France, Germany and Italy have successfully test-fired the Polyphem, a versatile precision weapons system designed to deliver a 20kg warhead at a range of up to 60km.
The Polyphem is touted as the world's best performing fibre-optic-guided missile for ground-to-air, air-to-ground, ship-to-ship and anti-submarine warfare, in all-weather conditions, by day or night.
Integrated on a variety of land and sea platforms with a range extended to 60km, the system can be rapidly deployed on a wide variety of land and naval targets, and it can engage land targets from the sea.
For naval warfare, a Polyphem lightweight anti-ship missile can be installed on board small ships, helicopters or as coastal batteries.
A submarine-borne configuration would for the first time give submarines the capability of defending themselves against ASW helicopters.
The first complete mission of the Polyphem missile was crowned with success at the end of April at France's flight test centre in the Centre d'essais des Landes of south-west France.
The missile struck its target within a 1m radius at a range of 16km.
The Polyphem, on show in Aerospatiale-Missiles' static display here, incorporates a high-resolution focal-plane infrared detector and an autonomous navigation system consisting of an inertial measurement unit with fibre-optic gyros, a laser altimeter and a GPS as a backup.
The ground-based firing post uses in-house-developed specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
The gunner, in a firing and command station, guides a missile in flight via a fibre-optic link which unrolls behind the missile.
Source: Flight Daily News
