More Possibilities
I missed this AFA Symposium news in the wake of all the buzz and tears being shed over the possible retirement of the A-10.Bill Sweetman kinda’ buries the lede in a story about the CUDA missile concept. Getting past the cute “Halfraam” moniker, the REAL news here seems to be there appears to be an ‘extended range’ version in the mix.
On show for the first time at AFA is a model of Lockheed Martin’s Cuda, a so-called “Halfraam” weapon about half as long as an Amraam [sic] and compact enough to fit six missiles into each bay of the F-35 or F-22. Cuda draws on the hit-to-kill technology used on the PAC-3 missile, is designed to have a radar seeker and has both movable tails and forward attitude control motors for high agility. The company is not disclosing Cuda’s design range, but one variation of the concept is a two-stage missile with a similar total length to Amraam [sic], presumably with the goal of covering a wide range envelope with a single missile design.
“Similar total length”. Hmmmmm. Perhaps something like this?:
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| Extended Range CUDA? Here's one possibility in a universe full of them. |
5 comments:
Since it specifically said "two stage", my thought is the NCADE concept with a CUDA front end instead. This way you keep costs down as both missiles (CUDA and CUDA-EX) would use the same missile.
NCADE has been canceled though, right?
I have not seen a cancellation notice.
Wonder if with Cuda-Ex, LM is (partially) reacting to Raytheon/Rafael's proposal for using Stunner (which has a planned Air-to-Air variant) as a PAC-3 replacement. You could similarly envision Cuda-Ex (a PAC-3 relative) as amplifying the loadout of a Patriot battery.
One other thought: consider a Cuda-EX with ATK's AARGM front-end (delete the warhead, miniaturize the MMW seeker and conformal antenna) as the second stage. With the movable tails and the ACMs you now have a very long range HARM capable of terminal maneuvers against emitters protected by CIWS (Centurion, Goalkeeper and their Russian/Chi-com counterparts)...
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