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Sky Sonic

RAFAEL Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., a leading defense technology company, announced 14 June 2023 that it has developed an advanced interceptor, named “Sky Sonic,” as a groundbreaking defensive response to the growing threat of hypersonic missiles. This revolutionary system will be officially unveiled for the first time at the Paris Air Show, one of the world’s largest aerospace exhibitions, opening 19 June 2023.

The Sky Sonic interceptor represents a major technological leap in hypersonic missile defense. Designed with exceptional maneuverability and high-speed capabilities, it effectively neutralizes hypersonic missiles, which travel at ten times the speed of sound, with unmatched precision and stealth. RAFAEL’s booth at the Paris Air Show will showcase the interceptor, highlighting the company’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of air defense technology.

Over the past years, the threat posed by hypersonic missiles has escalated, necessitating proactive measures to safeguard national security. RAFAEL, known for its pioneering contributions in the field of defense systems such as the renowned “Iron Dome,” “David’s Sling,” and the cutting-edge “Iron Beam” laser-based system, is proud to be at the forefront of developing an effective solution to counter hypersonic threats.

Dr. Yuval Steinitz, Chairman of RAFAEL “RAFAEL has identified a marked increase and arousing interest in the international arena with proven operational capabilities and a geopolitical reality that has created many opportunities. We are following the developments and emerging threats in the current security context and are developing the most advanced defense systems. Project Sky Sonic is an innovative, unique development of its kind for the hypersonic weapon threat.

Major General Yoav Har Even, CEO of Rafael “We are coming to the air show with RAFAEL’s vast and impressive portfolio that includes systems that are at the forefront of technology. We at RAFAEL believe that even the seemingly impossible can be done. We have proven this in the past and will continue to prove it in the future. The orders for these systems are breaking records and for the first time we stand on a backlog of orders of over 40 billion NIS and alongside the activity as a successful global business company, RAFAEL continues to be a significant pillar in the security of the State of Israel.”

Brigadier General Pini Yungman, Executive Vice President and Head of the Air Defense Division at Rafael: “RAFAEL has achieved a reputation as a leading global manufacturer of air defense systems. From groundbreaking and operationally proven systems like the Iron Dome in its various configurations, to the David’s Sling and the SPYDER, we continue to look ahead and develop the next generations of systems to defend against the threats of tomorrow.”

An animated video rendition of SkySonic issued by Rafael showed an interceptor missile taking off vertically from a launch battery. The missile's warhead is then shown detaching and flying with its own booster toward an incoming threat.

Iran had intensified its anti-Israel rhetoric this year, openly taking credit for rocket and missile attacks launched by its Palestinian and Lebanese proxies and vowing to destroy the Jewish state. Having restored relations with Saudi Arabia, Tehran feels emboldened and out of isolation in the region. It also continues to build close military ties with Russia, delivering drones and possibly missiles for the invasion of Ukraine. When Iran on June 6 unveiled its Fattah missile, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said: "To any such development, we have an even better response." He did not elaborate.

Iran claimed its hypersonic missile, dubbed Fattah (conqueror) has a range of 1,400 kilometers, can breach and overcome all anti-missile shields, and hits speeds of Mach 13-15, which means about 13 to 15 times faster than the speed of sound -- known as Mach 1. Currently available technology perhaps supports hypersonic missiles flying at Mach 5-8, so Iran's claim of mach 15 speed seemwd an exaggeration.

Hypersonic missiles encompass a new family of threats, including hypersonic atmospheric cruise missiles, gliders, and cruisers that travel at incredible speeds while maintaining exceptional accuracy and maneuverability. Unlike ballistic missiles, hypersonic missiles have the ability to change their course mid-flight. Consequently, a successful defense against hypersonic threats requires a multifaceted approach that involves not only countering their speed but also effectively tracking, detecting, and intercepting their unpredictable flight paths.

Developing a comprehensive defensive response to hypersonic threats presents numerous complex challenges, including detection and tracking difficulties that necessitate a synchronized sensor system capable of accurately identifying and locating the threat throughout its trajectory. Furthermore, accurate trajectory prediction demands an interceptor that can swiftly reach the target, minimizing uncertainty associated with target location. Lastly, the interceptor must exhibit exceptional maneuverability and operate on a non-ballistic trajectory to effectively pursue and neutralize the hypersonic threat.

