Ahab anti-ship missile
Profile (n/a) | |
Ahab | |
---|---|
Design details | |
Function | Medium-range ballistic anti-ship missile |
Manufacturer | Space Union Lyme and Martens Industries |
Design No. | Space Union: SuAGM-1 LMI: LMR-29 |
DPA No. | GWS.97 |
Unit cost | $6.25 million |
Service dates | 2006-present |
General characteristics | |
Length | 11.4 m |
Diameter | 1.2 m |
Launch mass | 20398 kg |
Launch canister | |
Flight characteristics | |
Propulsion | RBS.9701 solid rocket booster RBS.9702 solid rocket booster RBS.9703 PBV RMS.97 warhead |
Flight control | Thrust vectoring |
Speed | Mach 14.5 |
Manoeuvrability | g |
Range | 3000 km |
Ceiling | >160 km |
Guidance and payload | |
Guidance | Midcourse:
Terminal:
|
Warhead | 4 × 261 kg penetrator (8 kg) |
Fuzes | RF directional, penetrator |
Launch platforms | |
Ship | GWLS.58 |
Land | |
Operators | |
Space Union, UKIN |
The Ahab anti-ship missile is a conventionally armed medium range quasi-ballistic missile designed to pierce the hulls of heavily armed surface warships and other hardened positions. It is a co-design of Space Union and Lyme and Martens Industries.
Design
The Ahab is a large two-stage missile with four independently targetable trajectory shaped vehicles (TSV) capable of striking a super Dreadnought at high hypersonic speeds. The missile is designed to attain the thermosphere (approximately 100 km — 500 km altitude) before burn-out placing it under the reach of many long-range, space-based anti-ballistic missile defences as well as outside the intercept altitude and range of many surface-to-air missile ranges. Once the warheads are ejected from the post-boost vehicle (PBV) their high speed and acute attack angle (up to 90° dive angle) make them very difficult to engage while the sturdy penetrator warhead is difficult to destroy before impact.
The warheads are tungsten-sheathed 254mm darts with a fragmenting nickel-steel core around an eight kilogramme bursting charge of insensitive explosive. Active and passive decoys are likewise housed within the PBV to minimise the chance of interception.
Characteristics
Type: Medium range quasi-ballistic anti-ship missile
Service designations:
Space Union: SuAGM-1 Ahab
UKINDF: Air: AGM.97; Ground: FGM.97; Surface ship: MGM.97; Submarine: UGM.97
Dimensions
Length: 11.4 m (aerospike not deployed)
—First stage: 6.358 m
—Interstage: 0.19 m
—Second stage: 3.756 m
—Post-boost vehicle (with shroud): 1.096 m
Diameter: 1.2 m
Launch canister: 1.4 m × 1.4 m × 11.43 m
Mass
Missile: 20397.903 kg
—First stage + interstage: 11147.766 kg (loaded); 1402.858 kg (empty)
—Second stage: 6800.137 kg (loaded); 855.744 kg (empty)
—Post-boost vehicle (PBV): 2450 kg (including warheads and decoys)
Guidance
Initial: Hybrid GPS/IMU (GAINS) with command uplink
Midcourse: GAINS and satellite uplink
Terminal: Radar (PBV), GAINS, and short-range radar collision guidance
Launch angle: Air or surface
Launch system:
Surface ship: GWLS.58M2 or GWLS.58M3
Maximum range: <3000 km
Operational altitudes: >160 km
Speed (max.): 5567 m/s (Mach 14.46)
Cost: $6.25 million (domestic)