Defence Industry Fictions - If I Were Me Series (3): From an Air Defence System with Bozdoğan Missiles to New Horizons

The Path from a Different Booster Fiction to an Alternative and Different Missile System

As you know, Turkey's first air-to-air (H-to-air) missile systems are being developed under the leadership of TÜBİTAK and are defined as the Göktuğ family. This family currently consists of two main components. The first is the Bozdoğan missile with IIR guidance system, which can also be defined as an in-vision missile. The second is the Gokdogan missile, which can be described as radar-guided and beyond-line-of-sight, which is beyond the scope of this article for now.

The reader may ask the following question: Turkey's first air defence missiles, the Hisar-A and Hisar-O systems, are also IIR guided. Therefore, does it make sense to use the Bozdoğan missile for air defence purposes? Although it is not well known by the public, the Hisar family is based on the technology base of the Iris-T H-H missiles. Many countries around the world are working on the dual-purpose use of H-H missiles, and this is not only out of necessity. There are benefits such as making air defence more sustainable and resilient by increasing the variety, and achieving a significant reduction in production cost by increasing the number. Therefore, I ask the reader to ignore such questions for the time being and focus on the article.

A Brief Overview of the Development of Infrared Guided Missiles

Every object has an infrared (IR) radiation parallel to its heat. This radiation is particularly pronounced in heat-generating components such as engines. Although the idea of producing a missile targeting this heat dates back to the second world war, it was not until 1954 that the first trials began with the first generation Sidewinder H-H missile. The basic components of this missile can be divided into a guidance unit that detects heat and directs towards it, a sub-unit to cool the IR sensors, a battery unit, a warhead and a rocket engine. All these subcomponents have undergone significant improvements over time.

Since the first generation, the basic operating principle of the Sidewinder missile system was based on locking the IR unit to the enemy heat. In other words, when the missile was to be used, it received energy support from the aircraft and activated its seeker head. In this process, the pilot started to hear a sound in the cockpit and the tonnage of this sound increased depending on the success of the missile's locking. The pilot, who fired the missile when he heard the appropriate tone, no longer needed to do anything else because the missile was trying to find and destroy the target on its own. The goal of the first developments in the field of seeker warheads was to develop an IR guidance system sensitive enough to be fired from any angle, not just by aiming at the hot exhaust of the enemy aircraft from behind. Once this was achieved, the next goal was to produce heads sensitive enough to detect the IR signature in detail like a picture (IIR) and to be able to select the point to be hit on the target. Another aim was for the missile to reach a level of capability that would enable it to find and lock onto the target on its own after launch.

In parallel with these developments in the seeker, another target was to reduce the cooling requirements of the warhead. The successes achieved in this cooling problem, which brought with it serious limitations, were followed by the development of seekers capable of scanning and seeing much wider angles. In parallel with the development of digital technologies, much smarter, more difficult to confuse and deceive, capable of reaching longer ranges and using data links like beyond-visual missiles, and covering almost 360 degrees of the sphere around the aircraft, very high quality missiles have been achieved.

Another key to this high coverage and manoeuvrability was the thrust guidance systems, which provide much higher manoeuvrability than the air grasped only by the wings, by directing the thrust of the missile engine. In fact, double-stage rocket engines were developed to ensure that the system, which directs the thrust generated by the rocket engine that burns for a very short time, is also useful in the terminal stage. After the first stage burned out, the missile headed towards its target with the energy it reached, and before hitting it, the second stage engine was fired to eliminate the weaknesses that would occur in speed and to increase manoeuvrability and reduce the chance of the target escaping.

Use of IR Guided H-H Missiles for Air Defence Purposes

Confident in the isolation of its own mainland and its global offensive posture, the United States had no qualms about neglecting short-range air defence systems. However, when it needed a system for the low-altitude defence of its forward air bases, it first developed the Chapparal system using its Sidewinder missiles. On the European continent, it preferred to purchase off-the-shelf air defence systems from the countries where the bases were located. For example, Rapier systems for the low-altitude defence of American bases in the United Kingdom were donated to Turkey at the end of the Cold War.

