US-based V2X’s new Tempest short-range air defence system, used by Ukraine, couples RPS-42 AESA radar and AGM-114L Hellfire missile on a light 4x4 platform.
The new design exercise for a simple and highly mobile short-range air defence solution from Ukraine, named Tempest, combines the emerging potential of the AGM-114L Hellfire with mmWR seeker and a forward-looking RPS-42 compact AESA radar.
Tempest, based on a light 4x4 platform, known as a ‘buggy’, exploits the capability of AGM-114L ATGM to be guided by onboard radars, possibly the proximity fuse as well. This allows Tempest to engage low-flying aircraft like helicopters and UAVs using the forward-looking RPS-42 radar, which has become popular in US-made short-range air defence systems like Stryker M-SHORAD and MADIS Mk1.
AGM-114L Going Both Ways
AGM-114L missile, also called Hellfire Longbow, is a widely used variant of the AGM-114 Hellfire ATGM family, especially onboard AH-64 Apache attack helicopters fitted with the AN/APG-78 Longbow radar.
The rationale behind utilising AGM-114L for air defence stems from the fact that non-imaging IR seeker missiles like Stinger might not pick up some UAVs, while the longer ranged and more fool-proof AIM-9X with an IIR seeker is considerably costly. AGM-114L, being close to a MANPADS in terms of unit cost while using an active radar seeker and a sizeable warhead, alongside AGM-179 JAGM, has been pitched as a new C-UAS option for this reason.
RPS-42 Radar
RPS-42, manufactured by Leonardo, is a compact S-band AESA radar with an instrumented range of 30 km, optimised against slow and low flying aircraft. A single RPS-42 can cover 90 degrees in azimuth and -10 to 70 degrees in elevation.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor: Özgür Ekşi
