The country's new project 22,800 character corvettes will be the
first vessels to receive the system
operationally once testing is complete.
Appears to be something of a mix between
the Potent Panzer S1 land mobile
self-propelled anti-aircraft artillery
gun system and existing cached and
source installations found on many
russian-built naval vessels dating back
to the cold war. It uses a modified
version of the panthers one RS 2-1 E-phased array radar system as well as
an electro-optical infrared targeting
and identification system mounted above
the radar in a similar fashion as seen
on many of its ground cousins.
Its main armament includes a naval
version of the panzers 57 E-6C surface-to-air missile. This is an II stage missile that can hit targets, aircraft, cruise missiles, drones from
half a mile to 10 miles away and from
just a number of feet above the surface
up to nearly 30,000 feet.
These missiles are carried in four tubes
on each side of the turret and like
ashton, twin rotating magazines below
deck can reload each side four times
over automatically within a matter of
seconds 32 missiles in total are carried
panzer ME will also be able to fire the Hermes K Surface to surface missile.
Presumably these missiles would be
outfitted on the panzer me when the
vessel is operating in literal areas
where small boat swarming attacks are
possible or when nearby shore strikes
are required.
The Hermes K can be
outfitted with a semi-active laser
seeker so that near over the horizon
targets can be hit precisely if a
forward operating unit such a drone, aircraft or special operations team is
lacing the target with a laser
designator. Because of the system's
unique twin magazine configuration, a mix
of both missiles could be carried
operationally.
Armament includes a pair of very
hard-hitting gsh 30K six-barrel 30
millimeters rotary cannons that can spew
up to 6,000 rounds a minute each. This
high volume of fire can be used to
shatter incoming anti-ship missiles, aircraft, drones or small boats.
These are the same cannons found on
cashton and they deviate from the
land-based panzer S1 design which uses
the lower rate of fire, twin barrelled, 2A 38 and 30 millimeters cannons. The system
can operate autonomously or it can be
tied to a network of similar mounts
scattered around a larger vessel.
It can
also be integrated into the ship's
larger overall combat system. this flexibility allows the system to be
fielded on everything from corvettes, to
frigates, to destroyers, to kirov class
battle cruisers, russia's sole aircraft carrier. The Admiral Kuznetsov is currently
undergoing a refit that will supposedly
include installing panzer ME in place of
its eight existing cached and MSU system.
According to rostec ceo sergio camazov
each panzer me mount can engage four
targets simultaneously and will have a
probability of kill three to four times
greater than existing Cashton M installations like cashton before it, the
panzer ME is unique in that it
integrates both a highly agile missile
and a rapid-firing source gun system
into a single package and features
weapons redundancy on every mount.
With a
much needed refresh to its control
interface, its sensors and its missiles
russia has executed on a fairly
brilliant plan that will build on the
cashton in a logical way while also
using existing components to decrease
costs and lower development and
integration risk altogether.
This new
system will allow russia to maintain
credible kinetic sauce defenses into the
coming decades as the panzer emmy will
also likely benefit to some degree from
upgrades made on its land-based
counterpart.
Considering the new emphasis being put
on anti-ship missile capabilities by
russia's potential foes namely the u.s
and its allies investing in updated
sewers definitely makes sense, especially
as russia works to rebuild their hulking
cold war era navy into a more agile and
technologically advanced force
and of course the fact is the first
operational units will be installed on
project 22,800 corvettes.
One of russia's
ambitious naval projects that could lead
to sales abroad, is also a sign that
having a modern CIW system is essential
when it comes to realizing naval
fighting ship export success.
Although Russia is somewhat of a world
leader in short-range air defense, shored, capabilities the country is unlikely to
be able to compete. At least initially
with western high-power directed energy, laser, source concepts that will be
emerging in the coming decades.
As a result fielding the most capable
and updated kinetics of systems is
likely to be an increasing focus for
russia's navy going forward and panzer ME definitely delivers on that idea.
