Crotale

[Tps43]

The Crotale is one of the most successful air defense system ever built



Entered service 1972
Crew 3 men
Dimensions and weight
Weight ?
Length ?
Width ?
Height ?
Missile
Missile length 3 m
Missile diameter 0.55 m
Missile weight 84.5 kg
Warhead weight 15 kg
Warhead type HE-FRAG
Range of fire up to 12 km
Altitude of fire 5.5 km
Mobility
Engine petrol / diesel
Engine power ?
Maximum road speed ~ 80 km/h
Range ~ 600 km
Maneuverability
Gradient 60%
Side slope 30%
Vertical step ~ 0.5 m
Trench ~ 0.5 m
Fording ~ 0.8 m


The Crotale (rattlesnake) short-range air defense missile system. The origins of this air defense system lie in South African order. In 1964 South Africa ordered Thomson-Houston (later Thomson-CSF and now Thales) to develop a point defense system. Development was mostly funded by South Africa, and partially by the French government. The system was developed during the late 1960s. These systems were delivered to South Africa between 1971 and 1973. It was locally named the Cactus. Soon after the French air force ordered this system for airfield defense, naming the system Crotale. It entered service in 1972. By 1978 a total of 20 batteries were delivered.

The Crotale is one of the most successful SAM design ever built. This air defense system still evolves and remains in production for more than 40 years. A wide range of its variants have been built. It is in service with 15 countries.

The Crotale is a point defense system, designed to protect high value targets, such as airfields, military bases, ammunition depots, and so on. The original design aim of the Crotale was to engage supersonic low-flying aircraft.

The TELAR vehicle is based on a Thomson-Hotchkiss P4R 4x4 armored chassis. It carries 4 missiles and is fitted with engagement radar. It also has an optical aiming system. Armor of this vehicle provides protection against small arms fire and artillery shell splinters. The TELAR vehicle is operated by a crew of three. It is powered by a petrol or diesel engine, driving an alternator, which powers electrical motors driving the wheels. However mobility of this vehicle is rather limited. It was developed as a point defense system, rather than operate alongside land force maneuver elements. It takes about 5 minutes to launch missiles from travelling. There is also a towed variant, that is less mobile.

A standard missile is 3 m long and weights 84.5 kg. It has a solid fuel rocket motor. It gives the missile a maximum speed of Mach 2.3 (750 m/s) and a range of 12 km. It can engage helicopters, aircraft, cruise missiles, air-to-ground missiles and anti-radiation missiles. Minimum range of fire is about 500-700 m. It can reach targets at an altitude of 5.5 km. The missile has a 15 kg High-Explosive Fragmentation (HE-FRAG) warhead with contact and proximity fuses. A single missile has a hit probability of 80%. If two missiles are launched at the same target, hit probability is 96%.

Crotale Acquisition and Coordination Unit (ACU) is based on the same Hotchkiss P4R 4x4 armored chassis. It is fitted with acquisition radar. This vehicle detects targets, tracks them, identifies targets, identifies weather it is friend or foe. The ACU can detect up to 30 targets and track 12 targets simultaneously. Detection range is 18.4 km. Tracking range is 17 km.

A typical battery of the Crotale consists of two or three TELAR vehicle and one vehicle with acquisition radar. TELARs and acquisition and coordination unit are connected with cables. These are supported by a host of maintenance and support vehicles. It takes 2 minutes to reload all four missiles.

The Crotale has been produced in a number of variants.



