Saturday, December 18, 2021

ASRAAM.

This is coolbert:

Courtesy the Aviationist. I am not sure if any of this is good or bad!


"In what the UK Ministry of Defence called an 'unprecedented event', an RAF Typhoon conducted the type’s first ever operational air-to-air engagement in Syria on Dec. 14, 2021. The event marked also the first RAF air-to-air missile firing during Operation SHADER, the UK’s contribution to the military campaign against ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant),"

"The kill was carried out using an Advanced Short Range Air to Air Missile (ASRAAM) that successfully hit and destroyed a small-sized drone."

Small-sized drone taken out by an air-to-air missile. Does the pilot get full credit for a kill? Or is it half a kill or one quarter?

And consider how cost effective is all this? Price of a single ASRAAM: "COST: $274,830 per missile".

Contrast with the of a small-sized commercially available drone: "Chinese Skywalker X8 drone . . . less than 200 US Dollars". [My assumption here is that this was a commercially available drone modified by the Islamic State weapons experts. Military grade small-sized drones can be very expensive.]

Consider also:

"US Gen. David Perkins made headlines last week when he announced that a US ally had used a $3 million Patriot missile to destroy a single small ISIS drone." [May 2017]

I guess as long as it saves the life of one troop it is OK?

coolbert.




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