Matra R530

From War Thunder Wiki
Jump to: navigation, search
This page is about the French air-to-air missile Matra R530. For the other version, see Matra R530E.

Description

The Matra R530 missile (scale is approximate)


The Matra R530 is a French semi-active radar-homing air-to-air missile, it was introduced in Update "Raining Fire".

The Matra R530 is a BVR, semi-active, radar-guided, heavy missile originating from France. It is the first iteration of the Matra 530 series of missiles, and is the first widely used SARH missile used by the French army.

Vehicles equipped with this weapon

General info

Missile characteristics
Mass 193 kg
Guidance SARH
Signal Pulse
Lock range 12.5 km
Launch range 18 km
Maximum speed 2.7 M
Maximum overload 15 G
Missile guidance time 25 secs
Explosive mass 10.37 kg TNTeq

The Matra R530 missile is a heavy anti-air weapon. It is a semi-active, radar-homing missile. The missile can reach the speed of Mach 2.7, and accelerates for a long time before gliding to its target, keeping good manoeuvrability throughout the entire flight.

It is to be noted that the seeking head of the weapon becomes active only after a full second of flight. This first second being entirely used for acceleration, activation of internal components and search of the radar locked target.

Effective damage

The missiles carries a 10 kg warhead, which is more than enough to destroy any target in the fighter/attacker role. The missile's detonation is triggered by a proximity fuse. The missile cannot be fired at a ground target.

Comparison with analogues

  • AIM-7E Sparrow : The Matra 530 is bigger, flies longer, and is generally better. On the other hand, the carrier platforms of the sparrow carry a set of more (2 or 4) missiles, whereas the Mirage IIIC, and other variants, can only carry one Matra 530 missile.
  • R-3R : The R3R missile, while technically the same type of weapon, is based on the sidewinder B missile body. As such, this missile has a very weak range and manoeuvrability. Being used as a "close-range surprise SARH weapon", often used to confuse Flare-equipped aircraft, expecting an IR-guided missile. Overall, the R3R and the R530 are not comparable.

Usage in battles

The R530 missile can be used both as a front aspect, head-on weapon, and as a pursuit, longer range weapon, the latter characteristic being shared with its IR counterpart, the R530E. It is to be noted that the player has to keep radar lock on the target while the missile is en-route, but does not necessarily has to face the target. It is viable (and preferable) for the launcher aircraft to perform a "notch", which means changing direction after launch, and following a course that still allows the radar to keep lock on the target, while remaining at a safe distance. The Mirage IIIC platform can perform notches at moderate angles, ensuring evasive manoeuvres can be achieved while guiding the weapon.

The missile should be used in a range of about 15km the target is facing the carrier aircraft (making their relative speed about mach 2). The boost time and manoeuvrability of the missile is adequate to secure a kill, though hard evasive manoeuvres will defeat it, but leave the target at lower speed, and open an opportunity to attack with other weapons.

In pursuit, as the missile has a speed of Mach 2.7, and a confortable, but not unlimited range, firing a fleeing target at more than 5 km is to be avoided, because this setup pushes the limits of endurance of the missile, making the hit very unreliable.

Another point to be noted is that with such range, a good firing position will greatly increase the missile hit probability :

Efficient placement of the carrier aircraft, relative to the target with a R.530 attack

A missile being a target tracking weapon, its guidance is assured by proportional navigation (I.E the missile does not "run after" the target, but estimates the position of the target at the time impact, and directs itself to that position. This method is the most efficient to engage a target). This fact implies that the missile should be fired while taking into account this shift in target position. The adequate firing position is very similar to a gun firing position. Aiming ahead of the target will maximize the missile flight time efficiency. This technique is shown in this picture.

Overall, this missile of average manoeuvrability for the tier is better used on unsuspecting targets at long range, and RWR equipped targets at closer range, to deny the enemy time to plan an evasive manoeuvre.

Pros and cons

Pros:

  • Heavy missile, with long flight time
  • Streamlined construction bleeds little energy on flight
  • Adequate warhead
  • Adequate manoeuvrability
  • Excellent verticality
  • Immune to flares

Cons:

  • Most carrier aircraft carry only one of this weapon
  • SARH nature means the missile is unreliable in top-down attack (because of ground clutter)
  • SARH nature means RWR equipped targets will be aware of the missiles arrival
  • Heavy missile implies the carrier aircraft loses manoeuvrability while carrying it
  • Will always track chaff due to its pulse signal

History

Examine the history of the creation and combat usage of the weapon in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the weapon and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Weapon-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />.

