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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 09:34 
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Denel media release

Quote:
NEW MILESTONE FOR GROUND-BASED AIR DEFENCE SYSTEM

22 March 2012

The SA Army’s new Ground-based Air Defence system has moved another step closer to operational readiness following the completion of a major milestone in its development.

Ralph Mills, the CEO of Denel Integrated Systems Solutions (DISS) says the company has successfully completed the contractual hardware delivery requirements for the Ground-Based Air Defence System (GBADS).

“The SA Army will now take the equipment on inventory and initiate the commissioning phase of the programme. This will take the system to operational readiness with support from Denel,” he says.

DISS is a division of the defence manufacturing group Denel. It was established with the sole purpose of supporting the SANDF in the acquisition of its Ground-Based Air Defence System – known as Project Guardian.

The delivery of the project follows extensive evaluation and testing conducted last year at the Swartkop Air Field in Tshwane and the Combat Training Centre at Lohatla in the Northern Cape. Soldiers from the Air Defence Artillery Formation assisted during the tests. The formation will be responsible for the deployment of the GBADS in anti-aircraft operations.

Mills says he is “extremely proud of the team” for reaching this milestone and thanked the Integrated Project Team consisting of members from both the Department of Defence and Armscor for their contribution to the programme.

System Integration skills have been identified as a key strategic capability for our country and in DISS we now have the basis to build on these crucial skills,” says Mills. One of the programmes in progress at DISS is the development of young system engineers who are trained and mentored in the discipline of System Engineering.

System Engineering as a discipline can contribute to many areas of our society and it is critical that we start developing the human capital now to be ready for the programs of the future,” says Mills.

Riaz Saloojee, Group CEO congratulated the DISS team on achieving this milestone. Saloojee indicated that “the successful finalisation of this phase of the programme had positioned DISS well for subsequent stages and the company is now in a position to expand into other domains”.

ends


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 09:58 
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So what dose project guardian give us exactly.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 10:07 
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sob wrote:
So what dose project guardian give us exactly.


Truck mounted Umkhonto SAMs.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 10:14 
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So no mobil guns system.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 10:57 
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Are we sure this is the truck-mounted Umkonto SAM or is it just the conclusion of the Starstreak manpad's part of the project? The press release is a bit vague.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 11:13 
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sob wrote:
So no mobil guns system.


The existing mobile AA guns consist of towed twin 35mm Oerlikons (no idea how many?) and 24 "Zumlac" truck mounted ZU-23-2 systems. The Zumlacs are manually operated while the Oerlikons are radar controlled.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 11:18 
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So no SPAAG like the tunguska, gepard extra.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 11:25 
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Roger the Dodger wrote:
sob wrote:
So no mobil guns system.


The existing mobile AA guns consist of towed twin 35mm Oerlikons (no idea how many?)


48 were allegedly upgraded to the 5 standard.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 11:26 
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gripen1 wrote:
The press release is a bit vague.


A master understatement. It is totally vague and says absolutely nothing.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 22 Mar 2012, 13:29 
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Eugene wrote:
Roger the Dodger wrote:
sob wrote:
So no mobil guns system.


The existing mobile AA guns consist of towed twin 35mm Oerlikons (no idea how many?)


48 were allegedly upgraded to the 5 standard.


IIRC one was totally wrecked in the well known Lohatla accident of a few years ago. I don't know if it was a GDF-005 or a pre-upgrade GDF-002.

BTW this is what a Zumlac looks like.
Image


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 23 Mar 2012, 14:39 
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Roger the Dodger wrote:
sob wrote:
So what dose project guardian give us exactly.


Truck mounted Umkhonto SAMs.


I also think the article only refers to the completion of the SA Army Start Streak acquisition. I might be wrong, but as far as I know truck mounted Umkhonto acquisition is still a long way off.


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 23 Mar 2012, 14:54 
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They've been going at the Truck/Containerised Umkonto SAM for years now. Can't they get their act together and build the damn thing? What's the bet when they do decide to build it then the major systems will be obsolete. The Rooivalk springs to mind... I would also be very surprised if they are ready to deliver Umkonto (land).


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 23 Mar 2012, 19:31 
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The Mark 2 model of the Umkhonto missile is already in production with an improved IR seeker using the latest technology from the A-Darter programme.
Kentron are also working on a radar guided model as well as an extended range engine so that there will eventually be 4 versions to choose from: short or medium range with IR or Radar terminal guidance.
In all versions the first part of the flight uses inertial guidance to take the missile to a point near the target where the seeker locks-on and takes over the final guidance. Apparently the challenge is to get all versions to work with the existing VLS launchers and control systems already installed in the SAN frigates and Finnish corvettes.


Last edited by Roger the Dodger on 24 Mar 2012, 14:45, edited 1 time in total.

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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 24 Mar 2012, 09:09 
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Yes, but what is happening to the land-based Umkonto SAM?


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 Post subject: Re: air defense
PostPosted: 24 Mar 2012, 14:43 
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gripen1 wrote:
Yes, but what is happening to the land-based Umkonto SAM?


It doesn't look like anyone who can, wants to tell us.
That press release isn't worth the bytes it takes to download, it says exactly eff-all.


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