Hermes - Izdeliye 70 (Product 70)
The Izdeliye 70 (Product 70) and Izdeliye 305 (Product 305) are two totally different helicopter launched anti-tank guided missiles. Hermes LMUR (Lyogkaya Mnogotselevaya Upravlaemaya Raketa – lightweight multi-target guided rocket) is a prospective Russian guided missile weapon system developed at the Instrument Design Bureau in Tula, in cooperation with NIIFP. Tests of the aircraft version of the Hermes-A complex as part of the armament of the Ka-52 attack helicopter were completed in summer 2003. Complex "Hermes-A" was ready for serial production, but by 2020 no customers had been forthcoming.
The Tula Instrument-Making Design Bureau had been developing and testing the latest ATGM since the mid-1990s. Despite the fact that the Hermes is officially called an anti-tank missile, it is a versatile product capable of striking a wide range of targets, including buildings, field fortifications and enemy personnel. the missile's key feature is the ability to track and destroy over-the-horizon targets. Due to its infrared homing and laser guidance capabilities, it can hit enemy armored vehicles autonomously, even if they are out of sight of the helicopter crew.
"Hermes" is a multipurpose anti-tank missile system / multipurpose guided weapon system. This complex has been developed by the Tula Instrument-Making Design Bureau since the mid-1990s. The Hermes rocket with a detachable starting engine has a universal high-explosive fragmentation warhead. The controls are aerodynamic rudders. The Hermes long-range anti-tank system is a prospective complex of a new generation of high-precision weapons - a multi-purpose reconnaissance and fire anti-tank system that combines the properties of artillery and anti-tank systems. The complex is designed to destroy modern and advanced objects of armored vehicles, unarmored vehicles, stationary engineering structures, surface targets, low-flying low-speed air targets, manpower in shelters.
Analysis of publications in the press as of 1996 made it possible to conclude that the development of a "promising aviation ATGM" in the Instrument Design Bureau (hereinafter - KBP, Tula) under the leadership of A.G. Shipunov was already underway at that time. Tests of the aviation version of the Hermes-A ATGM as part of the Ka-52 helicopter armament were completed in summer 2003. The Hermes-A ATGM was prepared for serial production. On August 23, 2009, the head of the KBP delegation at the MAKS-2009 air show, Yuri Savenkov, said that in 2010 the helicopter version of the complex would undergo flight tests and be put into service. Serial production for the needs of the Russian Ministry of Defense for arming the Ka-52 and Mi-28N helicopters was planned to be launched in 2011-2012.
According to data for 1996, a complex of guidance systems on a carrier was supposed to be multi-channel - at least 4 channels for targets, automated. Target detection and tracking range - up to 15 km. The missiles were supposed to use different types of seeker - laser seeker (semi-active laser guidance) and combined IR + semi-active millimeter-wave radar guidance; the use of missiles with both types of seeker on the same carrier would make it possible to confidently hit targets, both contrasting and not having contrast in different wavelength ranges; also as of 1996, a "laser trail" type control system was being developed - the target is illuminated from the carrier, the seeker on the rocket "catches" the beam from the carrier and corrects the missile's flight.
Tests of the aviation version were completed in 2003, and for the first time the complex was demonstrated to the general public on February 22, 2009. Designed to engage single and group targets (including tanks, engineering and fortifications, surface targets and low-speed aircraft) with single or multiple launch fires at ranges up to 100 km. The aviation version of the complex has a range of up to 20 km, but this sharply reduces the losses of aviation from MANPADS and short-range air defense systems of the Osa-M class. The complex is adapted for various basing options ("Hermes" - ground-based launchers, "Hermes-A" - an aircraft version, "Hermes-K" - a shipborne version, "Hermes-S" - a stationary version for coastal defense), and is a unified solution high - precision rocket artillery for all combat arms.
The two-stage design of the Hermes is largely unified with the design of the Pantsir-S anti-aircraft missile system. The launch stage accelerates the missile and brings it to the target area, after which it is separated from the product. Then the war unit comes into play, which is already looking for a target, and then destroys. The disadvantage of this arrangement is the large weight of the rocket. According to reports, the product weighs more than 90 kg, while the "Whirlwind" ATGM is half the weight.
Currently, only one anti-tank missile system - the Israeli Spike-NLOS - was capable of hitting targets at a distance of several tens of kilometers. Developed in the late 1980s and early 1990s, the Spike had long been the most secret weapon in the IDF's arsenal. Israeli ATGMs are installed not only on ground launchers, but also on helicopters, and even on boats and small ships. Spike-NLOS was created in the 1980s to combat the massive tank attacks of the Egyptian army. Hermes and Spike are designed to solve the same tactical problems.
Ka-52K attack helicopters deployed on the Admiral Kuznetsov aircraft carrier will test-fire test the latest Hermes extreme-range anti-tank guided missiles for the first time in Syria in the battle with Islamic State, the daily newspaper Izvestiya reported 26 October 2016. "Tests in a combat environment will help finalize the missile system, which should become a standard weapon for Russia's Alligator military helicopters," the newspaper said, citing a source in the Russian military-industrial complex. "It was decided to test the Hermes in more difficult, shipborne air operations."
At the moment, the maximum range of destruction of Russian guided missiles for helicopters reaches 15 km, as reported by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on 11 March 2019 at a meeting of the State Duma defense committee. The minister then noted that the range of use of helicopter missiles was increased following the results of the antiterrorist operation in Syria.
The Instrument-Making Design Bureau JSC (part of the High-Precision Complexes holding of the Rostec State Corporation) present for the first time a new-generation Hermes high-precision missile system with a firing range of up to 100 km at the Army-2020 forum. TASS was informed about it in the press service of "High-precision complexes". "At the upcoming forum" Army-2020 "as part of the exposition of JSC" KBP ", for the first time, the Hermes high-precision guided weapons complex with an over-the-horizon firing range of up to 100 km will be demonstrated. It is a new generation complex that occupies a niche between guided artillery shells and operational-tactical systems ", - said the holding 18 August 2020.
The latest Hermes long-range anti-tank guided missiles (ATGM) are capable of hitting targets at a distance of up to 30 km, while the most effective helicopter ATGMs - "Attack", "Whirlwind" and Hellfire - this figure does not exceed 10 km. Hermes can be deployed on ground tracked vehicles as well as on helicopters and ships. The use of "Hermes" in Syria will not only allow testing a unique missile system in battle, but also demonstrate the novelty to potential buyers, primarily Egypt.
ATGM "Hermes" is built on a modular principle, which makes it possible to optimize the composition of the attracted funds depending on the tasks being solved, to reasonably combine different methods of guidance at different firing ranges, and also to place the complex on land, air and sea carriers.
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