Nimrod (missile)

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Nimrod missile in Paris Air Show

The Nimrod is a long-range air-to-surface missile developed by Israel Aerospace Industries. While primarily designed for anti-tank use, it provides standoff strike capability against a variety of point targets such as APCs, ships, bunkers, personnel concentrations and guerrillas.

Nimrod has a semi-active laser guidance system, capable of day and night operation. Its flight trajectory can be set below obscuring cloud layers, while a forward scouting team uses a laser designator to direct it from up to 26 km.

Nimrod may be installed on a variety of towed launchers, light combat vehicle launchers, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft. The primary helicopter launch platform for the Nimrod in the Israel Defense Forces is a modified CH-53 helicopter. The launching vehicle or aircraft may fire up to 4 Nimrods at once from a single pack.

Description[]

Nimrod is a long-range semi-active laser-guided anti-tank guided weapon (ATGW) which has been developed by the MBT Weapon System Division. It feature solid fuel propeller and capable of day and night operation. Nimrod can also be used as an anti-ship weapon.

Nimrod offer the gunner to pre-selects the flight trajectory mode. This can be direct trajectory, high cruising trajectory or low cruising trajectory, the cruising altitude being constant and between 300 and 1,500 m.

Mid-course guidance is provided by an integral inertial platform, and terminal guidance by a semi-active laser homing seeker. The target can be illuminated either by a ground-based or airborne laser designator.

The gimballed and stabilised seeker head acquires, tracks and homes in on its target using localised proportional navigation. It is said to have a look angle of more than 30°. The seeker has a search area of 5 km in width and 5 km in depth. In the terminal flight phase the weapon adopts a dive angle of approximately 45° to strike the armoured target on its vulnerable upper surfaces.

The missile is stored in a sealed canister which also acts as the launcher. Total weight of the missile and canister is 150 kg. It has five main sections: seeker, guidance and control, warhead, solid propellant rocket motor and servo. It is roll-stabilised in flight. Time to come into action at a launch site is less than 3 minutes without the site having to be surveyed for alignment or levelling, or with a direct line of sight to the target. The weapon can be fired in single-round, ripple or salvo modes.

Characteristics[]

  • Effective range: 300 - 36,000 meters
  • Length: 265 cm
  • Diameter: 17 cm
  • Body: 18 cm
  • Span 40 cm
  • Weight: 100 kg
  • Speed: ~1000 km/h Or Mach 0.8
  • Propulsion: Single stage solid rocket motor
  • Guidance: Semi-Active Laser Homing
  • Warhead: HEAT, Fragmentation-HE, Thermobaric, Anti-Personnel Munition

Variants[]

Currently three versions of Nimrod exist:

  • Nimrod 2 – A dual guidance Laser/GPS Homing missile, the Nimrod 2 has a range of 26 km and features a mobile launcher. The warhead is 14 kg, and the missile can support various warheads for a variety of targets. This missile is well suited to rapid response and it can also act as coastal defence missile.
  • Nimrod 3 – The Nimord 3 is the extended variant of Nimord 2. The missile has a range of 50 km with 50 kg warhead. It can support various warheads for a wide range of targets. It also has a mobile launcher.
  • Nimrod SR – The Nimrod SR is a short-range, semi-active laser-guided anti-tank missile that can be fired from ground platforms and airborne platforms. The missile has a range of 8 kilometers.[1]

Operators[]

Map with Nimrod operators in blue

Current operators[]

Comparable systems[]

See also[]

  • LAHAT, dubbed Nimrod-SR for the Latin American market.[2]

References[]

  1. ^ "Nimrod". Deagel. Retrieved 3 August 2021.
  2. ^ Eshel, Tamir (27 March 2012). "RAM MkIII Armored Vehicle: Rough and Tough". DEFENSE UPDATE. Retrieved 30 July 2021.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)

External links[]

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