ADATS Redux?

Vincent J. Curtis

14 Sept 22

ADATS (Air Defence Anti-Tank System) was almost unique to Canada.  For those who know what an Ontos is, ADATS is somewhat like a hi-tech version of that.  ADATS was a weapons system that could be vehicle or static mounted.  In its day, the system was mounted on an M113A2 chassis, and the whole shebang, vehicle and weapons system, was called ADATS.  The Americans thought about mounting one on an M2 Bradley, but never did.  So, the vehicle that the weapons system is mounted on isn’t actually relevant.

The primary armament of the system was eight missiles mounted in separate launch tubes, in two pods of four missiles each, and a secondary armament of a Bushmaster M242 25 mm auto-cannon.  The upgrade from the Ontos is that ADATS employed radar detection and laser guidance.

Canada was the lead customer and, as it turned out, essentially the only customer.  The weapons system was developed by Oerlikon/Martin Marietta in the early to middle 1980s, when chips in those new-fangled DOS IBM PCs were 8086s.  The primary detection system was radar, and the operator could paint a target with a laser beam.  The radar of those days liked the clean background of an open sky; cluttered ground terrain, not so much.

Once painted, the missile screamed to target at Mach 3.  The missile was roughly 2 m long, 0.15 m diameter, had a range of 10 km, a ceiling of 7,000 m, and a 12.6 kg shaped charge/fragmentation warhead with impact and proximity fuses.  It could penetrate 90 cm of armour.

ADATS didn’t have much of a service history.  Adopted in 1989, it was retired in 2012, essentially never having been deployed overseas.  An upgrade program was considered in 2005: an improved radar and a missile with an improved non-line-of-sight tracking system.  These were the days when Canada considered tanks to be obsolete (because there was no prospect then of replacements for Leopard Is).  The idea of the upgrade was to create a light, cheap multi-mission effects vehicle.  But a Conservative government came to power in 2006, the upgrade program was quietly cancelled, and Canada acquired Leopard II tanks.

The question around ADATS for a NATO country is, why?  You can expect air supremacy, given the capabilities of the USAF.  Even if you only had air superiority, camouflage worked pretty well for higher HQs during WWII.  ADATS was too lightly armoured and had such a long range, it didn’t seem to have tactical niche in an armoured rush.  If it picked off a rogue enemy tank at 10 km, it would draw attention to the HQ it was protecting.  The Ukrainians might have made good use of these systems in the early days of their war with Russia.

But what’s old is new again.  Saab has developed a new system called MSHORAD (Mobile, Short Range Air Defense System), and is strictly for air defence.  It’s light enough that it can be mounted on a pickup truck. Because you can’t hit what you can’t see, the heart of the system is Saab’s Giraffe 1X radar system.  Giraffe 1X is a 3D radar, and it takes a pretty small cross section to escape its notice.  Giraffe 1X scans the entire search volume every second, and is capable of detecting small UAVs.

Having detected the target, there comes the business of shooting it down.  For this, MSHORAD has Saab’s RBS 70 NG system, which comprises missile and aiming/tracking system, and comes in a three missile battery.  The missile has an effective range of 9 km, maximum altitude of 5 km, and maximum velocity of Mach 2.  The missile can be used in a MANPAD role, but adding a sophisticated aiming/guidance system makes it heavy for shoulder fire.

A smaller, lighter, close-in air defence system might make more sense for HQ and vital location protection than an ADATS weaponry guided by the Giraffe 1X radar.  Since you can mount MSHORAD on a pickup truck, the vehicle isn’t important in the cost of operation and maintenance.

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