Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
July 4, 2008
IWG Report 2007
Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
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KEPD-150SLM
| Country: | Germany |
|---|---|
| Class: | S/LLCM |
| Target: | Land |
| Length: | 5.60 m |
| Launch Weight: | 1160.00 kg |
| Payload: | 450 kg KEP |
| Propulsion: | Turbojet w/ solid booster |
| Range: | 270.00 km |
| Guidance: | INS, GPS, TERCOM, active radar |
| Status: | Development |
Details
The KEPD 150SLM is a short-range, ship- or ground-launched, turbojet powered, surface-to-surface cruise missile developed by Germany and Sweden. It was designed to penetrate air defense systems and to destroy hardened, stationary, and semi-stationary targets.
In the 1980s, the Germany company DASA (LFK, now part of EADS) began developing a family of aircraft submunition dispensers, known as the Dispenser Weapon System (DWS) 24. In 1985, DASA along with the Swedish company Bofors Missiles (now Saab Bofors Dynamics) adapted the DWS-24 for the Royal Swedish Air Force as the DWS-39. The missile was designed to be deployed on JAS-39 Gripen aircraft. In 1995, LFK and Bofors Missiles proposed a more powerful version of the DWS 39 known as the Kinetic Energy Penetrator and Destroyer (KEPD) 350. A further variant was added in 1996: the lighter KEPD-150 with a range of 150 km.
In 1997, a ship- or ground-launched version, the KEPD-150SLM was proposed with a range of 270 km. The missile has a rectangular shaped body with two folding wings fitted to the upper surface and four tail fins. Two side mounted engine air inlets and turbojet engine exhaust are located in the tail section. The missile is 5.6 m in length, has a body width of 0.63 m, a height of 0.32 m, a wing span of 1.0 m, and has a launch weight of 1,160 kg. An additional solid propellant booster motor is mounted in tandem behind the turbojet engine. The KEPD-150SLM is powered by a turbojet engine, and carries 450 kg conventional penetration warhead.(1)
Footnotes
- Duncan Lennox, ed., Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems 45 (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, July 2006), pp. 63-66; GlobalSecurity.org, “KEPD 150 / KEPD 350 MAW Taurus,” available at http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/world/europe/taurus.htm, accessed on August 1, 2006; Robert Hewson, “Taurus KEPD 350 missile ready for service,” Jane’s Defence Weekly, May 26, 2004; Damian Kemp, “German KEPD 350 trials completion allows deliveries to begin,” Jane’s Defence Industry, December 1, 2005; Joris Janssen Lok, “Taurus Systems investigates future advanced KEPD 350 missile derivatives,” Jane’s International Defence Review, November 1, 2006.
