Designation: Euromissile Silencer (A,B)

The Silencer anti-AWACS missile traces its roots to the former Soviet Union as a tactical missile designed to counter the NATO's E-3 Sentry and E-8 JointSTARS aircraft. These airborne radar stations were a major force multiplier, and the Soviet counter missile was to be a large missile with a high speed and long range that could be fired from beyond the fighter cover and close with and destroy their targets before these could move outside the missiles' range. However, the USSR disintegrated before the missile entered production. The plans were however sold years later to belligerent factions in the Global Civil War, and several direct copies and descendant missiles have been produced since.

The RDF acquired a third generation missile named the Silencer from the Euromissile company. The missile could be launched from hundreds of kilometers distance, boost on its rocket to Mach 5.5, and then sustain this speed over long ranges with a ramjet engine. The primary guidance was by homing in on the targets' own radar beams, but if the target recognized the nature of the threat, and switched its radar off, or deployed decoy jammers, the missile would switch to inertial guidance and launch platform midcourse updates until it arrived at the predicted intercept point, where the infra-red seeker head could re-acquire the target. If required, the Silencer could also be used as a standard SEAD missile by locking the seeker onto a surface radar installation.

The missile itself was a sharp pointed tube with two ram-air intakes to the side, and four planform wing streaks tipped with rudders. It was mostly used against Terran forces, as the preferred Zentraedi AEW procedure was orbital observation, and if this was not possible, use the powerful radars of the aerial mecha in a networked configuration. The Silencer ceased production in 2010, and were phased out on Earth together with their launch aircraft and mecha.

Go to RDF Air-Air/Space-Space Missile Index.

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Copyright © 1997 Robert Morgenstern, Peter Walker, Pieter Thomassen
Last Updated: Thursday, December 11, 1997 6:36 AM