Many other countries have also used H-H missiles for surface-to-air (SAM or S-H) purposes. This dual-purpose utilisation has been gaining momentum in recent times. Undoubtedly, the increased capabilities of the new generation of IIR guided H-H missiles are a key factor in this process. Thanks to new capabilities such as data link, these missiles have started to be used effectively not only at close but also at medium ranges. In this context, we can give the example of systems using Iris-T, which are being employed in more and more countries and have combat experience in Ukraine. The Spyder air defence system developed by Israel, which can also use the Phyton-5 missile, is another noteworthy example.

When it comes to the use of an H-H missile in S-H, the most serious limitation is the range. When carried by a jet fighter, the missile can reach a longer range by utilising its speed. However, when launched with zero speed and acceleration on the surface, the rocket engine consumes a significant portion of its energy to compensate for this deficit. For this reason, one of the most common applications has been to close this gap and increase the range by adding a booster unit. Therefore, in the Spyder system, we see that both short-range engagements can be carried out using the normal Python-5 missile and medium-range engagements can be carried out using the Phyton-5 MR missile with booster.

As can be seen in the picture above, booster units are generally thicker and bulkier than missiles. This is because a more powerful rocket engine and more fuel are needed to achieve higher thrust in a shorter time. The disadvantage of this type of booster units is that they change the kinematic properties of the missile. In other words, the missile will have a very low / limited manoeuvrability before reaching sufficient speed and releasing the booster unit. Therefore, in order to cover both short and medium distances, missiles with and without boosters should be ready at the same time.

Innovation Proposal 1 - Booster Unit with Thrust Guidance

Introduction:

Russian SAM systems such as the S-300, S-350 and S-400 adopt the cold lounch approach. The missile, which is launched vertically from its tube with a chemical energy, gains an orientation angle by using small and separable rocket motors in its nose. It then fires its main propulsion engine and heads towards its target. In most Western SAM systems, the hot lounch method is adopted. The missile emerges from its launcher by firing its main engine, or mostly its booster unit, and initially has to follow a much smoother and wide-angle manoeuvring envelope. In order to balance the advantages and disadvantages of these two different situations, let us assume that we want to have a thrust-guided booster unit.

Let's take a standard Bozdoğan missile as a basis. The missile receives the power to guide itself from twelve different actuators. Four of these control the nose fins. Another set of four is responsible for controlling the tail fins. The last and much more powerful set of four are the actuators that control the thrust vectoring ailerons. The reason they are so much more powerful is that they face not only air resistance, but also the resistance of a rocket engine that is burning and generating power. Our expectation from our original booster unit is to be able to steer the booster unit without using any other element other than these last four actuators.

Method:

Let us proceed from what we have seen in the Phyton-5 MR example. The booster unit has an aerodynamic design that covers and covers the exo of the missile. Now I will ask you to use your imagination and put a small internal space between the booster unit and the missile, in which the actuators of the thrust vectoring system connected to the main missile engine can move, without any effect on the outside.

Let's add a gear system at the end of the tail extensions carrying the thrust vectoring system. This gear system should fit exactly into its counterpart in the connection part of the booster unit. In this way, the power of the thrust vectoring actuators can be transferred exactly to the booster unit.

Undoubtedly, there are countless different materials from which you can produce the booster unit. However, let's imagine a steel wire system that transfers the power it receives from the part that sits on the actuator gears to the shadow guiding system at the same angle and possibilities, just like the brake cables of bicycles. Let this steel wire be covered with composite material and welded to the outer wall of the booster unit with epoxy. We now have a minimal power transmission system with a symmetry that will not harm the missile aerodynamically.

In this way, we will be able to direct its thrust without adding any intelligence and additional actuators to the booster system. In this way, we will have a more capable missile system with an acceptable manoeuvrability even in the first delivery phase.

Notes:

The kinematics of the missile will change with the booster unit. Thanks to the developing information and simulation technologies, this kinematic change can be added to the missile control unit as an additional (and first) profile, first tested in the digital twin and then verified in field tests.

