Yep, at least indirectly implied
I think the intended target is more things like coastal defences, land-based ASM launchers, etc. Rather than necessarily “tanks” but if it can target those things then it can also target tanks
It also has MITL
i see that good then, be interesting to see how they work, but surely there’s other weapons too we could get other than door gunners when infantry comes out properly
Wildcats main role is naval support, weapons like Martlet and Sea Venom are perfect for the main threat of dealing with light attack craft. Its also quite a decent ASW vehicle when combined with a Type-23.
For anti-tank role/anti-personnel role, The Ah-64E is the go-to choice for Britain.
true but there are other operators who use it too
Yes, which is why we have Spike from South Korea.
if the AH-64E wasnt also given the Spike, then the main advantage for the Wildcat would have been the long ranged MITL from the Spike-NLOS. But now they have been added to the AH-64E as well, it just renders the Wildcat a niche tree filler and little value in GRB
true very true
Just seen they’ve closed this; should we open another with just the sources based on the firing angle?
You can try, but it will probably be dimssed with “not enough info”
Correct me if I’m being dumb but the martlets are in fully enclosed launch containers therefore they cannot see the laser before launch therefore they must get some sort pre launch gps data or something and shouldn’t be limited by the 5x5 fov
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They would not be able to see it either way, as receivers are on the back, so the missile has to get in front of the vehicle.
There are a 2 possible ways this can go:
A) It gets some pre launch data, that pre position it.
B) It flies straight, hoping it find itself in the laser.
This was already solved in the 80s with Swingfire with it’s 90° turn. While launching, obviously the gunner would be looking in the opposite direction to the launcher, and the early Swingfires were MCLOS, so how on earth was the gunner supposed to direct a missile launching in the complete opposite direction to where he was looking at the time?
Simple, he wasn’t. The missile guidance system took note of where the gunners optics were facing vs where the launcher was facing, and after launch the missile had a period of automatic command purely to position itself within the gunners optics so MCLOS could begin.
I am absolutely certain that Martlet behaves the same way, considering this guidance issue was already addressed 50 years ago, and LMM specifically has an optics-based target acquisition sequence (as opposed to a seeker-based one).
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Now we need a George Variant
Shame the engagement section there is just “when the target is in range” and not more detailed.
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From a Thales patent on laser beam rising missile guidance filed in 2011:
Confirming that the laser information field (LIF) produced by the optics and used for beam riding can be offset from the direction the missile is sitting in the canister, and the missile is provided with this difference when preparing to fire and will correct itself on launch until it is situated correctly within the LIF.
Essentially the LMMs can launch anywhere the optics are facing. But convincing Gaijin that this document relates directly to LMM may be a challenge.
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My issue with this is the patent is largely talking about roll correction. This is apperant by the detector diagram;
Inputs into guidance are LIF and Roll, and reading into the patent more its because LBR missiles struggle with the LIF not being roll synchronized with the missiles which can cause issues with how the missile interprets its position in the LIF.
The grid itself is only providing 2D elevation/azimuth information;
All of this is important for LMM as its both ground, sea and air launched, with the later two having roll implications. The roll angle isn’t programmed pre-launch it’s sent to the missile in flight as extra pulses inserted into the LIF between the pitch/yaw doublets (fig. 4),
I don’t think your conclusions about a gathering phase being possible with prelaunch information is wrong, just this isn’t evidence of that.
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I agree that the patent is predominantly addressing roll stabilisation. But the section of the patent between Page 4 Line 27 and Page 5 Line 12 (ish) is specifically background information about the launching process kindly provided by Thales.
As you identified:
No roll related data is shared with the missile pre-launch, the first roll pulse (R0) is sent during missile flight after the first validation window.
So any reference to pre-launch course correction isn’t roll related (despite being included in the roll correction patent), it would be purely to address any delta between the direction the LIF is facing and the direction the missile is facing. Imo the wording is fairly unambiguous for this, especially the below, but I could be mistaken.
Through this, the missile can gather information about its position relative to the intended trajectory defined by the projected LIF, and make any adjustments to its flight control apparatus that might be required in order to maintain that trajectory.
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I’m sorry to say this, but this refers to missile finding itself already on the beam, not before it.
As a missile is primed for launch, its guidance circuitry is synchronised with the beam generation apparatus 10.
This part talks about pre launch synchronisation of missiel guidance and laser generator, so missile can read the LIF.
The LIF is projected by the generator 10, such that a receiver of the missile synchronises with the LIF. Through this, the missile can gather information about its position relative to the intended trajectory defined by the projected LIF, and make any adjustments to its flight control apparatus that might be required in order to maintain that trajectory.
This talks about after launch. Missile receivers read where they are on the LIF, and point missile onto the intended trajectory, that is the middle of the beam in most cases.
Yeah you could well be right with this
don’t get disheartened im sure your close to finding the information we need to make marlet better and more useable
Gaijin: firing window is being reduced from 5x5 to 1x1 because “reasons”