Kentron V2
| Kentron V2 | |
|---|---|
| General Information | |
| Type | Air-to-air missile |
| Country of origin | South Africa |
| Manufacturer | CSIR, Kentron (today: Denel Dynamics ) |
| development | 1965-1968 |
| Technical specifications | |
| length | 2830 mm |
| diameter | 127 mm |
| Combat weight | 70.4 kg |
| drive | Solid rocket motor |
| speed | approx Mach 2 |
| Range | approx. 3.2 km |
| Furnishing | |
| Target location | passive infrared |
| Warhead | 11.4 kg fragmentation warhead |
| Lists on the subject | |
The Kentron V2 is a South African air-to-air missile that was originally developed and built by the CSIR ( Council for Scientific and Industrial Research ) and Kentron (today: Denel Dynamics).
Since the development of the Kentron V1 had failed and South Africa did not change its apartheid policy , it became increasingly difficult to buy weapons on the international market. You remembered the V1 and started where you left off. Like the V1, the V2 is a direct copy of the AIM-9B Sidewinder , except that all components were made in South Africa. Development began in 1965 and was discontinued as early as 1968 after a few prototypes had been built. In 1969 the knowledge gained so far was used and the Kentron V3 was to be developed based on the Sidewinder. But you got R.550 Magic from France in 1973 and you found that it was better than the AIM-9B. So the development based on the Sidewinder was finally abandoned.
The V in V2 means Voorslag which is a word in Afrikaans , in German it means something like warning.