Shiltron Tactical Air Defence System

The Shiltron system is a modular and easily deployable Tactical Air defence System (TADS) that is built around the SAM-14 series of surface to air missiles and provides short to medium range air defence coverage.

As part of its modular nature the Shiltron system has 2 main interoperable and expandable operational units.

Spontoon:

The first unit is a light weight and deployable formation that focuses on short range cover and is known as the Spontoon system. Spontoon consists of batteries of 2 vehicle types both based on the HUV-28 medium truck: a command unit vehicle (CUV) that also carries the surveillance and alerting radar and the missile unit vehicles (MUV).

The Command Unit Vehicle mounts the battery’s main radar, datalinks to provide communication between the MUVs in the battery, other air defence systems and higher echelon C4I assets and the battery’s main fire coordination system.

The radar is a CFES MK1036L 3D agile beam unit. Consisting of a single Actively scanned electronic array mounted on an elevated mast the MK1036L provides full 360 degree coverage with a variety of scan and search modes. Operating in the L-band with a maximum power output of approximately 500w can detect fighter sized targets at range of about 90km* or more and can track up to 90 separate targets. The MK1036L can also provide a limited no cooperative Indentify Friend- Foe (IFF) capability as well as a limited passive tracking ability against enemy L-band emissions including those from common data and communication link systems.

The fire coordination system consists of 4 workstations in the rear of the truck. Each workstation provides the operator with a full over view of the airspace situation as gathered from the radar and other surveillance assets. Threats are easily indentified and can be quickly assigned to different MUVs for them to engage independently or as part of a centrally coordinated fire plan. Normally each CUV would support a battery of 4 MUVs but up to 8 can be handled if required.

Each Missile Unit Vehicle mounts a 4 round SAM-14 launcher. The launcher is a trainable slant launch system with 360 degrees of coverage. Each SAM-14 is encased its own launch canister which provides all the require communication and diagnostics linkages. Aside from the launcher each MUV mounts a wide angle EO/IR sensor to allow a limited degree of autonomous target acquisition and a two way missile control data link to allow the full range of lock on after launch and retasking capabilities of the SAM-14 missile to be used. When launched from the Spontoon MUV a SAM-14 missile has a range of about 40km with a maximum engagement altitude of 12,000m.

Pike:

Pike is the second main operational unit of the Shiltron system and is a much larger and complex system that provides medium range coverage Due to the size of the equipment involved in the Pike system it takes some time for the various vehicles to come to a halt and deploy. Average deployment time is approximately 15-20 minutes. For medium range coverage 3 different vehicles all based on the HUV-24 heavy truck are required, these are the Command Unit Vehicle, Surveillance Unit Vehicle and the Missile Unit Vehicle.

The Pike CUV is largely similar to that of Spontoon but larger and without an onboard radar. The increase in size allows for more workstations and an enhanced communications facility to be installed, both of which are required to handle the much larger airspace that the Pike system can cover and to allow the ability of a Pike CUV to take direct control of Spontoon batteries and other air defence assets. The command and control facilities allows for the control of up to 16 Pike MUVs and several different sensor platforms including the primary Pike SUV

Instead of a radar set integrated onto the CUV the Pike system has a separate Surveillance Unit Vehicle (SUV) to carry the main radar. This radar is a CFES MK1510 model which consists of a single large AESA panel on a rotating base. The radar panel can either be locked to face a single direction to give approximately 120 degrees of cover or set to rotate for full 360 degree coverage. Operating in the S-Band the MK1510 has a maximum power output of approximately 500kW In terms of performance the MK1510 can track low RCS targets ranges out to 90km and fighter sized targets out to 400km. The number of targets that can be tracked is in the region of 1000. The S-Band operation allows excellent performance regardless of weather conditions and is capable of picking up low altitude targets in even the most cluttered environments.

The killing power of the Pike system lies in its Missile Unit Vehicles. Each MUV carries a deployable vertical launch package of 8 SAM-14 missiles. In the vertical launch package each missile is fitted with an additional hot launch booster stage. When launched vertically each missile operates in Lock On After Launch (LOAL) mode and can hit targets up to 75km away at altitudes of up to 19,000m.

Modularity:

Whilst the Schiltron system is often described in terms of the two main operational units being separate they are in reality both highly modular and MUVs and CUVs from both can be freely interchanged depending on requirements. For example for a specific site requiring both short and medium range air defence a single Pike CUV and SUV combination can be used to control several Pike and Spontoon MUVs. Similarly for wide area coverage several Spontoon CUVs can be used to provide remote location surveillance for a battery of Pike MUVs.

Normally batteries of each type would be deployed together to support each other often with a full Pike battery providing a base onto which several outlying Spontoon batteries are built.

Additional Assets:

Aside from the Spontoon and Pike batteries the Shiltron system has a number of additional units These include missile resupply (MRV) and servicing (MSV) vehicles based both on the HUV-24 and HUV-26 chassis Additionally Schiltron can easily integrate with other air defence and surveillance assets for form part of a complete Integrated Air Defence System.

Typical Battery Setups:

Spontoon:
1x Command Unit Vehicle
4x Missile Unit Vehicles

Pike:
1x Command Unit Vehicle
1x Surveillance Unit Vehicle
8x Missile Unit Vehicles

Point Defence Combination:
1x Pike Command Unit Vehicle
1x Pike Surveillance Unit Vehicle
4x Pike Missile Unit Vehicles
4x Spontoon Missile Unit Vehicles

Service Battery*:
Spontoon:
4x Missile Resupply Vehicles
2x Missile Service Vehicles

Pike:
8x Missile Resupply Vehicles
2x Missile Service Vehicles

* Service vehicles can alternatively be integrated directly at the battery level


Missile details:

SAM-14 Short to Medium Range Air Defence System


SAM-14A Medium Range Missile
Guidance: inertial with mid course updates and active radar terminal guidance
Missile length: 3.75m
Diameter: 0.2m
Wing span: 0.42m
Motor: Variable flow ducted rocket
Speed: mach 5
Warhead:
Launch weight: 210kg
Ceiling: 12000/19000m*
Range: 40km/75km+*


SAM-14B Medium Range Missile
Guidance: inertial with mid course updates and IR/EO terminal guidance
Missile length: 3.75m
Diameter: 0.2m
Wing span: 0.42m
Motor: Variable flow ducted rocket
Speed: mach 5
Warhead: 12kg blast frag
Launch weight: 210kg
Ceiling: 12000/19000m*
Range: 40km/75km+*

*Slant launch/vertical launch

Prices:

Batteries (includes 3 full loads of missiles)
Spontoon battery: $60million
Pike battery: $150million

Spontoon units:
Command Unit Vehicle: $10 million
Missile Unit Vehicle: $7.5 million

Pike units:
Command Unit Vehicle: $12million
Surveillance Unit Vehicle: $16million
Missile Unit Vehicles: $9million

SAM-14 Missile: $1.5million


A Domestic Production License covering the entire Schiltron system is available priced at $2.5billion