Media

Images

See also

Related development

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

  • topic on the official game forum;
  • other literature.


Missiles
USA 
AAM  AIM-54A Phoenix · AIM-54C Phoenix · ATAS (AIM-92)
Sparrow  AIM-7C · AIM-7D · AIM-7E · AIM-7E-2 · AIM-7F · AIM-7M
Sidewinder  AIM-9B · AIM-9C · AIM-9D · AIM-9E · AIM-9G · AIM-9H · AIM-9J · AIM-9L · AIM-9M · AIM-9P
AGM  AGM-22 · APKWS II (M151) · APKWS II (M282) · BGM-71D TOW-2
Bullpup  AGM-12B Bullpup · AGM-12C Bullpup
Hellfire  AGM-114B Hellfire · AGM-114K Hellfire II
Maverick  AGM-65A · AGM-65B · AGM-65D
ATGM  LOSAT/MGM-166A
TOW  BGM-71 · BGM-71A · BGM-71B · BGM-71C
SAM  FIM-92 Stinger · MIM-72 · MIM146
Naval SAM  RIM-24A
Germany 
AAM  AIM-9B FGW.2 Sidewinder · Flz Lwf 63/80
AGM  9M14M Malyutka · Flz Lwf LB 82 · HOT-1 · HOT-2 TOW · HOT-3 · PARS 3 LR
AShM  AS.34 Kormoran
ATGM  HOT-K3S
SAM  Roland
USSR 
AAM  9M39 Igla · R-3R · R-3S · R-13M1 · R-23R · R-23T · R-24R · R-24T · R-27ER(1) · R-27ET(1) · R-27R(1) · R-27T(1) · R-60 · R-60M · R-60MK · R-73(E)
AGM  9K127 Vikhr · 9M17M Falanga · 9M120 Ataka · 9M120-1 Ataka
  Kh-23M · Kh-25 · Kh-25ML · Kh-29L · Kh-29T · Kh-29TE · Kh-29TD · Kh-66 · S-25L
ATGM  3M7 · 9M14 · 9M113 Konkurs · 9M114 Shturm · 9M123 Khrizantema · 9M133 · 9M133FM3 · 9M133M-2
SAM  95Ya6 · 9M311 · 9M311-1M · 9M331 · 9M37M
Naval SAM  Volna-M
Britain 
AAM  Fireflash · Firestreak · Red Top · Skyflash · Skyflash SuperTEMP · SRAAM
AGM  AS.12 · ZT-6 Mokopa
ATGM  BAe Swingfire · MILAN · MILAN 2 · ZT3
SAM  Starstreak
Japan 
AAM  AAM-3
AGM  Ki-148 I-Go Model 1B
ATGM  Type 64 MAT · Type 79 Jyu-MAT
SAM  Type 81 SAM-1C · Type 91
China 
AAM  PL-2 · PL-5B · PL-5C · PL-7 · PL-8 · TY-90
AGM  AKD-9 · AKD-10 · HJ-8A · HJ-8C · HJ-8E · HJ-8H
ATGM  302 · HJ-73 · HJ-73E · HJ-9 · QN201DD · QN502CDD
SAM  HN-6
Italy 
AAM  Aspide-1A
AGM  CIRIT · L-UMTAS · Spike ER
ATGM  Spike-LR2MR
Naval AShM  Nettuno
SAM  Mistral SATCP
France 
AAM  AA-20 Nord · Matra R511 · Matra R530 · Matra R530E · Matra Super 530D · Matra Super 530F · Matra R550 Magic 1 · Matra R550 Magic 2 · Mistral
AGM  9M14-2 Malyutka-2 · AS-20 Nord · AS-30 Nord · AS-30L Nord · HOT-1 · HOT-2 TOW · HOT-3 · Spike ER
ATGM  HOT · SS.11
SAM  Roland · VT1
Sweden 
AAM  RB24 · RB24J · RB71 · RB 74 · RB 74(M)
AGM  Rb05A · RB 53 Bantam · RB 55B Heli TOW · RB 55C Heli TOW · RB 75
ATGM  Rbs 55 · Rbs 56
SAM  Rbs 70
Israel 
AAM  Shafrir · Shafrir 2 · Python 3
ATGM  Spike-MR
  AAM = Air-to-Air Missile   AGM = Air-to-Ground Missile   AShM = Anti-Ship Missile   ATGM = Anti-Tank Guided Missile (Ground mounts)   SAM = Surface-to-Air Missile