1.
French Navy
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The French Navy, informally La Royale, is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces. As of June 2014, the French Navy employed a total of 36,776 personnel, the reserve element of the French Navy consisted of 4,827 personnel of the Operational Reserve. The French naval fleet includes more than a hundred vessels and nuclear type submarines, the history of the French Navy dates back to the History of the French Navy of Antiquity to the Renaissance, part of the History of the French Navy. The French Royal Navy was quasi inexistent prior 1624, the Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem, which was both a religious and military order, had its own respective international war fleet which assured the policing of the seas in the Mediterranean. The members which had satisfied obligations for periods in service at sea fulfilling their service, were granted the rank of Knights Hospitaller, however, many considered the naval service formation to integrate later, while being well formed, their respective navy. The Ordre de Saint-Jean de Jérusalem was one of the ancestors of the French naval schools and in principal, the Order accordingly formed most of the ships Captains, Officers of the French Royal Navy and Admirals of the Marine française de guerre de la Méditerranée. During the Revolution, the French Navy succeeded to the French Royal Navy, under the First French Empire and the Second French Empire, the navy was designated as the Imperial French Navy. The French Navy is still designated today familiarly as La Royale and this expression was used by commercial sailors due to their military service at the corps of the navy by the institution of maritime inscription. The implementation then of the Ministère de la Marine later the de la Marine de guerre française at rue Royale. The symbol of the French Navy, which was since origin a golden anchor » and this symbol featured on all naval vessels, the arms, uniforms, the couriers, equipment, and general arms of the navy. This symbol was replaced in 1990 by a logo featuring a bow section of a warship with two ascending red and blue spray foams, and the inscription Marine nationale. The Chief of Staff of the French Navy was Admiral Bernard Louzeau, the navy became a consistent instrument of national power around the seventeenth century with Richelieus efforts under Louis XIII, and Colberts under Louis XIV. Under the tutelage of the Sun King, the French Navy was well-financed and -equipped, managing to score several victories in the Nine Years War against the Royal Navy. Financial troubles, however, forced the navy back to port and allowed the English, before the Nine Years War, in the Franco-Dutch War, it managed to score a decisive victory over a combined Spanish-Dutch fleet at the Battle of Palermo. The French Navy scored various successes, as in the campaigns led in the Atlantic by Picquet de la Motte, in 1766, Bougainville led the first French circumnavigation. During the American Revolutionary War the French Navy played a role in supporting the Americans. French warships participated in the battle by bombarding British ground forces, in India, Suffren waged campaigns against the British, successfully contending for supremacy against Vice-Admiral Sir Edward Hughes. In the Mediterranean, the French Navy waged a campaign during a 1798 French invasion of Egypt
2.
FREMM multipurpose frigate
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The FREMM is a class of multi-purpose frigates designed by DCNS/Armaris and Fincantieri for the navies of France and Italy. The lead ship of the class, Aquitaine, was commissioned in November 2012 by the French Navy, in France the class is known as the Aquitaine class, while in Italy they are known as the Bergamini class. France has ordered six anti-submarine variants, and two air-defence variants, the land-attack variant was subsequently cancelled. A third anti-air warfare variant of FREMM was proposed by DCNS in repose to French requirements for a new air-defence frigate, the SYLVER A50 would allow it to fire the 120 kilometres -range Aster 30 missile, the towed array sonar would not be fitted. At Euronaval 2012 DCNS showed a new concept called FREMM-ER for the FREDA requirement, again based on the FREMM, FREMM-ER has a modified superstructure replacing Héraklès with the new Thales Sea Fire 500 radar, whose four fixed plates resemble those of the US Navys AN/SPY-1. However unlike the Héraklès and the SPY-1, the Sea Fire 500 has active electronically scanned array antennas, original plans were for 17 FREMM to replace the nine DEstienne dOrves-class avisos and nine anti-submarine frigates of the Tourville and Georges Leygues classes. In November 2005 France announced a contract of €3.5 billion for development and the first eight hulls, with options for nine more costing €2.95 billion split over two tranches. Expectations were that the last two ships of the 17 FREMM planned would be built to FREDA specifications, however, by 2008 