Variants



Crotale 1000 Series. It is a baseline Crotale point defense system, base on the P4R 4x4 armored vehicle. There is also a towed version, for air defense of fixed sites. TELARS and ACU are linked by cables. It appeared in 1969;

Crotale 2000 Series. It appeared in 1973. It has additional television channel, that resulted in enhanced acquisition and tracking;

Crotale 3000 Series. It appeared in 1978. It has a further enhanced tracking capability by an added automatic television track capability;

HQ-7, Chinese reverse engineered copy. In 1978-1979 China imported some of the Thomson-CSF Crotale systems for evaluation and reverse engineered them. First Chinese clone was produced for testing in 1983. Its production commenced in the late 1980s. Sometimes it is referred as Sino-Crotale;

Shahab Tagheb, an Iranian short-range air defense missile system. It was revealed in 1999. It was developed with Chinese assistance and by transferring technology of the HQ-7;

Shahine, version developed for Saudi Arabia. It appeared in 1980. In 1975 Saudi Arabia ordered a number of these missile systems. However the Shahine is based on AMX-30 tank chassis and has improved mobility and much better armor protection. Its main role was to provide fully mobile air defense for mechanized armored units;

Crotale 4000 Series. Cable interconnections between units were replace by radio datalink. The TELARS can be located at a range of up to 3 km from acquisition and coordination unit. And up to 10 km between proximate ACU. Radar has improved electronic countermeasures;

Crotale 5000 Series. It is a modernization of the French Crotale systems. It appeared in 1985. This system incorporates an optical tracker. It also has improved radar that has detection range of 18 km;

Crotale NG (New Generation). It appeared in 1990. It is a much redesigned version of the basic Crotale. Missiles have a range of 11 km, maximum speed of Mach 3.5, lethal radius of 8 m. Also missiles are more maneuverable. Radar and fire control system were improved. The Crotale NG has the engagement and acquisition radars carried by the same unit, hence every single TELAR vehicle is capable of autonomous operation. It can be mounted on a towed 3-axle trailer or a range of different chassis;

Crotale Mk.3 is a further evolution of Crotale NG. It appeared in 2008. Missile has been improved. It has a range of 16 km and can reach targets at an altitude of 9 km. The system has new surveillance radar.



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Video of the Crotale short-range air defense missile system

Can't find what you're looking for?

@Windjammer @Hodor @Bilal Khan (Quwa) @Knuckles @Khafee @Signalian

http://www.military-today.com/missiles/crotale.htm

 

[Tps43]

Pakistan has ex libiyan, Crotale 2000, Crotale 4000 as of now.

 

[Tps43]

NG version is my love , Crotales are one of few battle proven sam's and As far as my knowledge goes Paf had plans to upgrade it's crotales to 5000 or NG generation.
ome are still ex libiyans 2000 and others are 4000 .
There are 10 SAM sqn's in PAF out of them 5 are still crotales with every sqn having ops Flight in different VP's.
There is a misconception that Spada came and crotale got out of active services this was not the case basically there were many MOU's sqn which were converted to SCU's and sqn's were re organized.
Crotale NG Short Range Air Defence System
FREQUENCY
S-band pulse Doppler radar
MODES
Sectored surveillance, search on the move
IFF
Built-in IFF antenna
RANGE
20km

