GarryB Sat Nov 20, 2021 4:18 am
Once scramjet missiles will be acquired in numbers, one can use idlib to dump previous generation ramjet ones in a fast way.
The amusing thing is that they would be almost as interested in the ramjet ones as the scramjet ones...
In the 1990s the Germans and the French created a project to develop and produce a light tactical missile called ANS or something.
It was going to be an 800kg missile that flew at mach 2.5 to about 90km for destroying radar and ships and was going to use a combined rocket ramjet propulsion system where the solid rocket fuel was located in the core of the ramjet, so on launch the solid rocket fuel burned and accelerated the missile to climb and when it burned out the empty space left behind was the ramjet combustion chamber which then lit up and carried the missile to the target.
It ended up going nowhere of course even though the Soviets had the Kh-31 a decade before with a launch weight of 600kg and a flight range of 110km and a speed of mach 3 with a combined rocket ramjet engine.
The American Navy wanted a supersonic low flying missile to test its air defences so it created a competition to get a low flying supersonic anti ship missile hoping the Russians would sell them Moskits or Granits or Vulcans... they offered the MA-31 an early model Kh-31 of average performance... but it was still way better than US competition and won.
They learned their Phalanxs were useless against sea skimming missiles because of multipath returns from the water so they developed the SEA RAM for CIWS protection.