the plan was revised down to just 11 FREMM at a cost of €8.75 billion. The 11 ships would cost €670 million each in FY2014, or €860m including development costs, the FTI will replace the La Fayette-class class, which will be fitted with a sonar as an interim measure. Planning assumptions for the Italian Navy are 10 FREMM-IT at a cost of €5.8 billion, FREMM-IT will replace the Maestrale and Lupo-class frigates in service with the Italian Navy. As of 16 April 2015, the Italian government has approved funding for all ten FREMM-IT to be delivered to the Italian Navy, in the 2013 Italian budget, the Italian government laid-out the necessary financing for two more GP variants and the contract was awarded in September 2013. On 15 April 2015, Italian Parliamentary confirmed the deal between OCCAR and Orizzonte Sistemi Navali Spa to beginning built units 9 and 10, for Euro 764 millions. FREMM-IT9 &10 would will have AAW & ATBM capabilities and will have A70 VLS for cruise & Aster Block 2 missiles, with new Leonardo Kronos Quad, C band, AESA, 3D radar. The Leonardo Kronos Quad will have four flat radar sensors, with three times the range and full ATBM capabilities. All 10 Italian FREMM-ITs have extended AAW capabilities, with SAAM-ESD CMS, SAAM-ESD CMS use Leonardo MFRA, a 3D active radar, an evolved version of the Leonardo EMPAR PESA radar. Since the 7th FREMM-IT, there will be updates, such as new conformal IFF antenna, the Moroccan ship is similar to the French anti-submarine version, without SYLVER A70 tubes for SCALP Naval, and cost €470m. On 22 January 2009 the Hellenic Navy announced an order for six FREMM to replace a number of Elli-class frigates. Germany objected to this deal in October 2011 and no deal has been signed, in April 2013, the French government showcased the FREMM class in Halifax with the hope of selling to the Royal Canadian Navy for the Single Class Surface Combatant Project
3.
Destroyer
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Before World War II, destroyers were light vessels with little endurance for unattended ocean operations, typically a number of destroyers and a single destroyer tender operated together. After the war, the advent of the missile allowed destroyers to take on the surface combatant roles previously filled by battleships. This resulted in larger and more powerful guided missile destroyers more capable of independent operation, the emergence and development of the destroyer was related to the invention of the self-propelled torpedo in the 1860s. A navy now had the potential to destroy an enemy battle fleet using steam launches to launch torpedoes. Fast boats armed with torpedoes were built and called torpedo boats, the first seagoing vessel designed to fire the self-propelled Whitehead torpedo was the 33-ton HMS Lightning in 1876. She was armed with two drop collars to launch these weapons, these were replaced in 1879 by a torpedo tube in the bow. By the 1880s, the type had evolved into small ships of 50–100 tons, in response to this new threat, more heavily gunned picket boats called catchers were built which were used to escort the battle fleet at sea. The anti-torpedo boat origin of this type of ship is retained in its name in other languages, including French, Italian, Portuguese, Czech, Greek, Dutch and, up until the Second World War, Polish. At that time, and even into World War I, the function of destroyers was to protect their own battle fleet from enemy torpedo attacks. The task of escorting merchant convoys was still in the future, an important development came with the construction of HMS Swift in 1884, later redesignated TB81. This was a torpedo boat with four 47 mm quick-firing guns. At 23.75 knots, while still not fast enough to engage torpedo boats reliably. Another forerunner of the torpedo boat destroyer was the Japanese torpedo boat Kotaka, designed to Japanese specifications and ordered from the London Yarrow shipyards in 1885, she was transported in parts to Japan, where she was assembled and launched in 1887. The 165-foot long vessel was armed with four 1-pounder quick-firing guns and six torpedo tubes, reached 19 knots, in her trials in 1889, Kotaka demonstrated that she could exceed the role of coastal defense, and was capable of accompanying larger warships on the high seas. The Yarrow shipyards, builder of the parts for the Kotaka, the first vessel designed for the explicit purpose of hunting and destroying torpedo boats was the torpedo gunboat. Essentially very small cruisers, torpedo gunboats were equipped with torpedo tubes, by the end of the 1890s torpedo gunboats were made obsolete by their more successful contemporaries, the torpedo boat destroyers, which were much faster. The first example of this was HMS Rattlesnake, designed by Nathaniel Barnaby in 1885, the gunboat was armed with torpedoes and designed for hunting and destroying smaller torpedo boats. Exactly 200 feet long and 23 feet in beam, she displaced 550 tons, built of steel, Rattlesnake was un-armoured with the exception of a 3⁄4-inch protective deck
4.
