Thanks to its powerful anti-aircraft gun and optronic fire-control, RAPIDSeaGuardian is optimised to defeat new air threats such as Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV), helicopters, Fighters-Ground Attack (FGA), cruise missiles, Fast Patrol Boats, seaskimming missiles,...
Either in an autonomous or integrated mode, RAPIDSeaGuardian provides unrivaled anticipation capabilities. It can also be used for self-defence when docked or moored.
The main advantage of the system is to have similar footprint and weight as a 25mm system but with the increased fire power and range of a 40mm system. Thales is defining the RAPIDSeaGuardian as a new generation CIWS effective against super sonic seaskimming missile thanks to the airburst ammunition, as well as against assymetric threats thanks to the other ammunitions similar to the landbased RAPIDFire system.
The effective range of the gun is up to 4000 meters. It can be integrated of fully autonomous:
Own optronic sensor head is fitted directly on the turret:
• System can receive the target designation through the CMS
• Gun can operate autonomously
• Manning: only 1 operator required to operate the system (weapon engagement and firing order)
• One console needed (not specific)
Gun ammunition types:
The 40 mm gun has both air and surface defence capabilities with dedicated ammunition:
1/ Point Detonating (PD) + Air Burst (AB) fused High Energy ammunition combined in one General Purpose Round (GPR)
2/ Armour Piercing Fin Stabilized Discarding Sabot (APFSDS) against armoured vehicle, penetrates 140mm of Rolled Homogeneous Armour at 1500m
3/ Training Practice (TP) for operator training purpose
4/ Anti-Aerial Air Burst (A3B) for air targets, more than 200 tungsten pellets of at least 3.3g |
Thales RAPIDSeaGuardian Naval Gun System