SMArt 155

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Cutaway model of a SMArt-155 projectile

SMArt 155 ( S uchzünder- M unition for the kind illerie, Eng. S ub M unition for type illery ) is a cargo munitions with submunitions to combat heavy or light armored targets at medium range. The ammunition is sold by the company GIWS (Gesellschaft für Intelligente Wirksysteme mbH), a subsidiary of Diehl and Rheinmetall . The projectile corresponds to the NATO standard for 155 mm artillery projectiles and can therefore be fired from a variety of artillery pieces. The Ministry of Defense of the Federal Republic of Germany and the manufacturers see SMArt 155 as “point-to-point ammunition” that is not subject to the Oslo Agreement on the prohibition of cluster bombs .

use

The SMArt 155 was developed to fight stationary and moving targets in any environment and in any weather. It is used against camouflaged and unmasked, "soft", "semi-hard" and "hard" targets with little ammunition expenditure. Thus, targets from trucks to lightly armored infantry fighting vehicles or anti-aircraft vehicles to heavily armored battle tanks can be fought with one type of ammunition. According to Rheinmetall, the functionality and sensors result in "significantly reduced collateral damage". It is also suitable for use in the desert.

construction

The projectile consists of the projectile casing, an ejection device and two almost identical submunitions. Each submunition consists of a braking and stabilization system, detonator and warhead. The detonator consists of an infrared sensor , millimeter wave radar sensor (mmW radar sensor), millimeter wave radiometer sensor, signal processing electronics and power supply.

technical description

Launch and submunition ejection

The projectile is fired with a conventional propellant charge from an artillery gun and ejects the submunition after a preset flight time and thus distance. The two submunitions that descend in a spiral shape on the parachute scan the target area autonomously for targets with their triple search sensors. The sensor algorithm should be able to recognize armored combat vehicles, to distinguish them from false targets and to fight them even under difficult environmental and weather conditions. To avoid duds  - as they often occur with conventional cluster bombs - the submunitions contain redundant self-destruction .

Braking and stabilization system

The braking and stabilization system first reduces the high speed and twist values ​​of the submunition after it has been ejected from the shell and then provides the dynamics for the search phase of the submunition.

Search detonator

By turning the parachute, the search detonator searches the terrain in a spiral, detects combat vehicles, measures the distance to the target, calculates the optimal ignition point and triggers the ignition signal. A confirmation of the target recognition is not required. This makes it possible to fight fast moving targets.

Each of the three independent sensors is able to recognize targets and trigger the ignition signal. This ensures that the ignition is triggered and the target is attacked even if a sensor malfunctions or fails.

The problem, however, is that

  • the ballistics can only be precisely determined until the first submunition is ejected,
  • the point of emission of the 2nd submunition cannot be precisely determined,
  • After the submunition has been ejected, the targets must be in the “footprint”, which becomes smaller and smaller (radius approx. 150 meters) as the projectile hanging on a kind of parachute sinks
  • and the wind direction and wind speed in the destination (possibly> 30 km away) must be known fairly precisely.

These data can be added to the "target report" (see also " ADLER system ") or calculated using a weather model (for example "WeModArt" from the German armed forces).

Warhead

The warhead is designed as a projectile-forming charge with a tantalum liner similar to a shaped charge projectile. Its efficiency enables combat of all combat vehicles, including reactive armor . During the projectile's flight time, which takes only a few milliseconds from the ignition signal to the point of impact, the target vehicle can travel a maximum of 50 centimeters even at the highest speed, which means that the speed of the vehicle is irrelevant for the warhead and combat.

Mission sequence

Smart155 overview.svg
phase image description
1 Smart155 phase1.svg A SMArt 155 is fired from a 155 mm artillery piece.
2 Smart155 phase2.svg The bullet flies up to 30 km on a ballistic trajectory.
3 Smart155 phase3.svg In flight, the submunitions are ejected via a time-controlled ejection charge.
4th Smart155 phase4.svg After being ejected, the submunitions first fall in free fall onto the target area.
5 Smart155 phase5.svg The submunition parachute unfolds. The submunitions move down a corkscrew path through the special parachute while the sensors search the target area.
6th Smart155 phase6.svg When a target is recognized by the sensors, the projectile-forming charge is ignited. The penetrator hits the target from above and thus at the point where the armor is mostly weak.

production

The “SMArt 155-Team” includes companies such as Rheinmetall Waffen Munition GmbH, Diehl Munitionssysteme, EADS, AIM, Brüggemann and Preh -Werke. According to the non-governmental organization Aktionbündnis Landmine.de , over 25,000 SMArt 155 were produced by 2011.

use

armed forces

The Bundeswehr uses the search fuze ammunition for artillery in caliber 155 mm as SMArt 155 mm DM 702 together with the modular propellant charge system MLTS (DM 72) in the self-propelled howitzer 2000 (PzH 2000). The effective range is then 28 kilometers. According to the manufacturer, 9,400 units had been delivered by 2003. According to data from the Ministry of Defense in March 2011, a total of 9,000 projectiles were procured between 2000 and 2003. The costs for their development and procurement amounted to 510 million euros. The ammunition was said to have been used during the ISAF operation in Afghanistan.

