and hit anything a Javelin can hit... or are you going to suggest the Javelin can see through buildings?
To use top attack capabilities the Javelin has to get a lock before launch... if the target is behind a wall or some trees... or even if it is a tank with its engine off or with IR signature reduction camouflage then Javelin wont get a lock and can only be fired in CLOS mode and is no better than Metis-M1... well it is actually worse because Metis-M1 can penetrate an extra 200mm of RHA.
medo said they wont so who is right a?
Medo didn't say they wont... he said they aren't. I am not saying they are, I am saying they will.
Until Mi-28N doesn't get its radar, there is no sense to use those missiles on Mi-28N, when newer Ataka missiles do their job just fine and have range of 8 km.
The Krisantema has two modes of guidance... laser beam riding, and SARH MMW radar guidance. Mi-28N has a MMW radar communications pod but not a radar yet. It also is not equipped to use laser beam riding missiles as Shturm and Ataka are radio command guided missiles.
The Mi-28M however will be upgraded to allow the use of laser beam riding missiles and with its MMW radar will be able to guide at least two Krisantema missiles at once... likely the radar can lock onto multiple targets at once so there is potential for multiple target engagement there for the future... the MMW radar on the Pantsir-S1 allows 3 targets to be tracked and four missiles to be guided at one time so there is potential for the radar of the Hokum to do something similar.
Ka-52 is for now the only helicopter, which could use them in radar mode, but MoD decide to equip them with Vikhrs until Hermes is ready.
It is rather likely that Ka-52 could guide Krisantema in laser beam riding mode too, but Vikhr is available and offers better performance from the box in terms of speed and penetration as well as range.
In my opinion Mi-28N and Ka-52 will in future use Vikhr/Hermes combination and Khrizantema will be, what it was designed to be, excellent self propelled tank hunter.
It is all speculation on my part though I do remember as part of the description of the Mi-28M that it would include the Krisantema as a replacement for Ataka and Shturm... note Shturm was developed for the Hind and the Ataka was to replace it, though there are still Shturm missiles in stock.
With their drive to upgrade everything I suspect they will soon stop purchasing Ataka and as Shturm and Ataka are used up they will be replaced by Krisantema.
To convert Mi-28M to allow the use of Vikhr would require an upgrade of the EO system to allow laser beam riding weapons... but such an upgrade would also make it compatible with Krisantema too while Vikhr isn't MMW radar guided.
Personally I think the future missiles should be Vikhr, Krisantema, and Hermes for the former twos low cost and different performances, and the latter for sheer performance.