Rolls-Royce Olympus
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The Rolls-Royce Olympus was the worlds first two-spool axial-flow turbojet aircraft engine design, dating from November 1946, although not the first to run or enter service. It was originally developed and produced by Bristol Aero Engines, first running in 1950, its initial use was as the powerplant of the Avro Vulcan V bomber. The design was developed for supersonic performance as part of the BAC TSR-2 programme. Later it saw production as the Rolls-Royce/Snecma Olympus 593, the powerplant for Concorde SST, versions of the engine were licensed to Curtiss-Wright in the US as the TJ-32 or J67 and the TJ-38 Zephyr. The Olympus was also developed with success as marine and industrial gas turbines, Bristol Aero Engines merged with Armstrong Siddeley Motors in 1959 to form Bristol Siddeley Engines Limited, which in turn was taken over by Rolls-Royce in 1966. As of 2012, the Olympus remains in service as both a marine and industrial gas turbine, at the end of World War II, the Bristol Engine Company’s major effort was the development of the Hercules and Centaurus radial piston engines. In early 1947, the parent Bristol Aeroplane Company submitted a proposal for a bomber to the same specification B. 35/46 which led to the Avro Vulcan. The Bristol design was the Type 172 and was to be powered by four or six Bristol engines of 9,000 lbf thrust to the Ministry engine specification TE. 1/46. The thrust required of the new engine, then designated B. E.10, the pressure ratio would be an unheard of 9,1. To achieve this, the design used a low-pressure axial compressor. Without these features an engine could not be started nor run at low speeds without destructive blade vibrations, nor could they accelerate to high speeds with fast acceleration times without surge. The design was modified and the centrifugal HP compressor was replaced by an axial HP compressor. This reduced the diameter of the new engine to the specification of 40 in. The Bristol Type 172 was cancelled though development continued for the Avro Vulcan, the first engine, its development designation being BOl.1, had six LP compressor stages and eight HP stages, each driven by a single-stage turbine. The combustion system was novel in ten connected flame tubes were housed within a cannular system, a hybrid of separate flame cans. Separate combustion cans would have exceeded the diameter beyond the limit. In 1950, Dr Stanley Hooker was appointed as Chief Engineer of Bristol Aero Engines, the next development was the BOl. 1/2 which produced 9,500 lbf thrust in December 1950. Examples of the similar BOl. 1/2A were constructed for US manufacturer Curtiss-Wright which had bought a licence for developing the engine as the TJ-32 or J67, the somewhat revised BOl. 1/2B, ran in December 1951 producing 9,750 lbf thrust
5.
Exocet
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The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft. The missiles name was given by M. Guillot, then the director at Nord Aviation. The Exocet is built by MBDA, a European missile company, development began in 1967 by Nord as a ship-launched weapon named the MM38. A few years later Aerospatiale and Nord merged, the basic body design was based on the Nord AS30 air-to-ground tactical missile. The air-launched Exocet was developed in 1974 and entered service with the French Navy five years later, the relatively compact missile is designed for attacking small- to medium-size warships, although multiple hits are effective against larger vessels, such as aircraft carriers. It is guided inertially in mid-flight and turns on active radar late in its flight to find, as a countermeasure against air defence around the target, it maintains a very low altitude during ingress, staying one–two m above the sea surface. Due to the effect of the horizon, this means that the target may not detect an incoming attack until the missile is only 6,000 m from impact. This leaves little time for reaction and stimulated the design of close-in weapon systems and its rocket motor, which is fuelled by solid propellant, gives the Exocet a maximum range of 70 kilometres. The submarine-launched version places the missile inside a launch capsule, the Exocet has been manufactured in a number of versions, including, MM38 – deployed on warships. A coast defence version known as Excalibur was developed in the United Kingdom, aM38 AM39 – B2 Mod 2, deployed on 14 types of aircraft. Range between 50 and 70 km, depending on the altitude and the speed of the launch aircraft, SM39 – B2 Mod 2, deployed on submarines. The missile is housed inside a watertight launched capsule, which is fired by the submarines torpedo-launch tubes, on leaving the water, the capsule is ejected and the missiles motor is ignited. It then behaves like an MM40, the missile will be fired at depth, which makes it particularly suitable for discreet submarine operations. MM40 – Block 1, Block 2 and Block 3, deployed on warships, range,72 km for the Block 2, in excess of 180 km for the Block3. In February 2004, the Délégation Générale pour lArmement notified MBDA of a contract for the design and production of a new missile, the MM40 Block 3. It has a range, in excess of 180 kilometres —through the use of a turbojet engine. The Block 3 Exocet is lighter than the previous MM40 Block 2 Exocet,45 Block 3 Exocets were ordered by the French Navy in December 2008 for its ships which were carrying Block 2 missiles, namely Horizon-class and Aquitaine-class frigates. These are not to be new productions but the conversion of older Block 2 missiles to the Block 3 standard, a MM40 Block 3 last qualification firing took place on the Île du Levant test range on 25 April 2007 and series manufacturing began in October 2008
6.
