Not only Excalibur, i.e. Pike, Talon, PERM

Not only Excalibur, i.e. Pike, Talon, PERM

At MSPO 2016, Raytheon, in addition to air and missile defense systems, also presented high-precision weapons for the ground forces. Among them was the famous 155 mm Excalibur artillery shell, accompanied by other missiles, some of which are still not present in Poland. Most of them are products that already meet the officially declared needs of the Polish Army.

Raytheon in Poland is so far mainly known as a participant in the Wisła medium-range air and missile defense program and a contender for the role of a missile supplier in the Narew short-range system program, as well as a supplier of high-precision aircraft weapons: air-to-air missiles AIM-9X / X -2 Sidewinder and AIM-120C-5/C-7 AMRAAM planning AGM-65G-2 Maverick and AGM-154C JSOW air-to-ground bombs and directed GBU-24/B Paveway III and GBU-12D/B Paveway II on F-16 Jastrząb fighters. As a manufacturer of SM-3 Block IIA anti-missiles, it is also involved in the construction of the Aegis Ashore base near Redzikovo.

For several years now, Raytheon has also been promoting precision-guided ground-attack weapons in Poland that could end up in service with the Ground Forces. The most famous is the 155-mm high-precision artillery project Excalibur Increment Ib (more details in WiT 1/2016), which can be armed with self-propelled howitzers "Crab" and "Wing". This would increase their range to 60km while achieving a missile concentration of approximately 2m. However, Raytheon's proposal goes beyond Excalibur, as evidenced by the XNUMXth MSPO. It is worth emphasizing that the European premiere of one of the products took place in Kielce - two months earlier it had not even been presented at the Eurosatory exhibition in Paris.

Pike - the smallest guided missile in the world?

The premiere is connected with the 40-mm Pike guided missile. If the rocket itself (or its mock-up) has already been shown and promoted by an American company, then the Pike premiere launcher was shown at last year's INPO. Its length was not much more than the projectile itself, and the mass can be estimated at several tens of kilograms. On a rotating base, in a double-sided handle that provides a certain range of front movement,

hinged housing with guides for 17 missiles. Conceptually, this whole thing may resemble the ship's 11-rail launcher of RIM-116 missiles of the SeaRAM self-defense system, although of course the scale is completely different. The dimensions of the Pike rocket launcher correspond to the dimensions of remotely controlled firing positions with machine guns of 7,62–12,7 mm caliber. The launcher itself must also be equipped with a target block or interact with an external optoelectronic head with a laser target designator, which follows from the method of guiding the Pike missile. We add that the launcher was ordered by an unknown customer.