Sense and Destroy ARMor

Project Sense and Destroy ARMor, or SADARM, is a US 'smart' submunition capable of searching for, and destroying tanks within a given target area.

History

Beginnings

The project's roots can be traced back to the early 1960s. The original platform for the submunition was the 203 mm M509 ICM projectile, and the concept was demonstrated in the late 1970s. By 1983 the project shifted focus to the 155 mm caliber, and in 1986 the scope was expanded to include MLRS rockets.

Several successful live-fire tests were conducted in 1989, and production was scheduled for 1994; however, pre-production samples tested in 1993 gave poor results with only nine out of 42 submunitions hitting their targets. Fixes were applied and further testing resulted in 11 hits from 13 submunitions.

Low-rate production began in 1995, with further testing successfully conducted in April 1996. Low-rate production continued with a total of 836 projectiles produced.

Further development

Additional development work was authorized in 1997 with work focusing on increasing the search footprint by a factor of three, warhead improvements, and electronics upgrades. The enhanced rounds from this program would have begun production in 2001, but funding was cut in 1999 and the project was effectively terminated by the US Congress's House Armed Services Committee, who stated that " [SADARM] has been in development for almost 20 years and has cost almost $2 billion to date [but] has yet to pass an operational test."

Description

The M898 155 mm SADARM shell is fired from a normal 155 mm artillery gun, with a nose-mounted M762/M767 fuse set to burst at 1,000 m above the target to release two SADARM submunitions. Once the submunition is ejected from the projectile, an initial ram-air parachute opens, to de-spin and slow the submunition. A second "vortex ring" parachute then deploys, to slowly spin the submunition, suspending it at approximately 30° from the vertical. As it spins, its sensors sweep a decreasing spiral track beneath the submunition to scan an area about 150 m in diameter. The sensors consist of a millimeter-wave radar and an infrared telescope.

When the submunition detects a target, its 1.5 kg LX-14 explosive charge is detonated, to project an explosively formed penetrator that has enough energy to penetrate the thin top armor of most main battle tanks up to a range of around 152 m. If the submunition reaches the ground before it finds a target it self-destructs.

The submunition was also intended to be used in MLRS rockets, with four or six being carried.

Combat history

The system was used for the first time during combat during the 2003 Invasion of Iraq, [ [http://web.archive.org/web/20031025015234/http://www.benning.army.mil/OLP/InfantryOnline/issue_39/art_255.htm Infantry Online - 10/01/03 ] ] [ [http://sill-www.army.mil/famag/2003/JUL_AUG_2003/JUL_AUG_2003_PAGES_30_35.pdf COVERS ] ] with a total of 121 rounds reported fired by the 3rd Infantry Division with 48 vehicle kills attributed to 108 M895 (sic) SADARM projectiles.

pecifications

* Projectile M898
** Weight: 44 kg
** Length: 805 mm
** Caliber: 155 mm
** Range (fired from M109A6): 22,500 m
* SADARM submunition
** Weight: 11.77 kg
** Warhead: 1.5 kg LX-14
** Length: 204.4 mm
** Diameter: 147 mm
** Descent rate: 17 m/s
** Scan rate: 456 rpm

References

* Jane's Ammunition Handbook 2003-2004.
* http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/sadarm.htm

External links

* [http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/sadarm.htm M898 SADARM (Sense and Destroy Armor) - Global Security]
* [http://stinet.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?AD=ADA273372&Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf Report on problems with the SADARM project]