Other users

The SMArt 155 has long been introduced in Switzerland and Greece. For the delivery to Switzerland we worked with RUAG . In 2002, 2000 pieces were ordered. In the Greek army , like the Bundeswehr, it is used in combination with the PzH 2000. In November 2003, the first ammunition delivery was handed over to the Greek army.

At the beginning of 2008 it was announced that the Australian and British armies had also acquired the new ammunition worth over 120 million euros.

The American GIWS partner company Alliant TechSystems sold license-produced SMArt 155 to the United Arab Emirates, among others . 11,000 units were sold under license.

Classification controversy

The official name of ammunition in the parlance of the Federal Ministry of Defense is point target ammunition in order to differentiate it from conventional unguided cluster munitions.

Cluster bomb or submunition

Various human rights organizations such as the action alliance Landmine.de or Handicap International see this weapon as cluster munitions. The representatives of Germany achieved that the SMArt 155 is not covered by the criteria of the Oslo Agreement on the prohibition of cluster bombs . Critics therefore see the definition of exception as contradicting the United Nations' understanding of cluster munitions. Furthermore, critics point to the similar effects as previous cluster munitions on the civilian population, such as duds or missile detection.

In a comment on regensburg-digital , the journalist Stefan Aigner wrote on July 25, 2008: “Today the Diehl company is one of the most successful German arms manufacturers. According to the company's own information, around a third of sales of 2.3 billion euros come from armaments production. Among other things, cluster munitions are produced. ”Diehl's lawyers demand a cease and desist from Aigner through an injunction and legal action. The lawyers rely on the exemptions made in the Oslo Accords to ban cluster munitions for cluster munitions, which allegedly pose no danger to civilians. In the trial before the Munich I Regional Court, which is responsible for the first instance, Aigner and Diehl reached a settlement on March 2, 2009 after the judge made it clear that he would allow Diehl's lawsuit. The comparison implies that the ammunition produced by the Diehl company by Stefan Aigner may not be described as cluster munitions. In return, Diehl took over all procedural costs.

In the same year, "intelligent effective system" achieved third place in the poll for the unword of the year 2009. Behind the harmless designation "intelligent effective systems", the jury saw only technologically highly developed types of ammunition, which were produced by a subsidiary of two armaments companies with the likewise disguised company name "Gesellschaft für Intelligente Wirksysteme mbH ”.

Prohibition as cluster munitions and lifting of the ban in Austria

Before the Oslo Agreement to ban cluster bombs came into force, the Austrian government initially defined the SMArt 155 as cluster munitions and had banned the product SMArt 155 as cluster munitions by law until the end of 2008. Use there has been permitted since the beginning of 2009.

Web links

Commons : SMArt 155  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Highly effective artillery shell, the profile - The newspaper of the Rheinmetall Group 3/2004, p. 17
  2. ↑ ATK: ATK / GIWS SMArt 155 Sensor Fuzed Munition Succeeds in UAE Desert Tests , press release of January 10, 2005.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f Concrete interest from overseas, Das Profil - Die Zeitung des Rheinmetall Group 3/2004, p. 17.
  4. ↑ Mines Action Canada: Cluster Munition Monitor 2011 from October 2011, p. 101.
  5. ↑ Answer of the Parliamentary State Secretary Christian Schmidt of March 16, 2011 to questions from the MP Uta Zapf (SPD). (PDF) No. 48–50. In: Drucksache 17/5121. German Bundestag, March 18, 2011, p. 30 , accessed on March 2, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Rheinmetall AG analyst conference on March 19, 2008  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ), p. 29 (PDF, eng., Accessed on December 3, 2011; 3.0 MB)@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.rheinmetall.de
  7. ↑ Human Rights Watch : Survey of Cluster Munition Policy and Practice, February 20, 2007 ( PDF ).
  8. ↑ a b Landmine.de : Alternative cluster munitions - problem or solution? (German, PDF file, accessed on March 3, 2009)  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.landmine.de
  9. ↑ Sarah Nagel: " shoe uppers for the defense industry " , New Germany on 18 October 2011th
  10. ↑ Article in the TAZ of March 2, 2009: "Build weapons, clean language" (German, accessed on March 3, 2009)
  11. ↑ Andreas Zumach: Comparison in the process of "cluster munitions", taz of March 4, 2009.
  12. ↑ a b Article in the TAZ of March 2, 2009: "Comparison in the process of cluster munitions" (German, accessed on March 4, 2009)
  13. ↑ "Point target ammunition meets freedom of the press": Article on Heise.de of March 3, 2009 (German, accessed on March 3, 2009)
  14. ↑ Stefan Aigner: Intelligent bombs with stupid words regensburg-digital from January 20, 2010.
  15. ↑ Linguistic researcher “Works council contaminated” is the bad word of the year , faz.net from January 19, 2010, accessed on November 27, 2013.