Looking at the LOMADS project, I'm starting to wonder if our decision-makers actually came up clutch all the way back in 2017 when South Africa reached out to collaborate on defence. We had heard of an in-house SAM project before (I was expecting something like FAAZ-SL), but a system with a range of up to 100 km is really surprising.
I wouldn't say it's SIPER territory (the tech base of SIPER is much higher and will lead to ABM and THAAD-type solutions), but LOMADS could plausibly be a revival of the Denel Umkhonto R project. If they picked up an idle project in South Africa, then the DPMR stack is already present and the focus would need to go into guidance, ECCM, seeker, etc.
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Theoretically, they can re-use the dual pulse motor/rocket (DPMR) stack for a SAM. However, DPMR-based AAMs might be nearing their ceiling from a utility standpoint; a lot of next-gen AAMs are drawing on ramjet and scramjet tech. So, in this sense, an indigenous supersonic cruise missile (SMASH?) could play a more pivotal role in future AAM development
Cynical me also wonders if GHQ, NHQ, AHQ, etc, suddenly revealed these projects to get Pak defence forum nerds back on their side. Them memes have been precision airstrikes. Forget the nation, we need those four-eyed keyboard warriors back on our side.
@JamD @Bilal. @Falcon26