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2023-01-01

Rheinmetall Secures Skynex Air Defence System Contract

German company Rheinmetall has agreed to provide an undisclosed international customer with two Skynex air defence systems, which will enhance the latter’s ability to defend against aerial threats.

The system, worth around €182 million, will be delivered in the beginning of 2024.

A memorandum of understanding was also signed for the procurement of HX trucks worth approximately €12 million and these vehicles will be delivered with the Skynex systems.

Banking on automatic cannon-based air defence, Skynex lends itself especially well to very short-range contexts where guided missiles are ineffective. The use of programmable 35mm Ahead ammunition, as developed by Rheinmetall for this purpose, is less expensive than comparable guided missile-based systems. Importantly, 35mm ammunition cannot be influenced much less jammed by electronic countermeasures when fired.

Flexibility Factor

Oerlikon Skynex Air Defence System sets new standards in terms of flexibility and expandability. The Oerlikon Skymaster Battle Management System is the control node and centrepiece of the system. Various sensors and effectors can be linked in a modular way to fit mission requirements.

One or several medium range radars, such as the Oerlikon X-TAR3D Tactical Acquisition Radar, provide the air picture, which is consolidated in the control node. Air targets are assigned to autonomous effectors via the Skymaster network. Besides the high performance Oerlikon Revolver Gun Mk3, the Oerlikon Twin Gun GDF009 TREO, surface-to-air missiles, means active and passive electronic warfare and future high-energy lasers can be integrated.

Main Characteristics

The Oerlikon Skynex’s main characteristics includes: Open and modular system architecture; increased saturation resistance; functional composition of single effectors and sensors according to the mission requirements; flexible command and control system; capability to integrate existing Oerlikon Skyguard and Oerlikon Skyshield fire units and most other legacy systems.

Persisting Threats

For more than a century, air attacks have posed a major threat to ground forces and population centres as well as to vital military and civilian infrastructure. Today’s air threat ranges from fixed-wing combat aircraft and attack helicopters to cruise missiles, unmanned aerial systems (UAS), precision-guided munitions and even ground fired rockets, artillery and mortars (RAM).

These threats may persist by day and by night, irrespective of bad weather, terrain and poor visibility and under severe electronic countermeasure (ECM) conditions.

The trends to be expected in the near future are: an increasing use of UAS with high precision and density, coordinated attacks, extensive use of electronic warfare techniques, exploitation of terrain masking opportunities and all-weather operations, all resulting in reduced target visibility and operated in a fully networked environment.

Only reliable high performance air defence systems with advanced, automated command and control systems provide the affordable means to defeat today’s threats in land and maritime or even hybrid conflict scenarios.

Basic Configuration

The Oerlikon Skynex Air Defence System is designed for symmetric as well as asymmetric missions. Its open architecture allows a flexible adaption of the integrated sensors and effectors.

The qualified basic configuration of the Skynex System consists of a control node with the Oerlikon Skymaster Battle Management System, the medium range Oerlikon X-TAR3D Search Radar and up to four remote controlled Oerlikon Revolver Guns Mk3. The basic Skynex System can easily be expanded with additional sensors and effectors.

The X-TAR3D is a three-dimensional tactical acquisition radar and provides the local air picture up to an instrumented range of 50km.

Up to four Revolver Guns Mk3 form the basic effector layer. The unmanned Revolver Gun Mk3 combines exceptional precision with firepower, firing up to 1000 rounds per minute. With its own sensor unit, consisting of a tracking radar, a TV and an IR camera as well as laser range finders, the gun can take over any in range air targets assigned by Skymaster and autonomously track and engage such targets. The gun can hit even the smallest targets.

The basic version of Skynex is capable of engaging aircraft, cruise missiles, small to large tactical drones, air-to-ground-missiles as well as mortars and artillery rockets up to distances of 4km. This makes Skynex the ideal solution to protect high value stationary assets such as vital military and civil infrastructure like airfields, military bases, harbours, bridges or nuclear power plants against air strikes in all-weather conditions, at day and night .

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