The Kornet-EM multipurpose mobile missile system, which was developed by the Tula Instrument Design Bureau, will be presented to the general public at the MAKS-2011 air show (from 16 to 21 August). This was officially announced by the press service of the CPB. Weapons specialists are of the opinion that the new Kornet-EM ATGM has all the necessary technical and combat characteristics to actually replace the Strela-10, which is currently the main short-range anti-aircraft missile system.
The main purpose of the Kornet-EM ATGM is to combat existing and future tanks with built-in reactive armor, light armored vehicles, air and surface targets (ground attack aircraft, UAVs, helicopters), and can also hit various fortifications. The Kornet-EM ATGM complex ensures the destruction of targets at ranges of 150 - 10,000 meters with rockets remotely controlled in the beam of the built-in laser using an automatic control system that has high noise immunity.
The automatic control system allows simultaneous salvo firing of 2 targets. A cumulative warhead with a TNT equivalent of 7 kg provides effective armor penetration up to 1300 mm. The time required to transfer from a marching position to a combat position is no more than 7 s. The complex implements a unique principle of "fire and forget" due to the use of technical vision with fully automatic tracking of the target. This makes it possible to completely exclude a person from the complex process of ATGM guidance, which makes it possible to approximately 5 times increase the accuracy of target tracking in conditions of real combat use, as well as double the effective range of the Kornet-EM ATGM while increasing the probability of hitting targets. In addition, the ability to fire at targets in an automatic mode reduces the psychophysical load on the service operators, the requirements for their military qualifications and reduces the time required for their training.
According to the information of the State Unitary Enterprise KBP, the improved control system of the complex, the device of the guided missile engines and the automatic target tracking increased the effective firing range of the ATGM complex with a warhead warhead to 8 kilometers, and the missile launcher with a FBCh - up to 10 kilometers. At the same time, the firing accuracy at a distance of 10 kilometers has become much higher than that of the base complex of the Kornet-E ATGM. The main ammunition load of the Kornet-EM consists of 16 missiles, 8 of which are constantly ready to fire.
They tried to build similar types of universal anti-tank missile systems on a regular basis. The most famous example is ADATS (Air-defense Anti-tank System), which was developed in the mid-1980s by the Oerlikon concern (Switzerland) in active cooperation with Martin Marietta (USA). Then the main task was set - to design a single autonomous mobile complex, capable, if necessary, of fighting both armored vehicles on the ground and aircraft in the sky.
Initially, the US Army assessed the ADATS as a successful weapon and ordered 562 units for its own supply. But the period of real fulfillment of the order fell on the beginning of the 90s, which brought the end of the confrontation with the USSR, which had sunk into summer, and the painful processes of reducing the American military presence in the states of Europe. The mobile unit, ready to equally meet tanks and attack helicopters, as it turned out, was not created at the right time.
The Swiss-American military product had a lot of advantages, the main of which was the use of a missile with a cruising speed of almost 3M, while the Russian Kornet-EM uses not so large missiles with a cruising speed of 1M. At the same time, the Tula ATGM is superior to its analogue ADATS in terms of declared ranges.
On the issue of using the selected missiles, one should make a discount for almost 30 years of the difference in creation, and then try to answer the main question: will missiles with speeds of 1M be effective in modern conditions, especially when solving combat missions of air defense? Perhaps what we will be shown at the MAKS-2011 exhibition in reality is an "advertising" export version, while the Russian army will be equipped with a completely different military equipment "Kornet-EM"?
