Quote:
Originally Posted by Raellus
Back in the day...
I'm just surprised that the US Army didn't see a need for a fast-moving*, mobile AAA platform during the last few years of the Cold War. At that time, the Soviets were spinning up their new Mi-28 Havok and Ka-50 Hokum attack helicopters, both of which posed a threat to US armor (especially when it was on the attack). This would have been the perfect excuse for the US Army to request a new SPAAG. Perhaps the expensive boondoggle of the Sgt. York program soured all involved on SPAAGs.
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ADATS was supposed to lead to that. It was a dual-purpose SAM/ATGM with a top speed of Mach 3, a 10 kilometer range, and semi-active laser homing (jamming was more of an issue than dazzling when it started development). An 8-missile turret would be placed on top of a Bradley, along with a 25mm Bushmaster. There was also talk of developing an M1-derived Air Ground Defense System with a pair of six-cell ADATS launchers and twin 35mm Bushmasters working in teams of six to engage up to 20 targets simultaneously, per the July-August 1996 issue of
Armor. The missiles never reached the required milestones for reliability, MTBF, or serviceability.
The M1 AGDS concept had been around earlier as the Thomson-CSF/LTV Liberty series of proposals for the LOS-Forward-Heavy AAA system, as described
here:
Liberty - AMX-30 chassis, 6 Shahine (Crotale) missiles
Liberty I - M1 chassis, 2 12.7mm MGs, 6 Shahine or 12 VT-1 (Crotale NG) missiles
Liberty II - M1 chassis, 2 25mm Bushmaster, 12 VT-1 missiles
Martin Marietta and Oerlikon won the competition with ADATS, which then flopped even worse than the Sgt. York.