Akeron Missile, yay or nay?

[KevinB]

Every country has an Army: its own, or someone else's

Truth.

 

[Fabius]

Interesting news today that France is seeking to increase munitions production.
They are working with MBDA to accelerate Mistral MANPAD production rates from 20 in 2022 to 30 in 2023 and finally hit a target of 40 in 2025.
They are looking to accelerate ASTER missile production from the current 40 months per missile to 18 months per missile.

Given those production rates I can’t imagine the Akeron is much different. Even a Canadian UOR for 100 missiles is going to take 5-10 years to deliver likely unless the French were to give us some of the 500 missiles already produced.

Those production rates are why I favour US systems.

 

[Furniture]

Interesting news today that France is seeking to increase munitions production.
They are working with MBDA to accelerate Mistral MANPAD production rates from 20 in 2022 to 30 in 2023 and finally hit a target of 40 in 2025.
They are looking to accelerate ASTER missile production from the current 40 months per missile to 18 months per missile.

Given those production rates I can’t imagine the Akeron is much different. Even a Canadian UOR for 100 missiles is going to take 5-10 years to deliver likely unless the French were to give us some of the 500 missiles already produced.

Those production rates are why I favour US systems.

I suspect your numbers are off.. The system has 32 current and future operators, I doubt each country is shooting less than one a year.

 

[Fabius]

Ukraine conflict: France accelerates ammunition production

Given the numbers are coming from the French Defence Ministry and MBDA itself via Janes I suspect the numbers are correct.

 

[Fabius]

France Explores Ways to Move Industrial Base to ‘War Footing’

PARIS --- As France seeks to move to a “war economy,” the Ministry of the Armed Forces has commissioned two fact-finding missions aimed at speeding up...

www.defense-aerospace.com

Defence Aerospace’s article is more expansive than Janes in some aspects.
As crazy as the numbers seem it appears they are accurate. Perhaps it’s MBDA production for the French Military only that’s being discussed and the actual total number is higher but I am skeptical that is the case.

 

[Fabius]

How important is lock on after launch, and man in the loop for a sub unit level ATGM?

The lack of that capability is a deciding factor against the Javelin for some and a lock on after launch seems to be a key 5th gen factor.

 

[KevinB]

How important is lock on after launch, and man in the loop for a sub unit level ATGM?

The lack of that capability is a deciding factor against the Javelin for some and a lock on after launch seems to be a key 5th gen factor.

I’d say zero.
But the Javelin missile can Lock on after launch — the CLU and LWCLU don’t offer that.
You need a different CLU to either do LAL or Remotely Fed Lock, which may or may not exist.

 

[Fabius]

My thought as well but I wondered how if I was missing something.
Interesting to know that Javelin can lock on after launch, it’s just not enabled by the CLUs.

 

[KevinB]

My thought as well but I wondered how if I was missing something.
Interesting to know that Javelin can lock on after launch, it’s just not enabled by the CLUs.

Same seeker head as a few other items.
Edit: I’m not sure if the seeker is setup to allow for that either when it’s fit to Javelin versus other systems — but it easily could be if desired.

But I don’t see a LAL being useful in a ~6km system.
14km, and longer yes.

NLOS Longbow type Hand Off Lock - yes.
That’s a simple interface to the CLU.