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Javelot [Javelin]

The Javelot [Javelin] project was designed to test the feasibility of a short-range gun air defense system based on the directed or organized firing of a salvo of self-propelled 40-mm. projectiles launched from a multi-tube launcher. In the early 1970s, the U.S. Army was co-operating with British, French, and German counterparts in testing and evaluating low altitude air defense systems. During 1972, testing and evaluation of the French Crotale system was completed; the Javelot demonstration program, a joint U.S.-French effort, went forward; and testing on the British Rapier was initiated.

Based on an AMX 30 chassis, the Javelot anti-aircraft armament system consisted of a 64-tbe rocket launcher firing 40mm rockets each weighing just over one kilogram (1.030 grams). The joint American-French Javelot project was concluded during 1974 with all technical performance goals for the ammunition being met. The Army was considering whether or not to join with France in the further development of the Javelot system. In 1975, the US Army selected a group from the membership of its Scientific Advisory Panel to review the U.S. position on the discontinued U.S.-French Javelot project.

By 1975, the large expenditures associated with their potential procurement of the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) warrant special measures by the United States to reduce or "offset" the resulting outflow of dollars in order to make procurement politically, as well as economically, more acceptable to the Europeans. Although offsets for AWACS procurement would seem to be a fairly concrete and narrow problem, in fact it is closely connected with some of the most important and troublesome issues of U.S. NATO policy, including standardization and rationalization of forces; the "two-way street" in NATO weapons development and procurement; cohesion xithin the alliance, as well as political matters within the NATO countries; and various international economic and financial issues extending outside, as well as inside, the alliance.

The French Javelot, a short-range, low altitude, surface-to-air, multiple-rocket antiaircraft weapon, and the FRG Fiakpanzer Gepard, a twin-35 mm antiaircraft gun system, were both interesting candidates for an offset package. The French-developed Catulte was a naval Javelot.

Gun boosted rockets experienced a short period of developmental activity In the 1940-1950 period, and among the developments which attained field test stature was a system firing 2.75" spin rounds from a gun with moderately high rate of fire. This weapon was installed in an aircraft and testeco in combat in Korea. A field artillery application was also field tested. These developments stopped when it was believed that guided missiles would be a preferred solution. The Javelot gun-boosted rocket system represented the sole entry of its type in the competition for predicted fire antiaircraft defense systems.

Systems utilizing rocket propulsion elements for air defense without projectile guidance are considered to be dispersion limited. RAP projectiles may achieve shorter times of flight to specified ranges for the same warhead weight and complete round weight than conventional projectiles, but the time of flight advantage may be lost to the increased angular and time of flight dispersions. The RAP weapon obtains some of its velocity increment from rocket burn after launch, hence the gun musý fire the whle rocket, with the warhead weight increased by the weight of propellanm in the rocket, and by chc weight of the rocket motor case. RAP projectiles may have a cost disadvantage because of their greater manufacturing complexity, and the development cost associated with any new ammunition development program. If the dispersion, and cost handicaps can be reduced, a system using RAP may have higher effectiveness beyond two or three km for given cost, and lower fire unit weight than a system using conventional projectiles. 8enaor and computer requirements for RAP are essentially identical to those of conventional systems.

A system type that is occasionally proposed utilizes a battery of rockets, all of which are fired in salvo at a single predicted point. Porcupine apparently included this type of launcher as one of its weapons options. An advantage is that the rate and acceleration requirements on the servos to lay the mount can be relatively low, and the launcher may be relatively low cost. A disadvantage is that there is a limited flexibility in choosing the firing point, and no opportunity to average across unfavorable target path segments, as a continuous fire system does.

Javelot, which is reported to have the objective of achieving Rocket Assisted Projectile [RAP] dispersions competitive to gun fired unboosted projectiles, should be critically observed in development and demonstration firings to determine the feasibility and possible difficulties in achieving these objectives.

Javelot employed an ingenious compromise. Sketches show a battery of 96 tubes, backed by a container with 96 rockets. The system is reloaded simply by replacing the container. The tubes provide the equivalent of gun boost, but their weight is not involved in the reload package. Subject to the time delay in replacing the ersatz "breeches", one can continue to fire as long as one has loaded replacement breeches.

Javelot proposed an ingenious method of last-second control of projectile direction by using "splayed" tubes, each of which is installed at a small, but different deviation from the mean axis of the launcher. Beginning with a full load, one could then fire a salvo biased In the direction of an observed target maneuver, or fire a salvo with predetermined angular dispersion. The usefulness of this concept depends on how small the inherent dispersion of individual rounds can be made. If the gun-boosted rocket dispersions can in fact be brought down to magnitudes comparable to those of conventional guns, the method would provide a dimple way of controlling dispersion in successive salvos against a target as a function of range.