Torpedo
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Historically, it was called an automotive, automobile, locomotive or fish torpedo, colloquially called a fish. The term torpedo was originally employed for a variety of devices, from about 1900, torpedo has been used strictly to designate an underwater self-propelled weapon. Todays torpedoes can be divided into lightweight and heavyweight classes, and into straight-running, autonomous homers and they can be launched from a variety of platforms. The word torpedo comes from the name of a genus of rays in the order Torpediniformes. In naval usage, the American Robert Fulton introduced the name to refer to a gunpowder charge used by his French submarine Nautilus to demonstrate that it could sink warships. The concept of a torpedo existed many centuries before it was successfully developed. In 1275, Hasan al-Rammah described. an egg which moves itself, in modern language, a torpedo is an underwater self-propelled explosive, —but historically, the term also applied to primitive naval mines. These were used on an ad hoc basis during the modern period up to the late 19th century. An early submarine, the Turtle, attempted to lay a bomb with a fuse on the hull of HMS Eagle during the American Revolutionary War. In the early 1800s, the American inventor Robert Fulton, while in France and he coined the term torpedo in reference to the explosive charges he outfitted his submarine Nautilus. However, both the French and the Dutch governments were uninterested in the submarine, Fulton then concentrated on developing the torpedo independent of a submarine deployment. However, the British government refused to purchase the invention, stating they did not wish to introduce into naval warfare a system that would give advantage to weaker maritime nations. Fulton carried out a demonstration for the US government on 20 July 1807. Further development languished as Fulton focused on his steam-boat matters, during the War of 1812, torpedoes were employed in attempts to destroy British vessels and protect American harbors. In fact a submarine deployed torpedo was used in an attempt to destroy HMS Ramillies while in New Londons harbor. Hardy to warn the Americans to cease efforts with the use of any boat in this cruel and unheard-of warfare. Torpedoes were used by the Russian Empire during the Crimean War in 1855 against British warships in the Gulf of Finland and they used an early form of chemical detonator. During the American Civil War, the torpedo was used for what is today called a contact mine
7.
MU90 Impact
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The MU90/IMPACT is an advanced lightweight anti-submarine torpedo of the 3rd generation developed by France and Italy for navies of France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Australia and Poland. It is designed to compete with and outperform the US-built Mark 54 in the anti-submarine role, the MU90 is built by EuroTorp, a consortium of French and Italian companies. The MU90 was the result of projects in France and Italy from the 1980s. In France, a project under the direction of Thomson Sintra created the Murène in 1989, in 1990 the first attempts to merge the two efforts started, a process that was completed in 1993 with the formation of EuroTorp. The French intended to use the new torpedo on their frigates, Atlantique 2 aircraft, Lynx helicopters and they originally wanted 1000 units, but the end of the Cold War saw their requirement cut to 600 in 1991,450 in 2000 and finally 300 torpedoes in 2008. The project has cost France €1, 150m in 2012 prices at a unit cost of €1. 6m,25 torpedoes per year will be delivered to France until 2014. The MU90 is capable against any current or perceived threat, including a bottomed stationary mini-submarine, known versions of anechoic coatings, and various decoys. It is also capable of speeds up to 400 knots, allowing it to be dropped from maritime patrol aircraft flying at high speeds. Powered by an electric pump-jet, it can be run at silent speeds to avoid giving its location away to the submarine, in 1986 France and Italy began a collaboration to develop an anti-submarine missile based on the Italian Otomat missile. France dropped out of the programme but Italy has fitted the MBDA MILAS missile to its Durand de la Penne-class destroyers, MILAS is a 800 kg missile that can deliver a MU90 to 35 kilometres. The MU90 reached IOC in November 2012
8.
