- Yes
- No
Around 1990 to 2001, The Roland Air Defence Missile System was proving itself in active service with many countries. As such, its flaws also came to light. The designers, EUROMISSILE, stepped up to address these concerns. The Missile system was often times, restricted in the instances it could be utilised. Looking at the French Roland 1 and its daytime only acting capability, EUROMISSILE later came up with the Roland 2, 2c, 3 and M3S upgrades.
In order to increase the efficiency and counter attack effectiveness, Euromissile added two more launch tubes to the system, which, albeit manually loaded, were key to increasing the simultaneous number of targets the system could engage.
Originally this modification was called the Roland 2c and was trialled on a French truck chassis with 4 launch tubes as can be seen here:
Spoiler
As far as I know, this was not developed further and instead, EUROMISSILE offered an upgrade to all operators of the Roland system worldwide. This package was called the Roland 3 (Not the missile but the launch system).
The Roland III launcher system is able to fire up to four missiles without reloading, and each vehicle has storage capacity of 12 missiles instead of 10.
This modification did not see use either.
Then enter the Roland M3S. The French were offered the M3S by EUROMISSILE in hopes that the system’s service life could be extended.
Two new rails were installed onto the Roland fire director unit. The internal rails were the same as before, loaded automatically, while the two external rails had to be reloaded manually. This took a long time (assumed 15 seconds per missile) as the missile weight is around 75kg and the loaders (2 of them) are assumed to have to get on top of the vehicle to restock the launch rails.
A new build of this system was also mounted on an American M240 chassis as can be seen here:
The German equivalent to the M3S was the Roland NDV. The Luftwaffe’s final upgrade to the Roland system that we have in game as the FLARAKRAD (MAN 8x8). Although the Germans, at the time, did not pursue the 4 launch rails.
However what is lesser known, is that the Luftwaffe also was interested in the Roland 3 launch system as well as the missile itself.
The FlaRakRad MAN 8x8 was restricted to airfield defence according to some sources. This was due to the 8X8 being too heavy to be air transportable. Hence the smaller but equally capable 6X6 chassis was used in cases when rapid transport and deployment was required. Our hero today though, was an upgraded MAN 8x8 chassis (basically a FlaRakRad).
This evaluation unit, shown at the top of this suggestion (apparently one of a kind), was made by EUROMISSILE before 2007, assumedly around 1990-2000.
The picture is actually from a photo press release by EUROMISSILE themselves, which further adds to the authenticity of this FRR variant.
Backside of above photograph
As of writing this suggestion, I have come across more images of this proposed upgrade for the FlaRakRad.
As can be seen here, this is the exact same chassis as the first picture owing to the camouflage pattern on the hull.
However…
This offer was never taken up by Germany.
Implementation in game
The already existing FlaRakRad can have a modification added that added the second pair of launch rails above the already existing ones.
This will vastly increase the Simultaneous target engagement capability for the FRR as the restriction to two missiles was a sore point in the face of ATGM lobbing helicopters.
Demonstration of 4 tube Roland on AMX-30R chassis in French service
Specifications
Chassis: MAN 15t mil gl KAT I A1 (8×8)
Engine power: 360 hp
Gears: 5 forward, 2 reverse
Crew: 4 (+1 loader added)
Weight: 27.5 t
Power-to-weight ratio: 13.1 hp/t
Ammunition: 12 Missiles (4 + 8 rounds)
Sources
- Roland (missile) - Wikipedia
- https://www.forecastinternational.com/archive/disp_old_pdf.cfm?ARC_ID=1097
- PHOTO PRESSE EUROMISSILE MISSILE ROLAND AIR DEFENSE SYSTEM MAN TRUCK RADAR FLAK | eBay
- Roland-2 anti-aircraft missile system | Missilery.info
- Roland-3 anti-aircraft missile system | Missilery.info
- ROLAND-LVB
