SPEAR - Selectable Precision Effects At Range

timmymagic said:
At 0.12 seconds in you can see the new seeker design for the SpearGlide...which is more like the SmartGlider Light than Spear.

IF...(and its a big if..) the IIR sensor is reasonably cheap I think MBDA has effectively merged the SpearGlide and MRUSW concept.

Originally SpearGlide was to have the full Spear sensor package, no engine and a warhead at least twice the size, essentially being an SDB2 Stormbreaker competitor....MRUSW (what I've called SpearSimple in the past) was to be an SDB1 competitor with limited sensors/guidance (GPS/INS only, perhaps SAL) with a penetrating warhead and no propulsion.

The new SpearGlide is effectively Laser SDB1 mixed with the IIR capability on SDB2.

It's sensible...but I do hope they have a SpearGlide 'value engineered' variant at some point stripping out the IIR (even if it is cheap...)

https://twitter.com/x/status/1965142406271304025
View: https://x.com/MBDAGroup/status/1965142406271304025
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I mean, SAL requires an IIR sensor. I suspect that IIR sensors have gotten cheap enough and high resolution enough that it's cost-effective to install a sensor good enough to allow IIR-only seeking so the difference between SAL and IIR is the programming in the guidance package.
 
Scott Kenny said:
I mean, SAL requires an IIR sensor.
Click to expand...

SAL guidance doesn't actually require an IIR sensor, when this type of guidance was introduced in the Paveway I in the Vietnam war it used a quadrature type detector (And had discrete analogue circuitry too). Alternatively a single IR-cell could be used in conjunction with a chopper.
 
NMaude said:
SAL guidance doesn't actually require an IIR sensor, when this type of guidance was introduced in the Paveway I in the Vietnam war it used a quadrature type detector (And had discrete analogue circuitry too). Alternatively a single IR-cell could be used in conjunction with a chopper.
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I suspect that these days an IIR CCD camera is cheaper than a quadrature or Sidewinder-style chopper setup, so SAL is more "TV guided" anyways.

I mean, my ~$100 phone has 4 cameras on it!
 
Scott Kenny said:
I suspect that these days an IIR CCD camera is cheaper than a quadrature or Sidewinder-style chopper setup
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It would definitely be cheaper and lighter but I was pointing out that an IIR seeker wasn't needed in the first place (They didn't even exist when LGBs were developed).
 
Scott Kenny said:
I mean, SAL requires an IIR sensor. I suspect that IIR sensors have gotten cheap enough and high resolution enough that it's cost-effective to install a sensor good enough to allow IIR-only seeking so the difference between SAL and IIR is the programming in the guidance package.
Click to expand...

The problem with IIR is then you get the decision around whether or not to include a data-link to get best use out of it...and costs start to climb. Thats why I'm quite evengelical about a really cheap value engineered version like SDB1. Keep that focus on lowest price possible.
 
timmymagic said:
a really cheap value engineered version like SDB1.
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Which reminds me that all the price-inflation between SDB1 and SDB2/Stormbreaker was just to add a moving-target capability*.

There's plenty of non-moving targets out there.

* Well, that and having to recompete because Darleen Druyun fixed the first competition for Boeing.
 

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