AGM-124 Wasp
| AGM-124 WASP | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Type | Air-to-surface missile |
| Manufacturer | Hughes |
| Technical specifications | |
| length | 1520 mm |
| diameter | 200 mm |
| Combat weight | 57 kg |
| span | 510 mm |
| drive | Solid rocket motor |
| Range | 10 km |
| Furnishing | |
| Target location | radar |
| Weapon platforms | A-10 Thunderbolt II |
| Lists on the subject | |
The AGM-124 WASP is an air-to-surface missile from Hughes , whose development has been set yet at the prototype stage.
history
The US armed forces initiated the WAAM (Wide-Area Anti-Armor Munitions) program in 1975 , from which three other programs emerged - the CBU-92 ERAM , CBU-90 ACM and the AGM-124 WASP.
The companies Boeing and Hughes were selected to develop the WASP, and they began the development phase in 1979. The operational concept of the AGM-124 provided that several rockets (seven or more) should be launched from a rocket nacelle . Each individual missile should be guided into the target by its radar seeker. The basic idea was that an A-10 Thunderbolt II carried up to twelve of these rocket pods and could attack multiple targets at the same time or destroy a target with multiple missiles. Defense against such an attack with a large number of missiles would be very difficult.
During the development phase, the Hughes design turned out to be better than Boeing's, so the US Air Force decided on the Hughes model. The first prototypes were tested in 1983, but development was stopped in October of the same year.