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A soldier from the ACR's 252nd Anti-Aircraft Section fires a Saab RBS 70 NG SAM system. The service may become the first operator of the latest RBS 70. Source: ACR
The Swedish Army is set to take into service Saab's RBS 70 NG (New Generation) very short-range air defence (VSHORAD) system, IHS Jane's has learned.
Speaking during an exercise on the island of Gotland in the Baltic Sea, Colonel Stefan Jönsson, commanding officer of the Swedish Air Defence Regiment, said that the army will begin its transition to the RBS 70 NG in 2016.
The exercise saw the army's Halmstad-based 61st Air Defence Battalion deploy the full range of its systems in what Colonel Jönsson said was an operationally representative deployment that tested its ability to rapidly react and establish an air-defence capability in the region.
As IHS Jane's reported in October 2015, the Czech Republic is planning to purchase the RBS 70 NG, which would make it the first operator of the system.
The Army of the Czech Republic (ACR) conducted firing trials of the system at the end of October, with it set to replace the Soviet-era 9K35 Strela-10M (SA-13 'Gopher') self-propelled surface-to-air missile system.
The RBS 70 NG uses command line-of-sight (CLOS) guidance with laser beam-riding interceptors. The baseline RBS 70 NG - which comprises a launch container with interceptor, a tripod, and an NG sight - builds on the earlier RBS 70 man-portable air-defence system, but adds an advanced, integrated sighting system, along with either a third-generation Mk 2 (7 km range) interceptor or the fourth-generation Bolide (8 km range) all-target interceptor.
A key improvement is the new NG lighter weight sighting system. This includes an integrated thermal imager (the earlier RBS 70 variant used a BORC clip-on thermal imager), an auto tracker for improved aiming/guidance, an improved acquisition and engagement system to shorten the engagement sequence, 3-D visual cuing, automatic after-action video, and improved HMI functions for the gunner.
While the NG sight is compatible with all RBS 70 interceptors (Mk 1, Mk 2, and Bolide), according to Saab with the new Bolide interceptor, an RBS 70NG system with a triple launcher can launch all three interceptors near-simultaneously using a colour-coded frequency selection option from a menu on the sight.
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Swedish Army set for latest RBS 70 | IHS Jane's 360