Serbia’s Yugoimport unveiled the RALAS non-line-of-sight missile at the IDEX show held in Abu Dhabi, UAE, from 17 to 21 February, prominently displaying an eight-round launcher mounted on the company’s Lazar 3 8×8 armoured vehicle.
An eight-round RALAS launcher mounted on a Lazar 3. (IHS Markit/Patrick Allen)
The RALAS is essentially a smaller version of the Advanced Light Attack System (ALAS) with a solid propellent motor and a non-detachable booster rather than a turbojet engine with booster that drops off, according to Dragan Andric, one of its developers. This reduces its range from 25 to 10 km, but makes it more cost effective, he said.
It uses a similar guidance system where the operator can programme waypoints into the missile before launch. It will then follow this flightpath using its INS/GPS navigation system.
In the terminal phase, data and video from an electro-optical seeker – either infrared or a cheaper TV camera, depending on customer preference – is fed back to the control station using a fibre-optic cable that makes the missile immune to jamming. The operator can then select a target as it becomes visible, which can be up to 8 km away in ideal conditions, according to Andric.
The RALAS missile on display at IDEX 2019 with the control unit behind. (IHS Markit/Patrick Allen)
The system automatically tracks the target, even when it is temporarily obscured: a feature that Andric demonstrated using the live seeker the company displayed at the show.
The operator has the option of aborting the missile by detonating its warhead in mid-air or sending it into the ground.
Andric said two types of warheads are available: thermobaric blast-fragmentation and a tandem-shaped charge capable of penetrating the armour on any tank currently fielded.
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