French 100 mm naval gun
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Modern French 100 mm naval guns are multipurpose artillery pieces, capable of a high rate of fire. Most modern French warships are equipped with one of its versions, at the end of the Second World War, the French Navy was equipped with guns of numerous calibres, most of which were obsolete. In 1953, the STCAN of Paris, under engineer Tonnelé, the most common version, modèle 68, features a completely automatic action and control. The ammunition is stored in a magazine underneath the turret, a flexible pipe allows feeding the gun under any orientation. Rounds of ammunition are fed automatically, after firing, the empty casing is ejected through an evacuation door on the front of the turret. Cooling is provided by water circulating in layers of steel around the tube of the gun, aiming is performed by two electric motors, one for the elevation and the other for the traverse. Two hydraulic systems feed the gun, the gun can also be moved manually for maintenance. Since it is installed on the bow deck of warships. To prevent corrosion and mechanical problems, the turret is made water-tight with rubber joints, the muzzle itself is sealed by a rubber tampion, which can be shot through in case of emergency. The plexiglas viewbay used to aim the gun is usually protected by a steel cover. Employs electro-mechanical fire control, with two command stations on the front of the turret. The modèle 64 is an offspring of the 53, with a 78 round/min rate of fire. This version can be connected to modern firing computers, modèle 68 In this model, the turret was lightened and can load the first round automatically, but rate of fire is reduced back to 60 rounds per minute. This version may operate unmanned with only one manual station remaining as a backup and this version was later improved to the CADAM standard, restoring the 78 rounds/min rate of fire. A derivative is the modèle 100 TR, mechanically similar to the 68, the manual control has been removed. Compact, This weapon has only been exported to China, Malaysia, Portugal and it is even lighter than the modèle 68, at only 19 metric tons including gunhouse, deck and magazine. Later Mk 2 versions also fire faster, at up to 90 rounds per minute, however, it is also limited to firing short bursts of no more than 6 rounds. The 100 mm gun has been used in the French navy on most warships equal or greater than avisos, the Charles de Gaulle, with her MBDA Aster-only defence, is the main exception
9.
Anti-aircraft warfare
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Anti-aircraft warfare or counter-air defence is defined by NATO as all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action. They include ground-and air-based weapon systems, associated sensor systems, command and control arrangements and it may be used to protect naval, ground, and air forces in any location. However, for most countries the main effort has tended to be homeland defence, NATO refers to airborne air defence as counter-air and naval air defence as anti-aircraft warfare. Missile defence is an extension of air defence as are initiatives to adapt air defence to the task of intercepting any projectile in flight, a surface-based air defence capability can also be deployed offensively to deny the use of airspace to an opponent. Until the 1950s, guns firing ballistic munitions ranging from 20 mm to 150 mm were the weapons, guided missiles then became dominant. The term air defence was probably first used by Britain when Air Defence of Great Britain was created as a Royal Air Force command in 1925. However, arrangements in the UK were also called anti-aircraft, abbreviated as AA, after the First World War it was sometimes prefixed by Light or Heavy to classify a type of gun or unit. Nicknames for anti-aircraft guns include AA, AAA or triple-A, an abbreviation of anti-aircraft artillery, ack-ack, NATO defines anti-aircraft warfare as measures taken to defend a maritime force against attacks by airborne weapons launched from aircraft, ships, submarines and land-based sites. In some armies the term All-Arms Air Defence is used for air defence by nonspecialist troops, other terms from the late 20th century include GBAD with related terms SHORAD and MANPADS. Anti-aircraft missiles are variously called surface-to-air missile, abbreviated and pronounced SAM, non-English terms for air defence include the German FlaK, whence English flak, and the Russian term Protivovozdushnaya oborona, a literal translation of anti-air defence, abbreviated as PVO. In Russian the AA systems are called zenitnye systems, in French, air defence is called DCA. The maximum distance at which a gun or missile can engage an aircraft is an important figure, however, many different definitions are used but unless the same definition is used, performance of different guns or missiles cannot be compared. For AA guns only the part of the trajectory can be usefully used. By the late 1930s the British definition was that height at which an approaching target at 400 mph can be engaged for 20 seconds before the gun reaches 70 degrees elevation. However, effective ceiling for heavy AA guns was affected by nonballistic factors, The maximum running time of the fuse, the capability of fire control instruments to determine target height at long range. The essence of air defence is to detect aircraft and destroy them. The critical issue is to hit a target moving in three-dimensional space, Air defence evolution covered the areas of sensors and technical fire control, weapons, and command and control. At the start of the 20th century these were very primitive or non-existent
10.
