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Adraste

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Adraste last won the day on April 21 2022

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  1. The Elbit Sigma (which is supposed to replaced the venerable M109 in IDF service) is taking shape. Production models are still months/year beyond
  2. In 2019 there was a FMS contract for the IDF acquiring 240 MTU GD883 to equip new-built Namer. My question is since the water-cooled MTU engine is considerably more compact than the AVDS-1790, do you think the IDF intends to increase the number of crew seats by shrinking the size of the Namer's drive train compartment? Will it be considered as the Namer Mk II? PS: I am putting a link of the report which went relatively unnoticed back then: https://www.defenseworld.net/news/24259#.YABCYehKhPZ
  3. How to polish the Merkava IV (Four long video covering maintenance aspect of the tank) https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCyMLYDPTFNVXfheEXo8mdDA
  4. Remind me of the Mini-Spike (cancelled). The warhead was tailored for anti-personal & light armored target role due to its small size.
  5. IDF D-9 Bulldozer are also selected to be installed with Iron Fist Light Decoupled. Great news for the IDF Engineering Corps!
  6. Just last April the Indian Army made a small but urgent Spike missile purchase (240 Spike MR missile). They can make small acquisition up to $72 million worth of items for each deal separate from the Indian MoD. Once the Spike enters indian service, the Indian Army will probably purchase further batch as they cannot wait forever on bureaucracy's fairy tales. And the Indian Army might want something more potent like the Spike LR2, ER2 or/and NLOS. Strategic patience is needed when dealing with India's bureaucracy.
  7. I understand your first point but let me disagree with you. Until recently, Iron Dome was marketed mainly as a semi-mobile C-RAM system which very few countries needed except maybe South Korea thus limiting its potential worldwide. Now that Iron Dome's live testing and process qualification against conventional threat such as cruise missile, UAV or air-launched PGM are in full swing, the export opportunities will multiply. The development of Iron Dome's spin-off variant such as the naval C-Dome and the fully-mobile all-in-one I-Dome should only emphasize my point. Possibly as a payback, the US may strike a deal with Israel to include x percent of US-made components for particular markets such as NATO, like they are already doing with the US-funded IAF's Iron Dome batteries.
  8. Iron Dome was started as an exclusive Rafael venture (thus Rafael should theorically own all the IP) while David's Sling is a Rafael - Raytheon JV. Iron Dome was probably already sold to Singapore although it is a well-guarded secret. I don't see Iron Dome export as being impeded by the US, they even recently purchased 2 batteries for themself thus being the first operator officially outside Israel. As the first operational and effective C-RAM and SHORAD system, Iron Dome should sell like hot cake if and when the need arises worldwide. As far as David's Sling is concerned, the israeli defence cos can still benefit tremendously as sub-contractors for the PAC-3 by correcting its weakness (radar, cost-effective interceptor). And technology wise, the Stunner is rumored to be the IAF next-gen air-air missile with no US tech and funding involved.
  9. Contrary to Iron Dome, US paid for David's Sling R&D so they have part of its intellectual property. As a consequence they have every right to veto its export sale abroad. Incorporating the Stunner interceptor into PAC-3 is a smart way of boosting its capabilities and sale prospect. But the lack of a proper and operational 360 degree AESA radar will make the Swiss think twice before choosing the PAC-3. The Swiss could ask Raytheon to pick the EL-M 2084 multi-mission radar from Elta but it is wishful thinking. The $8 billion figure is misleading because it is the budget allocated for both the futur Swiss air force's F-18 fighter replacement AND a new SAM system. The Swiss needs 2 SAM batteries so the cost would not exceed the $1 - $1.5 billion figure, far from the Polish PAC-3 overall cost.
  10. It has yet to be seen whether the IDF will install Trophy APS on the 188th Brigade's Merkava mk3. Since the 188th will switch to MK4 Barak after 2020, I doubt the IDF will make the costly investment on tanks that were not initially designed to host such a power-hungry device like the Trophy APS. They didn't retrofit non-Trophy MK4 with the APS (yet), why would they do it for older and less capable tanks?
  11. The decision to replace the Merkava 3D Baz with MK4 Barak appears to be in line with the purchase of 270 GD883 (MTU883) engine to power the Namer instead of the Merkava MK3's old Continental AVDS-1790 engine. It will facilitate the jobs of the maintenance, logistics and repair units in the field and in the warehouse and be more cost-effective and time-efficient with one common powertrain for each active tank and infantry heavy armor brigade. It would have been a shame and an enlistment nightmare that the 188th Barak Brigade continues with older MK3 tanks while the 401th get two generation of MK4 consecutively (3 if we count the MK4M). Barak tank for the Barak Brigade is justice!
  12. AFAIK during the Hermon missile attack, the Iranian guided-ballistic rockets were specifically targeting the military and civilian sites. There was no overfly per-se, the iranian rockets were in their final descending phase of the ballistic path when the Tamir missiles were launched to intercept them. There was an intelligence warning that the IRGC intended to attack the Hermon so an Iron Dome battery was positioned just next to the ski resort beforehand. I am not an expert in rocket science but the heavy caliber medium range rocket like the M-302 in Gaza should be able to reach an apogee much greater than 10 km altitude, probably between 30 and 50 km when launched at their maximum range of 150km. Even if the Iron Dome can reach an altitude of 10km, intercepting medium and long range rockets would be only possible when the threats are themself in their terminal phase of flight. Thus having the Gaza strip surrounded by Iron Dome batteries would not necessarily protect the center of Israel against Hamas long-range rockets like the M-302. A faster and longer-range interceptor like the Stunner could be used not only to intercept the M-302 during its terminal phase over Tel-Aviv but also during M-302's ascending and apogee phase before and during mid-flight.
  13. Iron Dome is falling under the V-SHORAD and CRAM category. An Iron Dome battery can allegedly protects an urban or military area of approximately 150 square kilometers. It would mean the Tamir has an effective range of about 7 km which is in line of what we can expect from a V-SHORAD system. To put thing in perspective Tel Aviv metro is >1500 km² and the IDF has only 10 operational Iron Dome batteries for the foreseen futur. On the other hand, David's Sling has no such range limitation. Even if the Tamir interceptor has been upgraded with later model and the area it can defend has increased, it is still limited by its specific requirements and economics. There was little to zero chance that this unlucky moshav would have been under the protective coverage of an Iron Dome battery. You understand why David's Sling is an absolutely critical layer specifically against the large caliber medium range rocket/missile like the ones fired at Tel Aviv metro from Gaza
  14. There is something fishy going on about David's Sling recently. After the political echelon proudly proclaimed its operational deployment in April 2017, David's Sling failed its 'baptism by fire' in july 2018 missing two SS-21 missiles launched by SAA as part of the ongoing civil war. I have no doubt the failure provided valuable informations to improve the David Sling which is about to undergo an upgrade according to the latest news. What is worrying is since the mid-2018 miss, it has not been used operationally neither against the Iranian SSM on the Hermon nor against the Hamas M-302 SSM 'unintentional' attack early March and the yesterday's attack on a Moshav north of Tel Aviv. These medium/long range rockets should have been the realm of David Sling's interceptors to whom just a single battery can cover the whole Tel Aviv metropolis and central Israel while you would need at least a half-dozen shorter-range Iron Dome batteries to do the same job in and around Tel Aviv. Lastly, Rafael has withdrawn David Sling for the Swiss bid.
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