Arnold Defense, displayed their 2.75-inch/70mm weapon system concept named the “FLETCHER” at SOFIC, mounted on a Polaris DAGOR ultra-light tactical vehicle, for the very first time.
FLETCHER can engage targets at ranges up to 5 kilometers away thanks to an existing suite of guidance modules, rockets and warheads which are already used by several countries.
Tags: Arnold Defense, Polaris
May someone explain to me the difference between a rocket, a guided rocket, and a missile? I always thought that rockets were unguided and missiles were guided and that was the difference.
Missile doesn’t necessarily utilize a rocket for propulsion.
Guidance systems can still be used on rocket powered munitions.
The nomenclature has gotten a bit fuzzy lately. In a general sense, rockets have not been guided weapons (at least historically). At the same time, every missile I can think of does/did have a guidance package of some sort. Even the V2 had a really clever if not quite accurate dead reckoning INS that used a tiny propeller.
More recently weapons developers have started integrating miniaturized guidance packages into weapons that were previously unguided. It is similar to the dumb bomb to JDAM kits from twenty years ago. Case in point, there are now laser guidance kits available to retrofit old school Hydra 70 rockets from the Viet Nam era. Systems like that usually get called guided rockets to avoid confusion, although it may actually cause more. I don’t know if that is what is going on with the Fletcher system though.
If you want to be really pedantic, rockets are technically missiles in the sense that they are projectile weapons. But under that definition bullets, arrows, shuriken, boomerangs, and pointy rocks are missiles too. And that is just silly.
Gotcha, thanks for writing it up for me. I think the idea that missiles don’t necessarily use rocket engines anymore makes a lot of sense, so does the retrofitting rockets with guidance packages. Thanks!
GI JOOOOOOOOE!
Ok dumb question kinda off topic. What is the platform for the Polaris DAGAR? Like is it a RAZR just “tactical version”
82nd owns a bunch of them
https://ssdaily.tempurl.host/2018/03/22/next-generation-polaris-dagor-evolves-with-mission-requirements/