AS.34 Kormoran
Contents
Description
The AS.34 Kormoran is a German anti-ship missile. It was introduced in Update "Apex Predators".
Vehicles equipped with this weapon
General info
The AS.34 Kormoran is a German-designed and -produced anti-ship missile, which was primarily designed to target and destroy enemy ships and other water-borne targets, though it also comes with limited ground-attack capability. It was designed to be carried by the F-104G Starfighter and Tornado IDS Marineflieger aircraft.
The missile is designed as a fire-and-forget missile, which relies on an inertial navigation system (INS) in the initial phase directly after launch and active radar-homing (ARH) in the terminal phase. This means that in a real-world scenario, the pilot selects an acquired target on radar or visually points the missile at the intended target, after which the missile is launched and then autonomously guides itself onto the target.
The missile has a complex 165 kg semi-armour piercing high-explosive warhead with a main charge and 16 additional shaped charges. The missile is designed to penetrate several bulkheads of a ship just above the waterline and then explode deep inside the ship for maximum damage in all directions.
| Missile characteristics | |
|---|---|
| Mass | 600 kg |
| Guidance | ARH+IOG |
| Signal | Pulse |
| Lock range | 50 km |
| Launch range | 32 km |
| Maximum speed | 0.9 M |
| Missile guidance time | 101 secs |
| Explosive type | Composition B |
| Explosive mass | 56 kg |
| TNT equivalent | 73.36 kg |
| Warhead type | SAP-HE |
| Armour penetration | 75 mm |
Effective damage
While possessing armour-piercing capabilities the missile truly does its damage through pure high explosive power. With 73.36 kg of TNTeq explosive force, the missile is more than capable of taking out lightly-armoured vehicles even with a hit to the ground close to the vehicle, as well as taking out better-armoured vehicles with a direct hit.
Comparison with analogues
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Usage in battles
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Pros and cons
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History
The AS.34 Kormoran was the first major post-war missile project in West Germany.[1] It was designed to meet the needs of the West German navy for a large anti-ship missile for use in coastal waters.[2] Development began in 1962 and was handed over to West German aerospace manufacturer Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm (MBB) in 1967. It wouldn't be until 1973 before the West German government decided to actually procure the missile and, after completing its trials in 1974, it finally entered into service with the West German Navy in 1977.[3]
The missile was originally based on a design by French Nord-Aviation, the makers of the AS-20 Nord, AS-30 Nord and AS-30L Nord missiles, using the inertial guidance system from their cancelled AS.33 missile project.[4]
Media
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See also
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- reference to the article about the variant of the weapon;
- references to approximate analogues by other nations and research trees.
External links
References
- ↑ An Illustrated Guide to Modern Airborne Missiles, Bill Gunston, 1983.
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20070813022441/http://www.missilethreat.com/cruise/id.12/cruise_detail.asp
- ↑ http://www.military-today.com/missiles/kormoran.htm
- ↑ Jane's Strategic Weapons Systems, September 1997, JSWS-Issue 25
