Bofors aims to kill drones

[Micael]

Bofors unveiled a new system that they’ve developed in secret. It’s called Bofors 40 mm Mk4 L, and it’s based on their Mk4 naval gun. One of the differences is that the gun has been substantially lightened, weighing in at a third of the naval gun. This by changing out hydraulics for lighter solutions, lowering the center of gravity, changing out steel parts for carbon fiber composites and so on. The gun is mounted on an adaptor plate which enables it to be easily placed on various ground vehicles such as trucks for instance, or naval surface vessels. It retains the same basic functionality as its naval gun predecessor and is being promoted as a very effective and cost efficient drone defense system which can be deployed widely among ground forces.

I think this system has a good chance of turning out to be in high demand.

[Johnnie Lyle]

Bofors unveiled a new system that they’ve developed in secret. It’s called Bofors 40 mm Mk4 L, and it’s based on their Mk4 naval gun. One of the differences is that the gun has been substantially lightened, weighing in at a third of the naval gun. This by changing out hydraulics for lighter solutions, lowering the center of gravity, changing out steel parts for carbon fiber composites and so on. The gun is mounted on an adaptor plate which enables it to be easily placed on various ground vehicles such as trucks for instance, or naval surface vessels. It retains the same basic functionality as its naval gun predecessor and is being promoted as a very effective and cost efficient drone defense system which can be deployed widely among ground forces.

I think this system has a good chance of turning out to be in high demand.

How durable is it going to be with all of the lightening?

The big advantage compared to the microwave drone friers the US uses is EMCON.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

Gunnery systems that can handle a 40mm also emit, although it’s frequently K-band. Most ESM systems can’t detect a frequency that high.

[Micael]

Bofors unveiled a new system that they’ve developed in secret. It’s called Bofors 40 mm Mk4 L, and it’s based on their Mk4 naval gun. One of the differences is that the gun has been substantially lightened, weighing in at a third of the naval gun. This by changing out hydraulics for lighter solutions, lowering the center of gravity, changing out steel parts for carbon fiber composites and so on. The gun is mounted on an adaptor plate which enables it to be easily placed on various ground vehicles such as trucks for instance, or naval surface vessels. It retains the same basic functionality as its naval gun predecessor and is being promoted as a very effective and cost efficient drone defense system which can be deployed widely among ground forces.

I think this system has a good chance of turning out to be in high demand.

How durable is it going to be with all of the lightening?

The big advantage compared to the microwave drone friers the US uses is EMCON.

Bofors seems to think that it’s durable, but I can’t confirm obviously.

[Micael]

Gunnery systems that can handle a 40mm also emit, although it’s frequently K-band. Most ESM systems can’t detect a frequency that high.

You could run it with an electro-optical sight as well. At least at the gun level, and use radars further away for cuing.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

You can, but you still need a range-finding and search components. You can do range-finding with a laser, but search is way harder to do without a radar.

[M.Becker]

How durable is it going to be with all of the lightening?

"This by changing out hydraulics for lighter solutions" = no salt water? Yeah, electricity!

My WAG.

[Micael]

You can, but you still need a range-finding and search components. You can do range-finding with a laser, but search is way harder to do without a radar.

Yeah but then you can have the radar further away from the action, and you also don’t need one radar for each gun. A system in which a 3D radar sends the target position to the guns should be enough for them to be able to acquire it when we’re talking about drones.

The RBS-23 fire units actually have an electro-optical sight in addition to their fire control radar so they can engage without emitting if so desired, they use an external air search radar as well to cue them.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

RBS-23 also uses a K-band radar to control the missile….same frequencies as a gunnery system.

[Micael]

RBS-23 also uses a K-band radar to control the missile….same frequencies as a gunnery system.

Sort of, it’s secretive stuff but there appears to be differences to how the radar operates when sending steering commands to the missile and when tracking a target. Been hinted that the output effect is dramatically lower for the command sending than the tracking part. If that’s the case it probably reduces the likelihood of detection by EW systems.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

Not quite…there’s two different frequency bands. Target search/track usually uses I-band. The other is missile control, usually K-band. If somebody is handing you good 3-D tracks you can try to get by without the I-band but that assumes you won’t have to hunt too much with the optical tracker.

The big reason nobody has a K-band detector is that it only works on really short ranges. Like “inside visual range” ranges. If you detect it you’re already screwed.

[Micael]

Not quite…there’s two different frequency bands. Target search/track usually uses I-band. The other is missile control, usually K-band. If somebody is handing you good 3-D tracks you can try to get by without the I-band but that assumes you won’t have to hunt too much with the optical tracker.

The big reason nobody has a K-band detector is that it only works on really short ranges. Like “inside visual range” ranges. If you detect it you’re already screwed.

The RBS-23 just uses a K(a) band radar for both the tracking and transmitting missile commands. It is better if you use a 3D search radar with the system but it can operate with a 2D one too. It’s operational on Gotland right now with a legacy 2D PS 90 Giraffe radar (too many units that need the 3D Giraffes right now), and the K-band radar finds the altitude of the target on its own following cuing by the sesrch radar. Or the electro-opticals, but the E/O mode is likely mostly intended for slower targets like drones rather than cruise missiles or such. The fire units can also operate in a fall back air search mode on their own in case the air search radar is unavailable (having been destroyed or such), but this reduces performance of course.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

That’s…..almost exactly how we did things. You poor bastards. Although you did unleash IKEA on the rest of the world so you pretty much have it coming

Fwiw it works but the engagement sequence can be slow AF.

[Micael]

That’s…..almost exactly how we did things. You poor bastards. Although you did unleash IKEA on the rest of the world so you pretty much have it coming

Fwiw it works but the engagement sequence can be slow AF.

It’s supposed to be very quick with the RBS-23, that’s one of the things people with experience from it keeps bringing up as a strenght. But I have no personal experience with the system.

[Drunknsubmrnr]

Yeah….”they” told us that too.