emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) (01/22/91)
From: emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) The launcher is 12 meters long, by 3 meters wide by 2.6 meters tall. It weighs 29.0 metric tons with the missile. Road speed is 70 km/h. (FM 100-2-3) Associated with the SCUD (all Soviet ballistic missiles) is an END TRAY ballistic meteorological radar. (Isby, Weapons and Tactics of the Soviet Army) Once launched, it is a true ballistic missile with "strapdown inertial guidance using 3 gyros to correct its ballistic trajectory... It has a warhead that detaches from the missile body during the final fall toward target. This provides additional stability and allows the warhead to hit at a velocity above Mach 1.5." (Cordesman and Wagner, Lessons of Modern War v2, Iran-Iraq War) Because it computes course changes from a ballistic trajectory, meteorology (including air temperature, density and wind speed and direction) are important to accurate targeting. An error of 1 degree in azimuth will result in the missile missing by 3.5km over a 200 km flight. That's why the meterology radar is important and a good signature item. dave
broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl) (01/23/91)
From: broehl@watserv1.waterloo.edu (Bernie Roehl) In article <1991Jan22.020956.21616@cbnews.att.com> emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) writes: > > >From: emery@aries.mitre.org (David Emery) >Once launched, it is a true ballistic missile with "strapdown inertial >guidance using 3 gyros to correct its ballistic trajectory..." Which is why details of where it hit should not be revealed by the press, especially not in real time. (It's sort of like saying "that was close, but it was a little to the left. Try again") >[...] warhead to hit at a velocity above Mach 1.5." This to me implies a maximum velocity of no more than this (as compared to the Mach 5 quoted earlier in this newsgroup). -- Bernie Roehl, University of Waterloo Electrical Engineering Dept Mail: broehl@sunee.waterloo.edu OR broehl@sunee.UWaterloo.ca BangPath: {allegra,decvax,utzoo,clyde}!watmath!sunee!broehl Voice: (519) 885-1211 x 2607 [work]