It doesn’t say what type of target it identifies though. In this context identifying the target likely means identifying the factory it is meant to be targeting is indeed it’s target and not that other building nearby.
Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG also perform target recognition and it is pretty un-controversial to say that they are incapable of tracking small vehicles such as tanks, or attacking moving targets. In fact the terminal guidance logic used by Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG looks very similar indeed to that used by AASM:
What i meant by my point, terminal guidence is used, for example in case where GPS coordinates are interfered, by natural or artifical means. That will cause the GPS position of the target to be not in a place the missile places it in, and thats where terminal homing comes in.
Even the AASM file shows a simmilar situation
My read of that isn’t a confirmation of tracking of a moving target. It is a confirmation that the IIR scene matching can correct for poor or jammed GPS even with minimum terrain features that would aid in correction.
Technically speaking, that doesnt actually prove it can hit a moving target. The source doesnt actually specify if the target data was pre-loaded into the AASM moments before launch or if it was pre-loaded on the ground for example.
All this proves is that it can hit a target that is 80m displaced from where it was supposed to be. Not that it can hit it while its moving. Its not actually providing us any new info barring how far the target can be displaced from its originally estimated coordinates.
Edit: seems a bunch of other peeps beat me to saying that.
Given Storm Shadow is a Anglo-Frnech cruise missile, its entirely possible that AASM use the same seeker as found in the Storm Shadow, or at least maybe a derivative of it (though different manufacturer)
Not sure if this has been pointed out by others, but this actually proves that the 20km seeker range in WT is incorrect.
If they had to test if the missile can find the target or not (once it gets within seeker range), through image correlation, this means the seeker isn’t tracking the target before or after launch, at 16km.
The seeker range is probably no more than 8km, if not less.
Thats the reason for the whole debate.
We have sources that state the Seeker of the IR missle only activated 1.5km from the target point.
So the whole missle is massively wrongly implemented
