Outstanding Air Power with Taurus KEPD 350
Henning Bartels
The air-to-ground guided missile system Taurus KEPD 350 provides outstanding air power to Tornado, Eurofighter, F/A 18, Gripen and other combat aircraft. It allows the precise combating of high-value, stationary military point and area targets over very long distances. The German Airforce will achieve the capability to effectively combat heavily defended targets without exposing its aircraft and crews to enemy air defences. Punctual delivery of the Taurus KEPD 350 missiles from series production to the German Luftwaffe will begin in November 2004. Taurus KEPD 350 system architecture is prepared for integration into network centric operations.
With the final system verification campaign finished in March 2004 at the Overberg test range in South Africa the Taurus KEPD 350 precision stand-off guided missile system has proven its full system capabilities under extreme test conditions. Within the framework of the campaign the complete mission sequence from mission planning to high precision combat of a bunker target was successfully demonstrated. The missiles, the mission planning system and the ground equipment were identical to the series configuration. The system verification trials which have since 1999 continuously proven the evolutionary development steps including integration on the Tornado are herewith successfully completed. For the free flights on 15 March and 18 March the flight paths and all other important mission data were generated with the world-wide unique Taurus KEPD 350 mission planning system and were transferred to the missiles with the Ground Loader Unit. Both missiles were safely released out of a twin configuration of the Tornado carrier aircraft; the first missile at a high flight altitude of approx. 25,000 feet and a speed of 0.67 Mach, the second one at a low flight altitude below 1,000 feet and a speed of 0.83 Mach.
While the first free flight was terminated due to a failure of an engine sensor signal before the missile had reached the target area, the second free flight missile hit and destroyed the target with extreme precision after a cruise flight over its entire operational range. This missile was intentionally released with a significant offset, some kilometres away from the nominal release point planned with the mission planning system. »With the successful system verification campaign we have reached our ambitious aims and have completed the free flight campaigns of the development phase. This is in accordance with the assessment of our German customer«, said Dr. Wolfgang Blaschke, Managing Director of TSG.
In Detail
In detail, the operational and functional superiority of the unique Tri-Tec navigation system was confirmed through this free flight campaign. Taurus KEPD 350 is the world’s unique precision stand-off guided missile system that is capable of navigating over long distances without GPS (Global Positioning System) sensor information. For example during the second free flight, the missile navigated very precisively over a total distance of more than 100 kilometres exclusively based on the IBN (Image Based Navigation) and TRN (Terrain Reference Navigation) subsystems.
The outstanding navigation capabilities of the modern Tri-Tec navigation system are attained by fusion of sensor data from the IBN, TRN and MIL-GPS subsystems. High navigation precision and jamming resistance is achieved by means of various navigation aiding sensors (GPS receiver, radar altimeter, infrared seeker subsystem). Usage of the satellite aided GPS system provides a precise and reliable navigation during the cruise phase if the satellites are not shadowed – e. g. in valleys – or their signals not jammed. In case of GPS failure Taurus KEPD 350 can navigate over long distances by means of TRN and/or IBN. Terrain Reference Navigation (TRN) compares and evaluates terrain surface scans from the radar altimeter with digital terrain data downloaded from the Mission Planning System for position estimates. World-wide unique Taurus KEPD 350 can use seekerhead sensor data for IBN over it’s complete mission. Characteristic attributes of the landscape such as road crossings or special buildings are in real-time compared with reference structures from the missile’s mission data set, evaluated and the fits used for navigation updates. These three navigation sensors complement each other in an ideal way: GPS navigation is independent of the availability of previously known reference data. TRN has the best performance in structured terrain and does not depend on externally generated signals. On the contrary, the domain of IBN is a flat terrain with infrastructure. The data of all navigation aiding systems are checked for integrity and combined to an optimal solution in a downstream data fusion process, thus providing a continuous availability of navigation update information.
Moreover, during the overall system verification the operational performance of the guidance and control and propulsion system were additionally demonstrated. These systems allow high-precision flight control at variable speeds and under heavy manoeuvres along the flight path predefined by mission planning. Beyond the nominal range of 350 km a significant reserve was demonstrated successfully. Furthermore, the agility and stability of the missile flight mechanics were proven over a wide spectrum of flight profiles. The missiles performed speeds ranging from Mach 0.65 to 0.95 at flight altitudes between less than 100 feet and approx. 25,000 feet and under high lateral and vertical acceleration. They also carried out terrain-following flights at an extremely low level and various pop-up manoeuvres with apex heights up to 12,000 feet. Last but not least, the accuracy of hitting the target and the penetration effectiveness of the Mephisto warhead system were also impressively confirmed. Target detection, target identification and a highly precise final attack profile, the initiation of the pre-charge at the defined stand-off distance for perforation of soil and concrete, and follow-on penetration of a predefined number of different layers, followed by the initiation of the main-charge in the lower storey were successfully demonstrated.
The programmable intelligent multipurpose fuze PIMPF, which has been developed for TAURUS KEPD 350 has now successfully completed its formal qualification and enters series production. In the next few years 600 fuzes will be produced in the frame of the production contract of Taurus KEPD 350. The »Programmable Intelligent Multipurpose Fuze PIMPF« therefore is currently the only programmable, layer counting and void detecting hard target fuze in the world which is completely qualified and in series production.
Development Time
Taurus KEPD 350 has had an extremely short development time, which began in 1998 and has resulted in a highly effective precision standoff weapon system with unique price to performance ratio. »The start-up of the series production is running in time, supply chains are established, production lines are developed in final prepartion and punctual delivery of the Taurus KEPD 350 missiles from series production to the German Air Force will begin in November 2004«, comments Dr. Wolfgang Blaschke, CEO of TAURUS Systems GmbH.
TAURUS Systems GmbH, a subsidiary of the German EADS/LFK-Lenkflugkörpersysteme GmbH (2/3) and the Swedish Saab Bofors Dynamics (1/3) is responsible for the development, production and global marketing of TAURUS precision stand-off guided missile systems.In December 2003 a successful captive flight with two Taurus KEPD 350 on Saab‘s Gripen aircraft took place at SAAB Linköping. The test team reported with great satisfaction that all had gone as planned, and that Gripen with an external store configuration of two Taurus KEPD 350, two AMRAAM, two Sidewinders and a drop tank, had shown very good flying characteristics and concurrence with the simulations. Furthermore, the Swedish defence material administration (FMV) has placed an 18-month study project order with Saab Bofors Dynamics and TAURUS Systems GmbH end of 2003. Within the scope of the order that has now been placed, for the Taurus KEPD 350 standoff guided missile system further developments are planned in the areas of bi-directional data links for the integration of the weapon system into network centric system structures, ground launch capability, allowing the mission spectrum to be extended for other armed forces, and modular mission packages.
