The optimal coastal defense solution
Maintenance of territorial security, multinational operations, freedom of navigation, presence of civilian vessels and a long coast line are a few of the challenges facing naval forces tasked with area denial and coastal defense.
The above demands, as well as the need to seamlessly integrate into a national command and control structure or the ability to operate independently at need have driven the development of the RBS15 System.
Over the years, anti-ship missiles have continuously evolved to better meet changing needs and requirements. Naval forces today demand systems that are highly capable and able to accurately pinpoint and engage their target; at sea or on land, night or day, in any weather conditions. Long range to maximize the engagement envelope is also critical as is flexibility in terms of logistics, transport, and positioning.
Saab’s RBS15 Land solution is a great example of this evolution in capability, reliability and flexibility in operations.
“The RBS15 missile was originally designed to dominate the challenging littoral environment.” explains Chris Shepherd,Naval Sales Director at Saab Technologies UK Ltd. “The unique requirements of littoral operations, with high density shipping, congested waterways, and presence of coastal islands and inlets formed the baseline for capabilities designed into the RBS15 missile systems. Our in-depth understanding of the technology and of our customers’ changing needs has resulted in a new land based solution that is optimized to provide a credible deterrent and formidable capability that is fully integrate-able and scalable to meet any customer requirement.”
Survivable and Capable
In the modern battlespace, being able to operate effectively without support systems is indispensable – particularly in the case of conflicts with peer level adversaries where use of electronic warfare or other countermeasures can degrade their reliability or render them useless.
The RBS15 has been designed to thrive in this scenario. The missile can find and engage targets independently, without relying on global navigation satellite systems or data links. In addition, a range of advanced strategies are available to counter jamming techniques.
A deceptive flight track, low altitude flight and attack capability, and the ability to penetrate the target’s multiple layers of defence are key features that ensure high survivability. A large, specially designed warhead with selectable fusing options provides maximum effect to engaged threats. A land attack capability allows for targeting and engagement of naval targets at quay-side or other unhardened installations, facilities, or formations.
Flexible Modular Launch System
The need for flexible transport and positioning solutions to allow for maximum defensive coverage as well as minimizing the cost and complexity of support infrastructure is also a critical factor to mission success. This need led to the development of a new container based modular launch system for use with the RBS15 family.
Based on an ISO standard 20-foot container footprint, the flexible RBS15 Launcher Unit system contains the major components and systems needed to support launch of the RBS15 missile. The system holds up to four missiles per vehicle and is effectively platform agnostic; meaning that the modular launcher system can be loaded on and transported by any military or civilian vehicle able to transport ISO standard containers.
This ability gives the operator great flexibility to use readily available transport vehicles to station or reposition missile batteries at need to meet changing threat scenarios. Able to engage targets at sea or on land without requiring any reconfiguration, the highly mobile system takes advantage of all the strengths and capability inherent in the RBS15 missile system without the need and additional cost of dedicated transport vehicles.
A typical configuration could comprise two to six missile launcher vehicles with a battery command vehicle to integrate with the existing national C2 structure and provide sensor input. However, depending upon need, individual weapons can be independently targeted and launched directly by the battery command or even at single launcher vehicle level using collocated sensors to provide threat and targeting information.
The system is designed from the start for great flexibility and scalability. Within an integrated C2 infrastructure, multiple battery command vehicles and launcher vehicles are able to operate in concert to ensure optimal threat identification, prioritization and coordinated engagement. The modular design concept allows for extensive capability growth over time.
With world-leading technology, through-life support, and the ability to tailor the system to specific national requirements, our RBS15 customers are able to defeat any threat -In in any conditions.