Short range version of Iron Dome made by UAE company

[Philip the Arab]

SkyKnight, which was unveiled at IDEX, is a radar-equipped missile made by Emirati defense company Halcon set to be integrated into the German Oerlikon air defense system, made by Rheinmetall. SkyKnight is the first missile system able to counter rockets, artillery and mortars designed and manufactured in the United Arab Emirates. The counter-drone system was designed to mitigate modern threats such as rotary-wing aircraft, UAVs, rockets, artillery, mortars and other fixed-wing aircraft at a range of up to 10 kilometers.
“The system is able to detect, track and neutralize small-sized threats,” Halcon CEO Saeed Al Mansoori told Defense News. “It is not a joint venture, we are not participating in the technology; they already have air defense systems and we already have our missile and canister. ... We are just integrating the systems together.
“We will be the system supplier for the Middle East region, and Rheinmetall will be the whole system supplier for Europe and other countries.”
The UAE has already committed to buying the SkyKnight, but the system is four years away from target demonstrations.

It will come in containers carrying 60 missiles, it can launch 16 missiles in 3.5 seconds.

In theory the UAE can make a lot of sales upgrading countries SkyGuard system to SkyNexus and integrating this missile. It should be a pretty good static defense for strategic targets.

 

[Titanium100]

Halcon has been on a roll lately

 

[Philip the Arab]

Halcon has been on a roll lately

Thats what money and hiring experts get you. Its good though because they can sell to other Arab countries in the future.

 

[Mohamed Bin Tughlaq]

Halcon has been on a roll lately

Thats what money and hiring experts get you. Its good though because they can sell to other Arab countries in the future.

Halcon has been doing alot of work and releasing alot of stuff lately

 

[karamany98]

What parts are made locally in the UAE?
Like do the emiratis make the seeker, engine and electronics or is it mostly imported?

 

[Philip the Arab]

What parts are made locally in the UAE?
Like do the emiratis make the seeker, engine and electronics or is it mostly imported?

It probably depends on the technological level of the items required. Likely parts that cant be made are imported from South Africa, everybody imports parts look at India systems. UAE is much too small to make everything itself.

 

[Mohamed Bin Tughlaq]

 

[Gomig-21]

It will come in containers carrying 60 missiles, it can launch 16 missiles in 3.5 seconds.

That's what really impressed me out of the whole thing was that container that has 60 missiles in it. You really need the elements of quantity and rapid rate of fire which is there in that container and the 16 missiles capable in 3.5 seconds. That's just outstanding, just need to see the percentage of successful hits.

 

[Philip the Arab]

That's what really impressed me out of the whole thing was that container that has 60 missiles in it. You really need the elements of quantity and rapid rate of fire which is there in that container and the 16 missiles capable in 3.5 seconds. That's just outstanding, just need to see the percentage of successful hits.

Also 4 containers firing at the same time so up to 80 missiles in flight at the same time.
I think this would be quite useful against large CM, or PGM attacks imo targeting strategic assets. This could easily make a lot of sales even among NATO nations looking for defense against large scale PGM, or CM attacks. This will likely be considerably cheaper than the Iron Dome and be with a German system that is already pretty good.

 

[Philip the Arab]

@karamany98 @Gomig-21 @Titanium100
interesting thing is that the same lead designer designing this missile designed the Denel Cheetah but now works at Incomar a different company and is being contracted to design this missile. It is very similar to the Denel Cheetah missile but heavier and with longer range. It is supposed to be HTK with an active radar seeker in each missile but unfortunately they took down the video where they interviewed him.

 

[SQ8]

View attachment 725863


@karamany98 @Gomig-21 @Titanium100
interesting thing is that the same lead designer designing this missile designed the Denel Cheetah but now works at Incomar a different company and is being contracted to design this missile. It is very similar to the Denel Cheetah missile but heavier and with longer range. It is supposed to be HTK with an active radar seeker in each missile but unfortunately they took down the video where they interviewed him.

@denel who - or rather what team history would that be?

 

[Philip the Arab]

@denel who - or rather what team history would that be?

Somebody named Reinart Moraal. He had an interview on Youtube with army recognition IIRC but it was taken down a few days ago. Seems he quit and went to Incomar but I wonder if hes violating IP transfer by doing this job.


Chief Systems Engineer
Jun 2019 - Jul 20201 year 2 months
Systems engineering for Cheetah C-RAM missile.
Systems engineering for radar seeker on Cheetah C-RAM missile
Radar seeker microwave design engineering for Cheetah C-RAM missile
Chief Engineer
Jan 2001 - Jul 202019 years 7 months
Pretoria Area, South Africa
Chief Engineer Specializing in Microwave and Radar Subsystems focussed on missile systems
Systems engineer for Mongoose 1 / 2 Active Protection Missiles
Systems engineer for Mongoose 3 / Cheetah C-RAM Missiles

https://za.linkedin.com/in/reinart-moraal-75160a12

Also this tweet from a South African defense analyst is interesting

https://twitter.com/x/status/1364219649886478339

 

[Gomig-21]

View attachment 725863


@karamany98 @Gomig-21 @Titanium100
interesting thing is that the same lead designer designing this missile designed the Denel Cheetah but now works at Incomar a different company and is being contracted to design this missile. It is very similar to the Denel Cheetah missile but heavier and with longer range. It is supposed to be HTK with an active radar seeker in each missile but unfortunately they took down the video where they interviewed him.

Outstanding. This might be a better and less costly system than the Russian Bastion coastal defense system which was designed to guard the Russian coast which is all Siberia and frozen tundra etc. lol. So it might not be ideal for the Egyptian coast which needs mobile and fixed units and this fits the bill perfectly. I like it and hope they go wit it once it's fully tested and successful.

Eshtah aleik ya Billip!

 

[Philip the Arab]

@Gomig-21
I think this system should be installed in Egypt's most important bases to protect from missle attacks.

60 missiles per launcher and 4 launchers per Skynex means 240 missiles. 20 missiles can be in the air for each launcher which means 80 missiles in the air at the same time able to counter a huge saturation attack.

And also this can work to defend Egyptian S-300s, and other important air defense systems. This will be able to protect the important Egyptian air defense systems in service. The UAE armed forces is for sure acquiring this system I think IOC 2026 according to articles. This thing has the possibility in conjunction with Rheinmetall to be HUGE in Europe and Asia.

 

[The SC]

@Gomig-21
I think this system should be installed in Egypt's most important bases to protect from missle attacks.

60 missiles per launcher and 4 launchers per Skynex means 240 missiles. 20 missiles can be in the air for each launcher which means 80 missiles in the air at the same time able to counter a huge saturation attack.

And also this can work to defend Egyptian S-300s, and other important air defense systems. This will be able to protect the important Egyptian air defense systems in service. The UAE armed forces is for sure acquiring this system I think IOC 2026 according to articles. This thing has the possibility in conjunction with Rheinmetall to be HUGE in Europe and Asia.


View attachment 726098

KSA will certainly be interested in it too..