MBDA Aster

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Aster is a family of surface-to-air missiles manufactured by Eurosam, a European consortium consisting of MBDA France, MBDA Italy (combined 66%) and the Thales Group (33%). The Aster family was developed to perform three distinct missions:

Naval autodefence — using the Aster 15 surface-to-air anti-missile missile (SAAM) as used on the French aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle (SAAM-FR), the future Italian aircraft carrier Cavour (SAAM-IT) and selected for the 27 French/Italian FREMM multipurpose frigates.
Naval local and zone defence — Integrated Principle Anti-Air Missile System (PAAMS) using Aster 15 and Aster 30 missiles, selected by British, French and Italian navies. PAAMS delivered by EUROPAAMS consortium, another MBDA/Thales partnership.
Ground-based area defence — Sol-Air Moyenne Portee (SAMP-T) using batteries of Aster 30 missiles.

Contents

1 History
2 New Generation

2.1 Manoeuverability
2.2 Radars

3 Users / Inventory
4 Combat Performance
5 Variants
6 See also

6.1 External links

History

Models of the Aster 30 and Aster 15 side by side; note the difference between the boosters

During the 1980s, the predominant missile was the short-range missile, like the Roland or Crotale, with ranges up to a dozen kilometres. During the 1990s, very-short range system came to complete the defensive perimeter in a five kilometre radius.

The 2000s are expected to see the replacement of the present medium-range defence systems (ranges beetween 30 to 100 kilometres) coming to obsolescence. The current range of SAM systems, like the American Sea Sparrow or the Standard-Tartar, the British Sea Dart, or the land-based systems Hawk and Patriot, cannot be modernised indefinitely, and are already showing their limitation against opponents growing smaller, faster, stealthier, more intelligent, and more capable of electronic warfare.

The actual systems also have the characteristic of being specialised either in short-to-medium range "point defence" (ships, for instance), or in medium-to-long range "zone defence" (fleets).

In this context, Eurosam is developing the new generation Aster anti-missile missile, with the following specifications :

Inter-service: addresses the needs of the land, air and naval forces alike)
Multinational: development shared by France, Italy and the United Kingdom
Modular and extensible

Additionally, the Aster system was designed in such a way as to allow any of the versions to have an anti-ballistic tactical missile role.

New Generation

The Aster features two majors improvements over the previous generations of missiles :

Manoeuverability

The manoeuverablitly is greatly improved thanks to a new control system. The traditional control flaps have been carefully optimized, and are associated with four powder maneuver rockets at the center of gravity of the missile (also referred to as PIF-PAF for Pilotage induit en force—Pilotage aerodynamique en force). This prevents a rupture of the missile under high-g maneuvers, during trajectory corrections, and allows such maneuvers to occur without losing aerodynamical performances, which improves the precision of the impact of target. A standard launch of the Aster can include 90 degrees trajectory changes.

Radars

Techological improvements allow the onboard radar to fulfil roles of sentry, meteo, target discrimination, acquisition and chase. The radars are capable of simultaneously tracking 300 flying objects, discriminate around 60, and guide up to 16 missiles.

Users / Inventory

Aster launchers on the Charles de Gaulle.

The Charles de Gaulle received her complement in 2001.
The new Italian aircraft carrier Cavour will carry Aster 15 (32 missiles in two blocks of 16 cells).
British Type 45 destroyers will be armed with PAAMS, using the Aster 30 and Aster 15.
French and Italian Horizon class frigates will carry the Aster 30 .
French and Italian FREMM multipurpose frigates will carry the Aster 15.
The French La Fayette class frigates use the Aster.
The Saudi frigate Al Damman was the first warship to launch an Aster, on 23 March 2004.
The Singaporean Formidable class frigates will carry the Aster 15.

Combat Performance

Time-lapse Aster launch sequence

As of May 2006, the Aster has never been used in actual combat.

The trials, between 1993 and 1994, were very successful. All flight sequences, altitudes and ranges, were validated. This was also the period during which the launch sequence of Aster 30 was validated.

In May 1996, trials of the Aster 15 active electromagnetical final guidance system against live targets began. All six attempts were successful:

8 April 1997: interception of a C22 target simulating a subsonic antiship missile, flying at 10 metres, at a distance of 7 kilometres.
23 May 1997: Direct impact on an Exocet anti-ship missile of the first generation, at 9 kilometres, to protect a distant ship (7 kilometres). This was the first "hit-to-kill" interception ever against an anti-ship missile.
13 November 1997: interception of a C22 target in very low flight in a strong countermeasures environment. In this test, the Aster was not armed with its military warhead so that the distance between the Aster and the target could be recorded. The C22 was recovered bearing two strong cuts due to the fins of the Aster missile.
30 December 1997: Interception of a live C22 target by an Aster 30 at a distance of 30 kilometres, an altitude of 11,000 metres, and a speed of 900 km/h. The Aster climbed up to 15,000 metres before falling on the target at a speed of 2880 km/h. The closest distance between the Aster and the C22 was four metres.
29 June 2001 : Interception of a Arabel missile in low altitude, in less than five seconds.
In 2001 : Interception by the Aster 15 of a target simulating an aircraft flying at Mach-1 at an altitude of 100 metres.

Variants

The Aster 15 and Aster 30 differ only in the size of their booster - total weights being 310kg and 450kg respectively.