max steel wrote:I follow a financial blog where an australian keeps popping up with usa military tech , weapons and keep making claims how it is superior to russians nd chinese mismatched and stoved military tech . Thanks for informing mate . Just another bogus claim of his .
His 2nd claim :- Iskander missiles are not "quasi" ballistic, their trajectory is ballistic. The 'missile' part distinguishes it as not being a ballistic rocket, it is a guided terminal maneuvering missile. So there's no 'quasi' about it, these are weapons which fit the category of precision guided theater ballistic missiles, like the US ATACMS missile system. So US has an equivalent of Iskander .
Is it also true ?
Not at all he is smoking crack..
MGM-140 ATACMS missile are more at the level of Soviet Scuds but with GPS guidance..
Basically mini scuds artillery ,if you like to call it.. It should not be underestimated however
the range is 300km and even a rock falling by luck in your head will kill you. But they are fairly
simple american technology form the 80s ,so they were made to be used like artillery.. think in
ATACMS more like early smerch artillery like the one Ukraine have, with 3x times more range and added Gps guidance in the warhead. In wikipedia there is mention of the poor performance of the missiles in Afganistan.. it mixed its target by 1,000 meters aparently and ending landing in a civilian house. So AtACMS is more like basic super long range rocket artillery (300km) with GPS guidance in the warhead.
Latest versions of Russian OTR-21 Tochka can be even better than ATACMS for hammering enemy air defenses since aside of inertial guidance ,have passive radar in the warhead.and under ideal conditions can score a Direct Hit if you have a clean target .. ie.. without decoys traps and good inteligence on the ground. Ukraine ahve the early versions of Tochka that are very innacurate and they never hit anything with that.. its role in the entire conflict have been largely zero.. SInce always miss and end hitting empty places.. but like i said if they hit by luck something the explosive power is lethal. can damage 10 or more tanks.
Iskander missiles is an entirely different Beast.. those are more closer to ICBMS league. They can do violent 90 degree turns ,making it unpredictable and very difficult to intercept and have decoys , EMP active defenses , Glonass Satellite navigation ,and Optics sensors in the warhead. It is claimed to have an up to 5-7 meter precision.. and it have active defenses. ( a missile that counter other missiles trying to intercept it) So it is a real wonder. You can call it an intelligent near space orbit quasi ballistic missile ,guided by satellite and with optical terminal guidance . Is estimated is capable of 700km range ,breaking the treaties with US intermediate range.
ATACMS is useless for precision bombing. Iskander not. ATACM range is 300km .. Iskander-M official range is 500km. Iskander also could be used in combination with a cruise missile version.. In short Iskander is a very modern Next Generation Ballistic missile in service in 2006.
while ATACM was made in the mid 80s. ATACM is more in the level of early version of TOSCKA missiles that Ukraine army use but inferior to the latest versions that Russia have with passive radars.