Tracked Rapier was removed in the early 90's and replaced by the Stormers.Ron5 wrote:Mobility, agility, cost, numbers.indeid wrote:Why a funny successor? Both wheeled, both require stationary firing so limited by set up times, both are radar guided.Ron5 wrote:Big, slow moving/stationary targets. Funny kind of Rapier successor. Press release hints not too many will be bought.
Only loss is the EO tracking option, which I believe is an available option.
There was a tracked rapier and not all versions are radar guided.
And yes, brochure mentions EO option.
A Rapier battery to defend a critical point is what, 4 to 6 Fire Units each of 3 trucks towing the trailers?
A FLAADS battery will likely have a C2 cabin with a dismounted secondary option, a few radars and 3-4 launchers covering a much larger area. I doubt the 8x8s are going to be maxed out so mobility should be ok, might even improve despite the weight increase. Since you can't drive Rapier above a crawl with the missiles fitted set up times could even increase. What are the mobility and agility concerns?
New systems are always more expensive up front than what they replaced, but keeping old kit going is expensive. The manual tracking element is very training heavy, needing lots of live firing to stay current, a need removed with CAMM so no need to trek up to the hebs for firing camps and only occasional system confirmatory firings are needed.
Rapiers only task is to protect MPA and has a single operational fleet, exactly the same as FLAADS, so while more kit would be good to deploy elsewhere it's an issue that already exists, not being introduced by the new kit.