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Alternatives to Anti-Ship Missiles; If the PN cannot afford AShM
Topic Started: Apr 19 2005, 02:43 PM (4,616 Views)
el_commandante
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Company in initial production on system, tells investors it will be a moneymaker
By Bruce V. Bigelow
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 16, 2005

Titan is ready to begin initial production of its "affordable weapon system," which has been under development for three years. The low-cost missile is launched by a rocket booster which falls away as a turbojet engine takes over.

It is sometimes called a "poor man's cruise missile."

Yet top executives at Titan Corp. have been telling Wall Street analysts the company's new Affordable Weapon System has the potential to generate $1 billion a year for the San Diego defense contractor.

In the Persian Gulf War, the Tomahawk cruise missile was the U.S. weapon of choice for high-profile targets, such as Saddam Hussein's bunker. But at a cost estimated between $500,000 and $1 million apiece, military planners didn't necessarily choose cruise missiles to destroy more ordinary targets, such as bridges and communications towers.

In contrast, Titan hopes to produce its low-cost, precision-guided missile for $100,000 or less, including launchers and ground control systems. In concept, the Affordable Weapon System could fulfill a supplementary and more utilitarian role.

Titan has begun moving from prototype development to initial production, and has been negotiating a deal to manufacture 100 of the low-cost missiles for the Navy, said Larry Delaney, Titan's executive vice president of operations.

As many as 20 missiles can be housed in a modified shipping container, and multiple containers could be placed aboard Navy warships.

Titan hopes the order will lead to successively bigger contracts for the missile, which is 10.9 feet long and 13.5 inches in diameter. The company has developed a production line in San Diego with the capacity to make as many as 20 missiles a month, Delaney said.

Titan began development in 2002 as part of its focus on transformational defense programs promoted by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who sought to make the U.S. military more agile and cost-effective.

The Navy, for example, has been wrestling with the issue of operating very large and expensive ships that are vulnerable to anti-ship missiles, said David Brinkley of DFI Investment Partners in Washington, D.C.

The affordable weapon, on the other hand, was conceived as a low-cost, precision missile that could be fired from the X-Craft, a high-speed warship also developed by Titan to operate in coastal waters. As many as 20 missiles can be loaded into a modified shipping container, which can easily be loaded aboard Navy warships and fired in salvos or one at a time.

The design uses commercially available "off-the-shelf" technology to carry a 200-pound warhead more than 800 miles.

The missile is launched by a rocket booster that later drops off. A turbojet engine then takes over, and its wings unfold. Once launched, the missile has the ability to circle for up to six hours, and it can aim for a target by using a global positioning satellite system or by a ground observer.

Or as Delaney put it, "You can launch the missile in the morning and the targeting information can be transmitted after lunch."

The concept also offers the Navy a missile with certain capabilities that are comparable to Tomahawk cruise missile, but at a much-reduced cost, Brinkley said.

"The fact that it's commercial off-the-shelf technology not only means that it's cheaper, but that it's easier to upgrade," said Brinkley, a mergers and acquisitions consultant for defense companies.

Titan and the Navy have conducted dozens of flight tests since the program began, and Titan's Delaney said he hopes to complete operational testing and evaluation by the end of this year.

The Office of Naval Research sponsored the initial development by awarding a $25.6 million contract in 2002 to International Systems, a San Diego firm later acquired by Titan.

"What we're really demonstrating is the functionality of the weapon system – and that will generate its own concept of operation," Delaney said. "We're focused on providing some really transformational capability with this weapon system."

For example, under another contract awarded by DARPA, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Titan has been developing an affordable weapon powered by an aircraft engine, Delaney said. That should allow the missile to "loiter" in an area for 24 hours or more.

Titan engineers also have been developing multiple warheads in a single missile, with the ability to control each one individually using an infrared guidance system. If successful, such a system could aim smaller bombs at 10 separate targets.

"When you see that kind of capability, you have to start to think all over again how you might employ these," Delaney said.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/busines...m1b16titan.html
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saver111
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Hope we could do such kind of initiative and develop our own "VERY poor man's cruise missile" range about P100,000.00 or less not USD. :sad2:
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al'Lan Mandragoran
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Quote:
 
As many as 20 missiles can be housed in a modified shipping container, and multiple containers could be placed aboard Navy warships.


We can probably load this missile containers in our LSTs to give the ships a modicum of attack capability don't you think? :rifle:
"In wars, boy, fools kill other fools for foolish causes."

"Run when you have to, fight when you must, rest when you can."

- Robert Jordan; The Wheel of Time
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saver111
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:agree:
Similar to the systems Viking posted in the Danish naval ships. Modular, can be easilly installed in a few hours.
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ColdDeadFish
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It is not difficult to build your own missiles especially if you use solid propellants (you just need to powderize aluminum, a suitable propellant, a catalyst and lotsa epoxy) to build the missiles. However, the AFP do not have a program much more the government have a safety net setup for Defense contractors much more for Defense R&D ventures.

So who would front up the money without pre-commitments?

Militarily, Saddam Hussein ranks the highest if stacked up with previous Philippine presidents for having foresight about the military capability of their armed forces during their watch. With two exceptions, Manuel L Quezon and Ferdinand Marcos.

Quezon, was able to get the weapons he needed from the US. If it was not for the war, he had B-17s in the pipeline in 1943. For Marcos, he developed our first surface to surface missile tech albiet using liquid propellants.
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el_commandante
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The article said that the missiles were made off the shelf. and colddeadfish said that it is not really difficult to make a missile or rockets.

I know this is true, Hamas and othe palestinian militants are making their own rockets capable of hitting israel. but the rockets have no guidance system thus it cannot hit its target accurately. there are organization in the United states that build their own home made rockets. but these people are mere rocket enthusiast.

1) I am aware that marcos has a missile program, what happen with the project?


2) If missiles are easy to build. is it possible that Al Qaeda could someday build their own SAM and anti ship missile?

Consider this scenario guys. an Al Qaeda made anti ship missile installed secretly in a fishing trawler hit an american made cruise ship with more than 3000 people on board.

3) could somebody tell me what is the difference between a missile and a rocket?
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cindy
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in the simplest terms, a missile is usually guided while a rocket is not, that is, in military usage
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saver111
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Al Qaeda? No need to make missiles, they have the Stingers left from Afghanistan. And they could get planes and do like 9-11. Attack a ship? Remember the U.S.S. Cole, no missiles used against a well equipped naval vessel. Same with the Limburg Tanker case. The Tamils used suicide boats as part of their brown water navy. And they make their own fiberglass boats. Maybe our Army units could do the same. Make their own and design it.
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Justice for Daniel Lorenz Jacinto

HELP END PIRACY NOW!:
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seWer Rat
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Time to revive this thread, this affordable missile is probably ready for series production 5 years after this thread was started.



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darn thing can be fired from a shipping container :armyLol:
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seWer Rat
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AWS video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyfPjjGl2O0
To avoid criticism, write nothing, say nothing, do nothing, BE NOTHING.
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