ALTITUDE COVERAGE
0 to 5,000m
ECCM FEATURES
Low side lobes<br />Frequency agility<br />Pulse compression<br />CFAR<br />Strobe on jam
FREQUENCY
Ku-band TWT single-pulse Doppler radar tracking radar
BEAM WIDTH
1.20&#176;
RANGE
Up to 30km
ECCM FEATURES
Low side lobes<br />Frequency agility<br />Pulse compression<br />CFAR<br />Jammer tracking
TURRET WEIGHT
Approximately 4t
TURRET DRIVE
Electrical
DRIVE SPEED AZIMUTH
5 radians a second
DRIVE SPEED ELEVATION
1 radian per second
RANGE
Up to 19km
WIDE FOV
8.1&#176; in azimuth and 5.4&#176; in elevation
NARROW FOV
2.7&#176; in azimuth and 1.8&#176; in elevation
RANGE
Up to 15km
FIELD OF VIEW
2.4&#176; azimuth and 18&#176; elevation
INFRARED (IR) LOCALISER
Mounted below the CCD camera for missile gathering
SPEED
Mach 3.5+
MANOEUVRABILITY, LOAD FACTORS
Up to 35g
TARGET RANGE
11km
TARGET CEILING
Over 6,000m
GUIDANCE
Command to Line of Sight (CLOS) guidance
WARHEAD
Focused blast and fragmentation warhead
FUSE
RF proximity fuse
LETHAL BLAST RADIUS
8m
INTERCEPTION TIME
10.3 seconds for target distance of 8km
The missions of the system are in front-line armoured brigade defence, permanent or semi-permanent site defence and area defence against air threats, such as fixed-wing aircraft, attack helicopters, cruise missiles, tactical missiles and saturation attacks with stand-off weapons released from aircraft and helicopters.
The Crotale NG system provides air situation and threat assessment, extended detection range, identification friend or foe (IFF), multi-target detection plus automated acquisition, tracking and engagement and all weather operation.
"Crotale NG is an all-weather short-range air defence missile system."
Crotale NG entered production in 1990 and is in service with the Finnish Army (20 systems), and the French Air Force (12 shelter-mounted systems) and Navy.
Thales signed a contract with Greece in June 1999 for 11 Crotale NG systems, nine for the air force and two for the navy. The system has also been sold to Saudi Arabia and Oman.
In February 2000, Thales and Samsung were jointly awarded the contract for the Republic of Korea Pegasus (Chun Ma) K-SAM (Korean Surface-to-Air Missile) programme. The contract called for the production of 48 Crotale NG surveillance and fire control systems. Samsung Thales was awarded a follow-on contract in December 2003.
Thales is developing the Crotale mk3 system. With the new Shikra 3D multibeam surveillance radar (derived from the Thales Netherlands SMART-S mk2 search radar), Crotale mk3 forms Thales’s multishield system designed to protect sensitive sites and theatres of operation. Crotale mk3 began flight testing in January 2008.
A data exchange capability provides integration of the Crotale NG into a global air defence scheme. A platoon of four Crotale NG units can be operated in coordinated mode using the automated computer-to-computer data exchange. According to the threat assessment and the relative positions of the four units, the target is engaged by the unit in the best position.

 

[khanasifm]

There were 4 sqn of 2000 and later another sqn of 4000 was aded with 2 flight with each sqn

Libyan sams were older gen and most probably converted into spares

Any way last paf day were any crotale sam displayed at any base I am assuming most are retired or c&s

Italian sam were to replace French crotale sams barring 4000 version ?? Or may be not all 5 sqn have now crotale only few rest converts to c&s or spares and spada is now with 5-6 sqns plus mistrals and anza to cover air bases mob plus fob only

Looks like army and air defense is providing Area coverage for cities like Karachi and other from strategic importance via a ly-80 with eight to nine systems especially with desert camo

 

[Sine Nomine]

@tps77
What about FM-90,HQ 7.

 

[khanasifm]

@tps77
What about FM-90,HQ 7.

That with army air defense and no data is available on number and units but I think [emoji848] May be with strike crops ?? As mobility is important to move with formations and provide coverage

 

[Sine Nomine]

That with army air defense and no data is available on number and units but I think [emoji848] May be with strike crops ?? As mobility is important to move with formations and provide coverage

I was concerned about range,a wild guess.
Army AD looks good,it's composition looks good for Area Defence Ack Ack Guns,FM-90 and LY-80.
We now have strong need of Theatre Defence System like S400 or HQ 9.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Forget Crotale , get few S-200

However , Pakistan have had these older generation models for sometimes but the world has changed drastically now

And unless the Radar and EW resistance exists the models need some improvements either locally or with other country's collaboraton

Considering we make radars in Pakistan or even for planes why does Pakisan struggless to make a locally manufactured SAM considering the concept is similar to detect a target , and engage it with missile

 

[Tps43]

There were 4 sqn of 2000 and later another sqn of 4000 was aded with 2 flight with each sqn

