Ml. 571 Schnellfalke
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| Ml. 571 Schnellfalke | |
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 Ml. 571 Schnellfalke in both Kaiserliche Marine & Heer markings |
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| Type | Long-Range Anti-Ship/Land Attack Cruise Missile |
| Place of origin |  Belkaland |
| Service history | |
| Used by | See Operators |
| Wars | None |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Hoffnung Technologies |
| Designed | 1998 |
| Manufacturer |  Hypersphere Technologies Ltd. |
| Unit cost | $875,000USD |
| Produced | 2006-Present |
| Variants | Ml. 571 Schnellfalke Ml. 571 Schnellfalke-TB/FAE Ml. 571 Schnellfalke-N |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 2,150kg to 2,847kg; Depends on the Warhead |
| Length | 6.25m |
| Diameter | .51m |
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| Blast yield | Ml. 571 Schnellfalke-N: 475 kt |
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| Engine | Rocket Booster Motor Air-Breathing Ramjet |
| Operational range |
Ballistic Flight: 1,200 nautical miles (1,381.2 miles / 2,215 km) Surface Skimming: 400 nautical miles (462 miles / 741 km) |
| Speed | Ballistic Flight: 3,031 knots (3,500 mph / 5,614 kph / Mach 4.7) Surface Skimming: 1,602 knots (1,850 mph / 2,967 kph / Mach 2.4) |
| Guidance system |
Inertial Navigation, Millimeter Radar, & LIDAR |
| Steering system |
Special Thrust Vectoring Tail-Nozzle |
| Accuracy | 3-4 m |
| Launch platform |
Sea & Land-based VLS |
The Ml. 571 Schnellfalke(Belkan: Fasthawk) is the primary Land Attack Missile in service with the Belkan Kaiserliche Marine as well as a Long-Range Anti-Ship Cruise Missile. It also services as a Ground Launched Cruise Missile for the Belkan Heer. It replaced the Ml. 524 Zweihänder and is currently one of the most exported missiles in Belkaland.
Contents |
Origin
In the 1990s with the advent of several supersonic AShMs, the Belkan Kaiserliche Marine issued requirements for a Mach 5 Cruise missile with a maximum range of 1,200nmi capable of being fitted into a Strike-length Mk 41 VLS. 3 entries were put forth; the H45-3 design by Hoffnung Technologies, the SSCM-X by Gründer Industries, & the XXXXXXX by XXXX XXXX. After a long competition between the three designs, in 1998 the H45-3 design was selected by the Kaiserliche Marine to be further developed into a usable weapon system.
Design
As dictated by the requirements, the Schnellfalke is designed to fit within a Strike-length Mk. 41 VLS cell. Because the missile travels at high Mach speed, there is no need for wings in the design as the round body supplies all the lift that is needed to keep the missile airborne. The steer is accomplished by a movable nozzle that takes up the entire tail of the missile
However this caused problems in a few key places, the biggest was the engine. The missile taken into production as a supersonic missile is powered by an air breathing ramjet. However, ramjets require to be at high speed before they can work and to get the missile up to speed, a rocket booster is needed. Thus laid the problem, the missile as designed to incorporate all the electronics, warhead, engine & fuel took up all the space in a Mk-41 cell, there was simply no room for a rocket booster to be attached to the missile. Thankfully before the missile was canceled, a clever solution was devised. Instead of attaching the booster to the missile, it was incorporated into the movable nozzle that was designed to steer the missile. The booster would fire, bringing the missile up to speed. Then once the booster burned out, the plug that keeps the burning booster fuel from entering the Ramjet would be pushed out by the force of the engine exhaust and the missile would fly off to its target.
Guidance
Guidance and flightpath is dependant upon the chosen mission. For ground strikes, the Schnellfalke usually follows a very high flight profile, nearly that of a ballistic missile. This enables the missile to reach extreme speeds, and in its terminal phase, the missile dives almost vertically down upon its target.
For anti-ship purposes, the missile normally follows a surface skimming attack profile but can follow this path against ground targets as well. Since in this mode of flight the missile encounters a great deal of air resistance, both range and speed are markedly decreased from the semi-ballistic strike flight path. In both cases, the initial guidance is by Inertial Navigation, which serves to get the missile into the general target area. From there, active guidance in the form of a millimeter radar and LIDAR takes over. There is no provision for infrared guidance, as the missiles nosecone becomes nearly as hot as its exhaust plume during its high speed flight. The missile can be fired ballistic at naval targets but usually it is usually used when striking stationary targets on land.
Warhead
The choice of warheads is somewhat limited with only three options available. The most common of these is a general purpose blast-fragmentation warhead which can be optimized for several different burst modes. The first is Airburst, for destroying vehicles, light material and troops. In this setting the warhead would explode a few dozen feet above the targets, spraying them with preforged armor penetrating fragments. The second burst mode is contact burst, which is normally used in the anti ship mode. In this setting the warhead exploded on impact. The final setting was delayed contact burst, in which the incredible kinetic energy of the missile when moving at Mach 5+ in the semi-ballistic dive is used to penetrate deeply into hardened targets like bunkers. Up to a hundred feet of sand or nearly thirty feet of hardened concrete can be penetrated before the warhead exploded. This warhead has been designated as the standard warhead for the Schnellfalke by the Kaiserliche Marine.
The second warhead is a thermobaric/FAE warhead which has the much greater blast radius of a FAE bomb and the massive punch a thermobaric bomb has, creating a blast comparable to a bomb twice it's size. This warhead, like the blast-fragmentation warhead has 3 settings, Air/Contact/Delayed bursts.
The final warhead is a nuclear warhead, the W88 475KT Thermonuclear bomb. This variant is only deployed on select von Koester-Class SSGNs.
Operators
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Middle East Coalition Navy
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- Merchant Navy
- Coast Guard
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- Reichswachter
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- Army of the Republic of Willman
- Republic of Willman Naval Forces
- Republic of Willman Marine Corps
Notes
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