F-15/16 Harpoon ( Was: B-52/Harpoon)

"Thomas Schoene" wrote:

:"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message

:
: Someone from Korea (pretty sure it was in this thread, but maybe not)
: commented on the F-15K deal shortly after I posted my remark the first
: time with something along the lines of "That's right, because we're
: buying SLAM-ER, too."
:
:OTOH, you said the same thing about Poland, and their package includes only
:JDAM and JSOW, not a powered stand-off weapon like SLAM-ER.

Yes, I did. Compare the range of Harpoon Block II to the range of a
JSOW. Again, not much point in trying to make the Harpoon into some
sort of land attack weapon. It would cost more than it was worth,
given that you already HAVE a dedicated land attack weapon with
roughly the same range and a better warhead.


--
"Millions for defense, but not one cent for tribute."
-- Charles Pinckney

"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message

"Thomas Schoene" wrote:

:"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message


Someone from Korea (pretty sure it was in this thread, but maybe
not) commented on the F-15K deal shortly after I posted my remark
the first time with something along the lines of "That's right,
because we're buying SLAM-ER, too."

OTOH, you said the same thing about Poland, and their package
includes only JDAM and JSOW, not a powered stand-off weapon like
SLAM-ER.

Yes, I did. Compare the range of Harpoon Block II to the range of a
JSOW. Again, not much point in trying to make the Harpoon into some
sort of land attack weapon. It would cost more than it was worth,
given that you already HAVE a dedicated land attack weapon with
roughly the same range and a better warhead.

I geuss we're just talking past each other a bit. I agree that this is not
the missile anyone would buy specifically for land-attack. However, the
mssile has the capability and will be in inventory. With so few ship
targets to deal with these days, I expect that some countries will use it in
land-attack mode, if only to justif having bought it in the first place.

--�
Tom Schoene Replace "invalid" with "net" to e-mail
"If brave men and women never died, there would be nothing
special about bravery." -- Andy Rooney (attributed)

Fred J. McCall wrote in message . ..
"Thomas Schoene" wrote:

:"Fred J. McCall" wrote in message

:
: Someone from Korea (pretty sure it was in this thread, but maybe not)
: commented on the F-15K deal shortly after I posted my remark the first
: time with something along the lines of "That's right, because we're
: buying SLAM-ER, too."
:
:OTOH, you said the same thing about Poland, and their package includes only
:JDAM and JSOW, not a powered stand-off weapon like SLAM-ER.

Yes, I did. Compare the range of Harpoon Block II to the range of a
JSOW. Again, not much point in trying to make the Harpoon into some
sort of land attack weapon. It would cost more than it was worth,
given that you already HAVE a dedicated land attack weapon with
roughly the same range and a better warhead.

Unless you launch from a ship or sub. Harpoon BII adds GPS to improve
navigation to reduce the anti-ship search area. Once you have GPS on
a Harpoon BII, it is a relatively small step to go to land attack,
especially for near shore targets. Many countries around the world
already have Harpoon launchers on subs and ships. With Harpoon BII
and a minor upgrade to all those launchers, they could have a
sub-launched and ship-launched land attack capability cheap -- kind of
a poor man's TLAM if your targets are not very far inland.