Rheinmetall Panther KF51 now officially bears the title as the world's first Main Battle Tank (MBT) equipped with the ability to launch a kamikaze (loitering munition) drone.
Not just launching, even more powerful, Panther KF51 adopts the concept of an integrated launcher (built in) in the dome design. And the kamikaze drone package has been compactly packaged by Rheinnetall Defense as a Future Gun System.
In addition to thinking about avoiding kamikaze drone attacks, the Panther KF51 design allows MBT units to be able to carry out long-range attacks on opponents.
Apart from that, drones released from MBTs are not only for destruction tasks, precisely drones launched from tank turrets can also be the "eyes and ears" of the MBT crew thanks to the ISR (Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) mission capability.
As mentioned in the previous article, the type of kamikaze drone launched from the Panther KF51 is the Hero 120. This is a kamikaze drone produced by UVision, an Israeli loitering munition manufacturer. Before the Hero 120 was incorporated into the Panther KF51 design, Rheinmetall and UVsion had already signed a partnership to market the Hero family of drones in Europe.
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| Number 7: the position of the kamikaze drone launcher.. |
Quoted from uvisionuav.com, it is stated that the Hero 120 is ideal for anti-tank missions and attacks on strategic targets. This folding wing drone weighs (including the canister) 18 kg, while the warhead weighs up to 4.5 kg. With electric power, Hero 120 can be airborne for 60 minutes with a range of 40 km.
For the ISR role, the Hero 120 can be landed (recovered) with a parachute system, however this will have a terminal effect and a smaller warhead is installed to make room for the parachute. In addition to being used by the Israeli military, the Hero 120 is also operated by the US Marine Corps in the Organic Precision Fire Mounted (OPF-M) program.
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