Israeli develops Rampage stand-off missile

[garrya]

IMI Systems (formerly Israel Military Industries) and Israel Aerospace Industries have jointly developed a new long-range precision strike weapon suitable for use during stand-off-range attacks.

Named Rampage, the supersonic weapon is 4.7m (15.4ft) long and has a total weight of 570kg (1,250lb). Its rocket and warhead performance and navigation suite enable the design to be deployed against high-value, well-protected targets with "utmost precision", the companies say.
Suitable for carriage by a broad range of aircraft types, including the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter, the Rampage missile will be released from outside an area protected by air-defence systems.

Potential targets include command and control sites, communication facilities, air bases, maintenance centres and critical infrastructure, the companies say.

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/artic ... si-449358/

The Israel Military Industries (IMS) and the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) are currently at the final development stages of a new air-to-surface missile—the Rampage.r
The "Rampage" missile is designed to be launched from a fighter jet 150 km away from the target, meaning it will not be detected by the enemy's detection and interception systems.
Rampage air-to-surface missile
Israel's two big military industries have held over the past year joint experiments which have shown the "Rampage" is operational.
The stand-off method—long-range artillery launching—has been used by the IAF for many years.
The production process and sale of the 4.7-meter long missile—that weighs half a ton including its rocket engine, and has a relatively small warhead that weighs some 150 kg—will commence during the upcoming year.
The Israel Air Force (IAF) is likely to purchase the missile for its operational needs.
Among the missile features are its ability to control and monitor the extent of its shrapnel, which will make its strike surgical, accurate and with minimum collateral damage despite the fact the missile spends a lot of time in the air from the minute it is launched until it strikes its target.
However, the IMS and the IAI say that in light of the new ability developed—launching the missile up to 150 km from the target—the ratio between the accuracy and the effectiveness of the strike and the missile's large distance from the fighter jet is its most significant advantage.
The IAI's Missiles and Aerospace Division's manager, Boaz Levi, told Ynet that the missile's cost is about one third of the cost of similar missiles being sold across the world.
The Rampage already has a potential buyer, however the IAI did not reveal its identity.
The missile will be adjusted to all offense platforms including the IAF's F-15, F-16 and F-35 fighter jets and will be used against anti-aircraft batteries, enemy's headquarters, armament storages, and logistic bases among others.
The missile's warhead will be guided by a GPS system, which will allow him to strike during the day as well as the night and in any weather conditions including fog and cloudiness.
The GPS system's Achilles' heel is that it can be relatively easily disrupted. Therefore, the missile's developers added an additional algorithm-based navigation system as backup that will give the missile immunity.
The missile will have two kinds of warheads, with the first one designed for penetrating armor protected targets such as bunkers and those immune to shrapnel damage.
IMI's Fire Power Division's Manager Eli Reiter said, "Sending four fighter jets carrying four Rampage missiles allows us to strike under conditions we've never had before."
The IAF's need of precision strikes has grown over the past few years, an example of that is the strike against bases and weapon storages in Syria, for which the IDF has assumed responsibility a month ago.
Syria's army launched hundreds of anti-aircraft missiles as retaliation to the IDF's multiple strikes. At the beginning of 2018, a Syrian missile shot down an IAF's f-16 fighter jet in the Upper Galilee.

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,734 ... 38,00.html

The missile look the same as EXTRA artillery rocket system


There was some rumor that they developed an air launched version of EXTRA called MARS


Unfortunately, it won't fit inside F-35 or able to attack moving target unlike AARGM

[spazsinbad]

The 'HI MUM' image did not grok: https://i-hls.com/wp-content/uploads/20 ... RS-Pic.jpg attached below

[mixelflick]

It seems the world has grown tired of 2,000lb glide bomb weapons, due to the time they take to reach the target? Yes, yes I'm aware that such weapons cause too much "collateral damage". But even with a smaller warhead, isn't the issue these weapons take to long to reach said targets??

[viper12]

Why call it the Rampage ? They should have named it the Epic Missile, so every launch is an Epic Missile Time, or EMT : https://youtu.be/gpKtarjTvqU?t=15

And yes, they used that same tune for many many episodes.

Wonder though what's the cost of this missile.

[marauder2048]

It seems the world has grown tired of 2,000lb glide bomb weapons, due to the time they take to reach the target? Yes, yes I'm aware that such weapons cause too much "collateral damage". But even with a smaller warhead, isn't the issue these weapons take to long to reach said targets??

Or that the IAF lost the argument to the ground forces; the latter seems to have won the budgetary battle.

[hornetfinn]

It seems the world has grown tired of 2,000lb glide bomb weapons, due to the time they take to reach the target? Yes, yes I'm aware that such weapons cause too much "collateral damage". But even with a smaller warhead, isn't the issue these weapons take to long to reach said targets??

I don't think they have grown tired, but that those don't fit all situations and needs. Some targets like AD sensor systems or ballistic missile launchers generally need faster missiles with short time-to-target. Glide bombs will take quite a long time to reach targets and supersonic missile will likely be several times faster. Missile system likely has quite a bit longer range and I'd bet that Rampage has significantly longer range than 150 km or at least potential to have longer range. Because the ground launched version (EXTRA) also has 150 km range and launching from high altitude and speed should give significant range improvement.

This seems like cheaper alternative to Perseus missile developed by MBDA.

[weasel1962]

Jpost is suggesting 570kg which is more of a 1000lb class. Interesting choice of words of "can be fitted" to the F-35 although avweek suggests it is intended for the F-35I.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/The-R ... ets-559785
http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/isr ... sile-f-35i

In view that the missile is 4.7m and the F-35A bay is too short to accommodate, only external carriage which means a max of 4.

Per press release, rampage has a engine so may not be just a "glide" weapon.
http://www.imisystems.com/mediacenter/i ... e-rampage/

[SpudmanWP]

Since the F-35 can safely get closer before launch then a shortened version for internal carriage is doable.

[weasel1962]

The original concept "MARS" was a 4.4m version. It was cheaper to convert an existing ground launched rocket, the EXTRA v2 into rampage. The simplest way may be to revert to the original extra rocket which was ~4m carrying a 125kg warhead.

The question is how supportive will be from LM side. They have existing agreements with Kongsberg for JSM and Roketsan for SOM. Notwithstanding the issues with Turkey currrently, both will be integrated in blk 4. With an already crowded schedule for blk 4, not sure when is the earliest the Israeli could fit in even if they managed to develop an internal carriage version?

[SpudmanWP]

The question is how supportive will be from LM side.

They can achieve this for the F-35 without LM in one of two ways:
1. Emulate the interface functions of an existing Block 3F weapon
2. Create the UAI drivers and wait for Block 4.1.

[Dragon029]

It's already been agreed that Israel will be receiving an F-35 designed specifically for flight test, allowing the Israelis to incorporate their own weapons on their own separate timeline.

Edit: It's also my understanding that the F-35I is being fitted with something akin to (or maybe literally) UAI, allowing them to add not only their own weapons, but also their own sensors and comms gear without requiring access to the F-35 source code and without having to wait for the JPO. Though on the flipside, I think I read somewhere that Israel's first few (their first dozen or something?) F-35s would be fully normal F-35As.

[SpudmanWP]

Yes, UAI is in Block 4.

At this time, UAI only support A2G weapons, no A2A, sensor pods, ESM, Comms, etc.

The Comms package that they are adding is through an as-yet unnamed API interface.

Yes, their first couple of years of F-35 are bog-standard versions, no comms API or UAI yet.