Tel Aviv: Israeli company Rafael has adapted its Rocks air launched ballistic missile for ground launch.
The Rocks is a new generation extended stand-off range air-to-surface missile designed to strike high-value stationary and relocatable targets in a GPS-denied arena.
Equipped with either a penetration or blast fragmentation warhead, the missile can destroy above-ground or well protected underground targets in heavily surface-to-air defended areas.
According to the Israeli company, the pilot allocates a mission for the missile before release. The mission includes target coordinates, impact angle and azimuth, topographic imagery data, and fuse delays. Rocks is released well outside of the surface-to-air defended area, and performs a high-velocity trajectory to minimise attrition of both launching aircraft and missile, providing high target kill success.
The missile uses its INS/GPS for conducting its mid-course trajectory. Homing, up to target destruction, is performed by using its scene-matching technology or anti-radiation capability, overcoming any GPS jamming scenario.
The special launcher is carried by a truck that that carries some sensors.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda