Shipbucket

I'm still exploring an alternative to Harpoon for Pallamara, and have decided a Ramjet ASM of roughly the same dimentions should fit the bill, but I know little about the issues involved. Would a supersonic ramjet the size of Harpoon even be useful/feasible? What would be the most that could be wrung out of it in terms of range and speed?

My idea is that Harpoon is too old and slow to be a major player anymore, and that something faster and more likely to penetrate modern defences is called for. The USN thinks the same with LRASM, but who knows when it will be available, or cleared for export, so other alternatives are needed. If the ramjet won't work then would an ASM version of Standard, with something like a Harpoon guidance package work?

This is a quick and dirty hash job I did of a ramjet version of Harpoon:

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We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

I think what you want is something like ASALM:


As for a ramjet Harpoon, yeah it should work (generally, you're probably not going to get them into Mk-13 Launchers). Take a look at some charts here:

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

I'm more worried about getting them in a tactical length Mk 41 VLS tube. Brah-Mos would be nice, but they wouldn't fit on smaller vessels without work, or inside of anything less than a Strike length VLS. Not to mention the unlikelihood of India selling them to begin with.

_________________
We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

I'm not sure how effective it would be but you could definitely stick something Sea Dart sized int the Mk-41 tactical.

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𝐌𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐍𝐄𝐓- 𝑻𝒐 𝑪𝒐𝒈𝒊𝒕𝒂𝒕𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒐 𝑺𝒐𝒍𝒗𝒆

I'm debating something the size of Otomat, just having its own launch unit, instead of trying to squeeze into Mk 41. I still think ramjet is the way to go. Modern anti-missile defences are just making slow stuff like Harpoon less effective, and less reaction time means better chances of getting through. I like the ramjet version of Harpoon, but at the speed I want it to go, I do not think it would have the range.

_________________
We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

The question is whether to go supersonic, or stealth. Stealth missiles have the advantage of being harder to spot on radar (although I bet infrared isn't too much better then normal) while supersonic missiles have a better chance of rushing past defenses.

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Probably posting from and iPhone and naval terms befuddle it. If I say a ships' hill, you know what I meant.

I was doing a bit of research, and Italy tried to build a supersonic version of Otomat called Otomach, but it fell through, so there is definite potential for the frame to support supersonic flight. I need the new missile to reach Mach 2-2.5 and have a decent range, at least close to Harpoon's, without being so massive I have to build the ship around the weapons.



This is my concept of what the finished weapon would look like, sort of a mini-Oniks or Granit, based on the Otomat frame. Since most of my current vessels are of Italian derivation, that bodes well for putting swapping on the modified Otomat launchers used.

_________________
We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."

Not happy with that version of the weapon, I redid it into a larger missile, I'm calling Otomach Mk II, I'm hoping to get a range of at least 90 Km and a max speed of Mach 2+, though for part of its flight, the missile will likely be subsonic. Unfortunately, I don't know how to estimate the performance of such a weapon...

_________________
We can't stop here--this is Bat country!

If it's close enough to cast a shadow, I think the flying house wins initiative.

Bronies are like the Forsworn. Everyone agrees that they are a problem but nobody wants to expend the energy rooting them out.

"That is a very graphic analogy which aids understanding wonderfully while being, strictly speaking, wrong in every possible way."