John Cockerill Defense and Thales are combining their skills and product portfolio for the first firing tests of a LAU32 rocket launcher with 70mm FZ275 LGR Semi-Active Laser (SAL) Guided Rocket integrated on a Cockerill® 3030 turret. This innovation combines the performance of the 30x173mm cannon from John Cockerill Defense and those of Thales’s 70mm guided and unguided rockets. Drawing on their respective expertise in turrets and guns for John Cockerill Defense and airborne weapons systems for Thales, the integration of the two systems was completed in less than 6 months. The assembly of the rocket system is carried out on a dedicated support and linked to the full field of use of the turret.
John Cockerill Defense’s Cockerill®3030 turret is fitted with a 30mm MK44 cannon. Its efficiency is based on a unique rate and precision of fire and offers the most demanding reliability. The turret can hold 255 rounds of 30x173mm in the magazine. Based on an unprecedented modular concept, the Cockerill® 3000 Series is a single platform enabling guns of different calibers and their corresponding technological modules to be integrated onto the same turret: automatic 25 mm, 30 mm, 30/40 mm, 35 mm and 50 mm caliber guns, along with direct fire guns of 90 and 105 mm, which are also able to fire anti-tank missiles. This turret has already been sold several hundred copies around the world.
Rockets provide an operational complement linked to the flexibility of use of guided and conventional ammunitions. The Thales laser guided rocket FZ275 LGR gives metric precision at a range of over 7km, thus limiting collateral damage to a minimum. FZ275 LGR can be fired from standard FZ rocket launcher. On the other hand, unguided rockets allow zone saturation or warning fire at range between 3 and 9 km. The operational concept of this system offers short range efficiency, very high precision as well as an extension of the firing distance with metric (pin-point target) or saturation precision. The FZ275 LGR can be also integrated to various platforms (Aircraft, Helicopter, UAV, Land Vehicle and Naval platform).
The Thales FZ SAL-Laser Guided Rocket FZ275 LGR requires designation of the target by a laser designator. The rocket has an in-built laser seeker that can read a specially coded laser being reflected off a target. This target can be marked either before launching the rocket (LOBL), after launch (LOAL) or even by a remote source, such as a soldier on the ground or another second flying platform. This versatility provides the helicopter with a far greater survivability and the ability to attack without moving into a target’s vision. FZ275 LGR offers different warheads such as High Explosive warheads.