Machine gun
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A machine gun is a fully automatic mounted or portable firearm designed to fire bullets in quick succession from an ammunition belt or magazine, typically at a rate of 300 to 1800 rounds per minute. Note that not all fully automatic firearms are machine guns, submachine guns, rifles, assault rifles, shotguns, pistols or cannons may be capable of fully automatic fire, but are not designed for sustained fire. Many machine guns also use belt feeding and open bolt operation, unlike semi-automatic firearms, which require one trigger pull per round fired, a machine gun is designed to fire for as long as the trigger is held down. Nowadays the term is restricted to heavy weapons, able to provide continuous or frequent bursts of automatic fire for as long as ammunition lasts. Machine guns are used against personnel, aircraft and light vehicles, or to provide suppressive fire. Some machine guns have in practice sustained fire almost continuously for hours, because they become very hot, practically all machine guns fire from an open bolt, to permit air cooling from the breech between bursts. They also usually have either a barrel cooling system, slow-heating heavyweight barrel, although subdivided into light, medium, heavy or general-purpose, even the lightest machine guns tend to be substantially larger and heavier than standard infantry arms. Medium and heavy guns are either mounted on a tripod or on a vehicle, when carried on foot. Medium machine guns use full-sized rifle rounds and are designed to be used from fixed positions mounted on a tripod. 50in, the M249 automatic rifle is operated by an automatic rifleman, but its ammunition may be carried by other Soldiers within the squad or unit. The M249 machine gun is a crew-served weapon, Machine guns usually have simple iron sights, though the use of optics is becoming more common. Many heavy machine guns, such as the Browning M2.50 caliber machine gun, are enough to engage targets at great distances. During the Vietnam War, Carlos Hathcock set the record for a shot at 7382 ft with a.50 caliber heavy machine gun he had equipped with a telescopic sight. This led to the introduction of.50 caliber anti-materiel sniper rifles, selective fire rifles firing a full-power rifle cartridge from a closed bolt are called automatic rifles or battle rifles, while rifles that fire an intermediate cartridge are called assault rifles. Unlocking and removing the spent case from the chamber and ejecting it out of the weapon as bolt is moving rearward Loading the next round into the firing chamber. Usually the recoil spring tension pushes bolt back into battery and a cam strips the new round from a feeding device, cycle is repeated as long as the trigger is activated by operator. Releasing the trigger resets the trigger mechanism by engaging a sear so the weapon stops firing with bolt carrier fully at the rear, the operation is basically the same for all autoloading firearms, regardless of the means of activating these mechanisms. Most modern machine guns use gas-operated reloading, a recoil actuated machine gun uses the recoil to first unlock and then operate the action. Machine guns such as the M2 Browning and MG42, are of this type, a cam, lever or actuator demultiplicates the energy of the recoil to operate the bolt
11.