The missile will settle on the intersection course with the target with higher effective energy more quickly than with the use of conventional booster units. In the case of the use of launcher types that are directed at the target rather than vertically, this efficiency will increase even more and can be used in different areas. For example:

The NATO concept is to use two S-H missiles for each air target (this number may increase or decrease to one, depending on the initiative of the commander in the field). A propulsion steering capability in the boost phase provides a much more effective dual-use capability than when the main propulsion engine is in operation. Imagine a target flying at low altitude. While the first missile is heading directly for the intercept course, the second missile will devote part of its power to gaining altitude and will be positioned to dive from above into the second intercept course, which will occur if the target is missed. The first missile approaches with a clearer background, so that it can see and hit the target. For the second missile, the background is more misleading, but the thermal signature of both the target and the first missile is clear. The detonation can be detected and the second detonation can be carried out in the largest surviving mass focus.

Pyrotechnic or cold methods such as compressed CO2 gas can be used to separate the booster unit and the missile. The power generated only by the ignition of the main propulsion engine can also be used as a method of separation. The fact that there is no physical connection between the gears between the booster and the actuators will make the separation much smoother.

Innovation Proposal 2 - Commissioning a More Affordable Missile Derivative with an Alternative Guidance System

Introduction:

When we look at the air defence missile projects being developed by the Turkish defence and aerospace industry, we see that only two types of guidance systems have been focused on. The first one is the IIR guidance system and the second one is the active radar guidance system. Both systems require the missile to be smart and therefore expensive. Yes, this choice has serious advantages. However, today, there is a rapid increase in the types of targets that are not worth the expense of an expensive missile.

It is obvious that we have gained serious knowledge with the Bozdoğan, Gökdoğan, Hisar and Siper missile families. Let us add to this know-how the experience to be gained with the thrust-guided booster unit mentioned in Innovation Proposal 1. In this way, we will be more than halfway there for alternative and more cost-effective approaches.

There are numerous alternative guidance systems such as radio-controlled, radar-reflected, etc. In this proposal, we will take the ‘Laser Beam Riding’ guidance method as a basis. With this method, which chooses not to aim at a laser beam that hits the target and is reflected, but to follow the course of a laser beam that is held afterwards, we will design a system that is much less intelligent, more resistant to jamming and very cost-effective.

Method:

Let's envisage a missile with Bozdoğan by maximising the use of common parts. Let's keep the same exterior but change the interior. Firstly, since we no longer need the IIR guidance unit, we can remove it. Instead, we can add an additional forward looking proximity array that will take up much less space. Since we will no longer do image recognition, a lower capacity computer unit will also do the job. As you know, we can change the colour of the fire by adding different metals and chemicals to the combustion process. In this context, with a series of compounds we will develop, let's add a certain wavelength of radiation to the rocket engines of the missiles in question. In this way, we will make optical tracking from the ground even easier.

As you know, the ASELSAN ATOM AA artillery system uses airburst ammunition that can be programmed by magnetic effect at the moment of muzzle exit. Although the derivative missile we have designed has proximity sensors and can provide fragmentation near the target, we will add the feature of fragmentation from the control station by loading the guidance beam with a certain code.

By changing the thickness of the booster unit, let's try to develop a thinner derivative as close to the missile diameter as possible. Yes, we will now have a booster that produces less power. However, since a significant part of the targets that want this cheap missile will be slower, our gain will be higher than our loss. In addition, if in the future we want to develop missile variants that are enclosed and delivered through the tube, we will have a more favourable working ground.

Let's utilise all the space we will save in the missile for the warhead. In this way, let's aim for a slightly heavier and more effective fragmentation over a larger area than the original.

In this way, we can have a more cost-effective missile system that uses integral parts of many air defence systems, especially the command and control station, and outsources most of its intelligence. Modern computers and software will enable ground station personnel to carry out their duties with minimal interference from the variety of munitions we create.

