SA, Brazil to start manufacture of A Darter in 2011
Date: 17 July 2009
South Africa and Brazil will start to manufacture the Denel Dynamics A-Darter fifth-generation infra-red guided short-range air-to-air missile (IRSRAAM)in early 2011.
That's the word from Denel Dynamics CE Jan Wessels at a media briefing yesterday. He says the R1 billion five-year project that started in March 2007 is now roughly halfway in time and expenditure.
The A-Darter is being developed for the South African Air Force's Saab JAS39 Gripen advanced light fighter aircraft under the programme name "Project Assegaai" and for the Brazilian Air Force's F5EM light fighter and its future "FX" aircraft. Brazilian has said it expects the system in service by 2015.
SA is one of five countries capable of developing and building 5th generation IRSRAAM.
Wessels says the missile is due for a range of tests this November and mid-year next year.
"The next test, in November will be a live fire at a target. In the middle next year it will be fired from a Gripen, Wessels said.
The 2.9m, 89kg joint South African-Brazilian design was successfully ground test fired at the Overberg test range in the Southern Cape in February.
A Denel source who spoke under condition of anonymity at the time told defenceWeb the missile was fired from a ground launcher and performed a series of programmed extreme manoeuvres in what was the weapon's first controlled test flight.
The source further added that the successful test showed that a number of technical challenges had been overcome "proving the development programme is still on track."
Denel Dynamics, previously Kentron, started the technical development of the A-Darter in 2004.
Wessels says the fifth generation weapon features two major advances over older weapons: "A missile ten years ago could manoeuvre at 20G. This one can manoeuvre at 90G (and has been tested to 80G), which means you can shoot at a target behind you. That is massive technology..."
The second thing is this one images. It forms an image of the actual target and from a library it can identify that target and can be programmed to attack only certain types of targets (reducing the chance of fratricide).
Wessels adds that anti-IR missile flare decoys are also getting very sophisticated. But because the A-Darter forms an image of the target and intercepts that rather than a hotspot as in previous-generation weapons, it can lock on to the target and reject decoys.
Denel Dynamics scientists say it is currently taking six months to assemble the seeker head, which costs around R980 000 each, inclusive of a R200 000 pure sapphire crystal lens cover.
The CE adds that Denel Dynamics are still doing research work on a T-Darter radar-guided medium range air-to-air missile as well as a radar-guided variant of its short-range Umkhonto IR surface-to-air missile, in use with the SA and Finnish navies.
Regarding the Umkhonto, Wessels added that SA "wants to team up with another country but that country is not ready yet." A medium-range version of the Umkhonto is also on the cards.
Source: DefenceWeb
