- Yes
- No
General info
During the 1980’s France and Germany were looking into working together on the new FOG-M technology that will lead to the eventual Polyphem missile carrier. Italy’s MBDA managed to tag along with the project in 1995, the official co-operative accord was signed in 1984, with the designation ‘‘Polyphem’’. Testing started getting conducted shortly after the contract was signed. In 1997 the first fully constructed working system of the Polyphem test fire was completed. Essentially, the Polyphem was a fibre optic guided missile that would be able to be used on multiple types of vehicles and structures, which allowed the system to be very versatile. The Polyphem system would be able to perform as field artillery, a coastal defense system, and fire support system for rapid reaction forces. The main ability the system had was how versatile it was to actually be able to be controlled, many ways would be shown, mainly the system usually would need some kind of exterior command machine to operate it, however other ways it could be operated included a statelite data-link and from my research, there seems to be some sort of computer which could be installed or taken on board the machine, that would act out as the control panel which would mean the launchers would in theory be able to be controlled from the inside of the machine. It was said that the missile was able to used for Anti tank purposes (With a impact fuze) and for Anti Aircraft purposes (Proximity fuze), it had access to a 30kg warhead, allowing it to shoot at 6 potential targets with a range of 30km (although it was planned to go 60km, only a few tests are known to have been done with that result.). It was projected at the time to get into full time service in 2004, however Italy decided to leave the project due to unknown reasons, the most likely reason being that the program had basically no more funding and the countries involved would not proceed to continue development. It is also good to note that at the time, Italy had already a decent missile defense system so they likely saw no reason to pursue this project after funding was cut. Italy presented their Polyphem carrier on top of an Iveco M40 armored truck (also known as the VM-90), the launcher for it likely being designed and made by OTO Melara. In terms of more info on the VM90, in 1978 Italy had many outdated vehicles that they had to replace, such as the Fiat AR 57. The Italian army had put out a requirement for Iveco, to create a new design that would be able to replace the older military vehicles that they had in service, Iveco would refine the design and allow Italy to keep and upgrade this vehicle for many years to come. The first batch of vehicles getting phased in the Italian armed forces would be during the 1980-1990’s, this is why you’ll see Firefighter and Police variants of the vehicle. The truck would be in service for a long time in Italy and has seen itself be exported to Canada and license produced in China. In terms of protection, the Iveco M40 truck was only able to protect itself from small arms fire, mines and shrapnel from explosions. For the speed section, the engine this version had would be a Fiat 8142 diesel engine, that allowed it to reach up to 100km an hour on road, which gave it an overall range of 500km with a full fuel load. Overall the polyphem project was very promising but due to lack of interest and funding, it never saw itself being mass produced.
Armament
x1 Launcher for up to 6 Polyphem missiles (Anti tank - Impact fuze, Anti air - proximity fuze)
Specifcations
Why it should be in game
This vehicle should be in game as i can see it as a great top tier SAM launcher for Italy, its multi-role capabilities will allow it to shine better than what we already have in game, since the missles could be used for anti air and anti tank situations. Although it never entered service, it was planned to therefore i believe it should still be in the tree in some way shape or form. It would allow italy to get their own sam launcher that isn’t based on the M113 APC. This vehicle isn’t the most armored compared to an MBT but most of the Italian tree is used to having armed cars without a lot of armour. Unless Gaijin wants the vehicle to have more firepower, it will only be able to shoot 6 times before it will have to go back to a capture point to re-arm itself. The missles are actually decent so people will be using this vehicle, especially since it isn’t that big and is relatively fast.
Sources
Spoiler
Several Jane’s books, including:
Jane’s land-based air-defence
Jane’s strategic weapon systems 2003
Jane’s IDR 1996
Iveco products brochure
OTO Melara polyphem archived webpage
https://www.thinkdefence.co.uk/2023/05/fibre-optic-guided-missiles-efog-m-polyphem-and-others/
https://www.forecastinternational.com/archive/disp_pdf.cfm?DACH_RECNO=594
Polyphem - Wikipedia
Polyphem fibre-guided missile shows pin-point accuracy | News | Flight Global
https://www.army-technology.com/projects/polyphem/
http://www.deagel.com/Artillery-Systems/Polyphem_a000411001.aspx
http://www.military-today.com/trucks/iveco_40_10.htm
http://udachnyj-enot.com.ua/opytnyj-raketnyj-kompleks-polifem-frg-italiya-frantsiya-1986-2003-god/
http://www.apcon.aero/polyphem.html
http://www.defense-aerospace.com/article-view/release/3140/eads-test_fires-fiber_optic-missile-(sept.-29).html
Photos
Spoiler