Crotale (missile)
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The Crotale EDIR is an all-weather short-range anti-air missile, which can be used to intercept low-flight anti-ship missiles and aircraft. It has been developed by Thomson CSF Matra and exists in two versions, a mobile land-based version and a ship-launched one, originally the Crotale R440 system was developed by Rockwell International and Thomson-Houston in France for South Africa, where it was named Cactus. However, the achievements of the system impressed the French Armed Forces, the firing system includes the main sensors of the ship, the firing system of the turret, and a central coordination system. The turret holds eight missiles ready for launch in watertight containers, the magazine behind the turret holds 18 missiles. The French army first utilised a 4x4 wheeled vehicle, armed with four launchers, in order to ensure higher mobility, it was decided to mount the system on the chassis of the French AMX-30 main battle tank. At the same time, the number of launchers were increased to six, in Finnish Army service, the Crotale NG system has been mounted on Sisu Pasi vehicles. Here the number of launchers is eight, the Crotale system has also been installed on various military ships. For instance the French Navy La Fayette class frigates have a Crotale 8-tubed launcher near the flight deck. A modernized version, the Crotale NG, entered production in 1990 and this version used the new VT-1 missile with Mach 3.5 speed, load factor to 35G,11 km range,13 kg warhead and 6,000 m ceiling. The system includes a S-band Pulse Doppler radar, Ku-band TWT tracking radar, Thermal camera, Daylight CCD camera, and an IR localiser. In 1999, the Republic of Korea Armed Forces awarded a contract to Samsung Thales to jointly develop a South Korean-augmented Crotale NG system for the K-SAM Pegasus short range air defense system. A new sensor system was developed by Samsung and Thales to meet the required operational capability of the upcoming K-SAM Pegasus. The electronics and radars were developed by Samsung Electronics, doosan DST integrated this modified Crotale NG system with a K200 vehicle. 48 units were produced for a price-tag of 330 million Euros. A second batch of 66 units was ordered in 2003, valued at 470 million Euros, Thales revealed an updated Crotale NG system with Shikra radar at the Paris Air Show in 2007. The system combines Crotale Mk3 VT-1 missile and Shikra multi-beam search radar, Thales has demonstrated that the systems VT-1 missile has extended range to 15 km. The Crotale missile system consists of two components, a vehicle for transport, equipped with 2-8 launchers, a radar is located between the launchers. A second vehicle carries the surveillance radar, the radar surveillance vehicle can be connected to several launcher vehicles, in order to achieve an effective air-defence system
12.
Surface-to-air missile
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A surface-to-air missile, or ground-to-air missile, is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of system, in modern armed forces, missiles have replaced most other forms of dedicated antiaircraft weapons. The first serious attempts at SAM development took place during World War II, further development in the 1940s and 1950s led to the first operational systems being introduced by most major forces during the second half of the 1950s. Smaller systems, suitable for work, evolved through the 1960s and 1970s. The American Nike Ajax was the first operational guided missile SAM system, widely used modern examples include the Patriot and S-300 wide-area systems, SM-6 naval missiles, and short-range man-portable systems like the Stinger and Strela-3. The first known idea for a guided missile was in 1925. A selenium cell was mounted on the tip of each of the rockets four tail fins, when one selenium cell was no longer in the light beam, it would be steered in the opposite direction back into the beam. During World War II, efforts were started to develop surface-to-air missiles as it was considered that flak was of little use against bombers of ever-increasing performance. The lethal radius of a shell is fairly small. Against the Boeing B-17, which operated just within the range of the numerous German eighty-eights flak guns, bombers flying at higher altitudes require larger guns and shells to reach them. This greatly increases the cost of the system, and slows the rate of fire, faster aircraft fly out of range more quickly, reducing the number of rounds fired against them. Against late-war designs like the Boeing B-29 Superfortress or jet-powered designs like the Arado Ar 234, the first serious consideration of a SAM development project was a series of conversations that took place in Germany during 1941. Von Braun became convinced a better solution was a manned rocket interceptor, the directors of the Luftwaffe flak arm were not interested in manned aircraft, and the resulting disagreements between the teams delayed serious consideration of a SAM for two years. None of these saw any real development until 1943, when the first large-scale raids by the Allied air forces started. As the urgency of the problem grew, new designs were added, including Enzian and Rheintochter, in general, these designs could be split into two groups. One set of designs would be boosted to altitude in front of the bombers and these designs included the Feuerlilie, Schmetterling and Enzian. The second group were high-speed missiles, typically supersonic, that flew directly towards their targets from below, both types used radio control for guidance, either by eye, or by comparing the returns of the missile and target on a single radar screen. Development of all systems was carried out at the same time
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