Old-fashioned 'dumb' weapons are getting smarter all the time

A couple of years ago I wrote about new, small, 'smart' weapons being developed for light strike aircraft (and their heavier brethren, of course). We saw some of them in operation during recent operations in Libya, from which many useful lessons have been learned.

One of the weapons I wrote about was the venerable 2.75" (70mm.) unguided rocket, in use in various models since shortly after the Second World War, most recently in its Hydra 70 form (shown below).




I mentioned that various manufacturers are developing laser-guided versions of this weapon, with a number of models approaching entry into service. For example, the partnership of Raytheon and a United Arab Emirates company have just successfully completed tests of their Talon laser-guided rocket against small boat targets.

The problem with laser-guided rockets is that the target must be designated with a laser beam prior to impact of the missile. The Office of Naval Research has also been looking at these decades-old rockets, trying to find a way around that problem. It seems they've succeeded admirably, using a completely different guidance system. Ares reports:

A guided missile prototype funded and developed by the Office of Naval Research (ONR) successfully hit two high-speed boats during recent testing in Point Mugu, Calif.

Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division engineers used a shore-based launcher to fire two Low-Cost Imaging Terminal Seeker (LCITS) rockets in the Nov. 3 test, one inert and the other with an explosive warhead, ONR reports.

Using inertial guidance, the missiles flew to a point where the infrared terminal guidance system took over. Onboard imaging infrared seekers identified their intended targets among five maneuvering small boats. The rockets adjusted trajectories to intercept and hit two of the boats.

The test was part of the Medusa Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD), an effort funded by the Department of the Navy, Office of the Secretary of Defense and Republic of Korea.

The Medusa JCTD is designed to combine the missiles with the MH-60 helicopter. “It’s a fire-and-forget weapon,” said Ken Heeke ONR LCITS program manager. “No longer do you have to continue to monitor the target after you’ve fired the weapon. You can move on to the next threat with the assurance that the rocket will hit the target.”

ONR researchers produced LCITS, a suite of low-cost technologies that modify existing helicopter-borne rockets into precision-guided weapons. By adding an infrared imaging guidance section to 2.75-in. Hydra-70 rockets, the researchers are providing naval aviators with a new lethal capability.

Unlike laser-guided weapons that require operators to select and monitor a target from launch to detonation, LCITS gives unguided rockets the ability to compute and home in on targets automatically after launch.

There's more at the link. Here's a video report on the new system.

It's remarkable to think that a mass-produced, low-cost, unguided rocket system first deployed in the late 1940's is now, more than 60 years later, still being updated, to the point where it can hold its own against the most modern, latest-generation weapons in its class. A full-size helicopter can carry a lot of these things in its rocket pods, as shown by this test launch from a US Marine Corps AH-1 SuperCobra attack helicopter.




However, they're compact and light enough that even a small UAV such as Boeing's A160 Hummingbird or Northrop Grumman's MQ-8 Fire Scout could carry some of them (as illustrated here, for example, where the latter UAV is carrying eight such missiles), giving it the ability to help defend its mother ship against small craft (such as, for example, those operated by the Revolutionary Guard in Iran, potentially capable of threatening traffic in the Straits of Hormuz). Light warships such as frigates, corvettes, patrol craft, fast attack craft and the new Littoral Combat Ship might be equipped with pods of these rockets, to reach out up to 5 miles or so and combat mass attacks by such small craft. Since they're essentially simple weapons, not requiring a major investment in guidance and fire control systems, they might even conceivably be mounted aboard merchant ships transiting a pirate-infested area such as the Gulf of Aden, to allow them to defend themselves against attack (although this would require changes to international law, of course).

Full marks for imagination to the scientists and engineers involved. There's a lot of good skull sweat in this new system, and it'll save a whole lot of money compared to newer designs. Color me impressed.

Peter