In order to deal with the threat of hypersonic weapons in the near space (speeds exceeding 5 times the speed of sound), it is necessary to develop and build new weapon defense systems, where foundation interception is an effective containment means. However, the air in the nearby space is thin, the aerodynamic force of the interception bomb is insufficient, and the traditional control surface control method cannot provide the motor overload requirement.

In order to overcome the defects of the traditional control surface control method and realize the quick response of control instructions, the direct force/aerodynamic force compound control is an ideal method at present. The method ensures that the interception bomb control system has higher response speed and overload capacity, and effectively improves the striking precision. By adopting a control mode of combining aerodynamic force and direct force, the maneuvering response time of the interceptor can be obviously reduced, and the maneuvering performance of the interceptor is greatly improved,

However, the flow characteristics of the direct force jet flow and the supersonic velocity incoming flow which are mutually interfered are very complex, and complex flows such as shock wave and shock wave interference, shock wave and boundary layer interference and the like exist, so that serious force and moment interference is generated on the interceptor bomb. This makes computer simulation of the supersonic interceptor with jet very time consuming and difficult to optimize.

The combination of continuous carbon fiber 3D printing with pyrolization and liquid silicon infilitration will not only enable lower cost and more customiz-able versions of the CMC parts necessary for the creation of hypersonic UAVs, missiles, and kill vehicles, but also enable more efficient propulsion systems.

Missile guidance and control has received considerable attention in the last 50 years. Proportional Navigation (PN) and its multiple variants has been the preferred guidance technique. The so-called optimal law is applicable to first order interceptor response, requires good estimation of target maneuver and of tgo (time to go). Neoclassical Guidance does not require estimating target acceleration and tgo, but since it is based on adjoint techniques, it requires a good dynamical model of the interceptor flight control system and does not apply to the case of dual concurrent lateral controls.

The quest for better prediction of target maneuvers leads to use of banks of filters with typical maneuvers and maneuver detectors. Here the problem is that the detection of a maneuver of change thereof takes some time to have enough confidence in the decision made and also the “mathematical” separation of the maneuvers may not be evident.

The use of a Kalman Filter transition matrix with a ZEM based guidance helps in reducing the effects of delays but is only applicable for longer range exo-atmospheric guidance. Kalman Filtering has been a technique of choice for estimating target motion. While it produces good estimations, its relatively slow convergence may cause it to be ineffective at the end-game when rapid target maneuvers are encountered. Higher Order Sliding Mode Observers can provide faster and yet more accurate estimations than traditional Kalman Filter.

To be effective, a guidance law must be supported by a good autopilot. Most autopilot design are based on classical control techniques or on state feedback techniques that rely on internal mathematical models are only as good as the internal models. Further, the internal models are more and more expensive and difficult to develop as the domain of utilization of the missiles becomes larger and larger and as the accuracy is more than often questionable, which then degrades the accuracy of the guidance and control (G&C).

Most of the numerical codes calculating the flow around the missile and most of the wind tunnel experiments simulate steady state conditions that is, their governing equations do not include or model partial derivatives with respect to time. This assumption was reasonable up to now but is becoming increasingly questionable as missile with greater and greater agility and shorter time constants are designed. Working with non steady state computational fluid codes of designing non-steady state wind tunnel experiments increases dramatically the difficulty in generating realistic missile models. Thus, there is a need for more robust control systems and methods that are tolerant of complex and unpredictable interactions and adapt to changing dynamics resulting from effects such as hypersonic aerodynamics and interactions.

Another important issue is to achieve interceptor maneuverability as large as possible. This calls for operations in the endo-atmospheric domain for combined operation of several divert mechanisms, possibly several control surfaces. Designs where a forward placed thruster and tail (fin control) are used jointly can initiate a lateral maneuver faster and without non-minimum phase effects. One of the potential problems associated with this approach is that it requires accurate estimation of lateral divert and angular motion effects of each control that are by definition not measurable separately.

The Paris Air Show, the world’s largest aerospace exhibition, will provide an excellent platform for RAFAEL to showcase its wide range of advanced systems and capabilities. Following a four-year hiatus due to the global pandemic, the show will feature for the first time unique RAFAEL solutions and systems. Visitors to the RAFAEL pavilion will have the opportunity to experience firsthand the “Iron Dome” system, the “David’s Sling” system, the “Iron Beam” laser air defense system, as well as advanced features of the “SPIKE” missiles integrated with combat helicopters, supplementary systems for aerial platforms, and much more.