Notes:

Many western and eastern air defence systems are based on a single concept. For example, a Pantsir unit is an autonomous system with its own guidance system. Systems such as BUK, TOR, S-300, etc. are also complete in themselves. They can operate together in a network centre, but this is much more difficult to achieve in a combat environment. In this proposal, it is also possible to provide a system with the capability and resistance of having the integrity of two systems working with two different principles.

The system design, which can spread horizontally over time, will also help the design of asymmetric air defence systems. By designing high mobility tips like NOMAD, natural gaps in the air defence network can be closed, while the element of surprise can be deepened. (Iran and Yemen have successfully converted Soviet-era H-H missiles into asymmetric air defence systems with the technical support of Serbia. India aims to further institutionalise this with the Samar 1 and 2 systems).

In this proposal, it is aimed to use four different missiles, two without booster units and two with booster units, on the same infrastructure. There will be no noticeable difference between the missiles in terms of appearance.

Innovation Proposal 3 - Navalised Usage Oriented System

Introduction:

Turkey is known to be working on two ship point air defence systems, one based on Sungur MANPADS and the other on Bozdoğan. These studies, which aim to develop a domestic and national capability equivalent to the RAM missile, are likely to result in a slightly heavier Sungur and a slightly lighter Bozdoğan. The information leaking from the defence and aerospace industry of our country points to the future of a self-air / point defence system, the upper versions of which are independent of ship sensors and capable of performing 360-degree protection. What you will read in this proposal is a different system, sir.

The system I propose is a structure that has a much higher number of missiles and receives 360-degree sensor capability from the ship's battle management system. On its own, it has a sensor capability that can cover a narrow angle of maximum 60 degrees. It can accommodate both versions (IIR and Laser Beam Riding guidance) with and without booster. The warhead is multi-purpose and can be used not only against airborne targets, but also against naval targets. In this context: SIDAs, Kamikaze IDAs, Floating Smart/Sneaky Mines, sensor capabilities of the enemy platform, drone swarms, cruise missiles, loitering munitions, UCAVs, helicopters, fixed-wing aircraft, etc. It can intercept all types of targets.

Method:

The launcher units, mounted on either side of a central rotating bracket, should be individually loadable or interchangeable in groups. Spares (at least for the more cost-effective missile types) can be stored under the deck for easy resupply. In this way, the aim is to provide a more sustainable capability to counter more costly and intensive threat items, using less deck space.

In order to increase resistance to sea conditions, it would be beneficial to keep both single and multiple launchers in closed canisters. However, if the degree of difficulty required for the operation in question is high, an external loading approach can also be adopted in the open launcher (similar to the mouth loading crane seen above in the Göksur concept).

In this system, it is recommended to load the guidence beam not only with the capability of self-destruction or self-destruction, but also with some additional codes for beyond-line-of-sight engagements. In this way, in addition to the data bus, another jamming-resistant layer will be added, focussed on one-way data communication.

In addition, alternative warheads can be added to the missiles to be used in this system. For example, paints with various properties can be used to temporarily mark a specific surface area or target. Or the front-facing proximity layer can be replaced with anti-radiation sensors to provide a more successful orientation to the radar and electronic warfare systems of the enemy platform. (Home of Jamming)

Notes

When engaging a target with multiple missiles, one booster unit and one standard missile can be used. Especially in engagements against high-speed targets, this approach, which will positively space the two missiles even if they are launched at the same time, will not only extend the interception distance, but also increase the probability of destruction of the target.

Conclusion

Undoubtedly, new ones can be added to the three innovation proposals in this article. Some elements of these innovation proposals can also be taken and used to strengthen existing projects. In order to increase the readability of the article and not to distract from its focus, the whole vision is not reflected. Only some isolated components are discussed.

All three proposals you read in this article are centred around the booster unit and branch out to other areas. The subject of our next article will include some innovation suggestions centred on the seeker head.

There is only one way of thinking. The general validity of this saying does not excuse the fact that other countries have not developed similar systems. It is mostly the chef's touches that make the difference in the flavour of the food. For this reason, it would not hurt to add Turkish touches to the systems we are developing and to study this at least by using the opportunities provided by the digital environment.