Independent Working Group Report: Missile Defense, the Space Relationship, and the Twenty-First Century. »»
February 8, 2012
IWG Report 2009
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 |
| Diameter: | 0.63 m |
| Wingspan: | 1.0 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 |
| Associated Country: | Sweden |
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 350 (or MAW Taurus KEPD 350). Several subsequent versions of the Taurus missile have been proposed and/or built, including the air-launch KEPD-150 and the ship or ground-launch KEPD-150SLM.
The KEPD-150 was first proposed in 1996 and the KEPD-150SLM was proposed in 1997. The KEPD-150 was planned for use aboard the Swedish JAS-39 Gripen aircraft, but the program was put on hold when Sweden began successfully testing the larger KEPD-350 missiles aboard the same aircraft. It is likely that the KEPD-150 will not be used by Sweden or Germany, but it may become available for export. The KEPD-150SLM is being tested for use aboard corvettes and frigates by the German Navy.
The KEPD-150SLM 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 missile carries a Mephisto dual-charge penetrating warhead weighing 450 kg. For guidance, the missile relies on a midcourse system that combines Inertial, GPS, terrain updates, and a radar altimeter. Terminal guidance is provided by an active radar seeker similar to that used on the AS-34 Kormoran 2 missile. An improved version of the missile may include a dual-mode active radar and infrared seeker.
The KEPD-150SLM missile is currently in testing and trials with the German Navy. Information about service dates and production numbers has not yet been released.(1)
Footnotes
- Jane’s Strategic Weapons Systems, Issue 50, ed. Duncan Lennos, (Surrey: Jane’s Information Group, January 2009) 69-71. See also the Taurus Missile System Homepage.
