Making mini-missiles: U.S. struggles to fund radar-cued defense from rockets, artillery, mortars

摘要

U.S. struggles to fund radar-cued defense from rockets, artillery, mortars Amortar is fired. Radar downrange picks up the round, tracks it and feeds a computer that determines its target and path. A warning is sent to take cover while a responding weapon is triggered. If everything works, the threat is blown out of the sky 2 1/2 kilometers from the target. Elapsed time: 13 seconds. At the moment, barrages of bullets from a Gatling gun try to do that but with mixed results. Teams of researchers from Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are working on competing designs for mini-missiles that might be able to strike mortars, rockets and artillery shells with more reliability and at safer distances from civilians and U.S. forces. The Army, however, has struggled to fund the development work beyond a few million dollars a year because of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which has proponents wondering about the project's future. The concepts remain in the simulation phase.