Libyan sams were older gen and most probably converted into spares

Any way last paf day were any crotale sam displayed at any base I am assuming most are retired or c&s

Italian sam were to replace French crotale sams barring 4000 version ?? Or may be not all 5 sqn have now crotale only few rest converts to c&s or spares and spada is now with 5-6 sqns plus mistrals and anza to cover air bases mob plus fob only

Looks like army and air defense is providing Area coverage for cities like Karachi and other from strategic importance via a ly-80 with eight to nine systems especially with desert camo

Dear 10 sqn's are fixed and spada wont replace crotales as they were newly raised units or Sam converted units . Chaklala and masroor dont have them but Interesting thing is that where ever we have our nuclear facilities anywhere in pakistan Crotales are giving them cover .
Libiyan ones were packed and unused I personally know a sqn which uses them and they are on 5 min standby position.
Another thing which I would like to tell is that the major communication setup was upgraded in 2011 - 2012 and now we have MCP setup for crotales .
Crotales are here for 1 more decade atleast but if paf and thales agree for NG subsystems we can see them till 2 more decades.

Forget Crotale , get few S-200

However , Pakistan have had these older generation models for sometimes but the world has changed drastically now

And unless the Radar and EW resistance exists the models need some improvements either locally or with other country's collaboraton

Considering we make radars in Pakistan or even for planes why does Pakisan struggless to make a locally manufactured SAM considering the concept is similar to detect a target , and engage it with missile

Crotales most kills are against isreal 41 I think during arab wars.
We should try for some battries of S 300s latest version tho

@tps77
What about FM-90,HQ 7.

Both of them are crotales copy tho I think they are close to NG .
Btw I wasnt happy at all with the buy of FM 90s.

 

[YeBeWarned]

@tps77 are we looking for more LY-80 ? as far as i know we have 8 Batteries of LY-80 ..

 

[Tps43]

@tps77 are we looking for more LY-80 ? as far as i know we have 8 Batteries of LY-80 ..

I think there is even pictorial reference of It and MoDP's offical release although those systems are under army.
Paf is looking for Ruskies maal this time.

 

[YeBeWarned]

I think there is even pictorial reference of It and MoDP's offical release although those systems are under army.
Paf is looking for Ruskies maal this time.

Do you have MoDP report for 2017 ? bro Russian Maal is coming ? they are looking for Pantsir S2 and Buk M3's for so long as much of a fan i am for Pantsir S2 its hard to swallow they will be coming anytime soon , but rather i believe we should get 3-5 HQ-9's or ASTER 30 Block III

 

[Tps43]

Do you have MoDP report for 2017 ? bro Russian Maal is coming ? they are looking for Pantsir S2 and Buk M3's for so long as much of a fan i am for Pantsir S2 its hard to swallow they will be coming anytime soon , but rather i believe we should get 3-5 HQ-9's or ASTER 30 Block III

Let me See I will post in morning.
What if I tell u Things are in advance stage. And yeah those toys will be under Paf.

 

[YeBeWarned]

Let me See I will post in morning.
What if I tell u Things are in advance stage. And yeah those toys will be under Paf.

Thanks, and if Pantsir S2 and Buk M2 comes to PA , sir i will personally come to your place and gives you some Gulab jamun or Darbar Biryani with double Boti Apke liye
Don't forget to tag me when you post the report .

 

[Tps43]

Thanks, and if Pantsir S2 and Buk M2 comes to PA , sir i will personally come to your place and gives you some Gulab jamun or Darbar Biryani with double Boti Apke liye
Don't forget to tag me when you post the report .

OK but they one of ruski sam will be in PAF.
Done I will Tag u.

OK but they one of ruski sam will be in PAF.
Done I will Tag u.

@Starlord
https://www.ispr.gov.pk/front/main.asp?o=t-press_release&id=3826&cat=army#pr_link3826