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Avenger Air Defense
System
The Avenger Air Defense
System is a US military weapon system utilized
by both the Army and the Marine Corps that
provides mobile, short-range air defense protection
for ground units against cruise missiles,
unmanned aerial vehicles, low-flying fixed-wing
aircraft, and helicopters.
This
is one of the air defense systems placed
around the Pentagon in Washington, DC after
the September 11 terror attacks. The Avenger
system has been in use since 1989.
The system consists
of a gyro-stabilized air defense turret mounted
on a modified heavy High Mobility Multipurpose
Wheeled Vehicle (HMMWV). The turret has two
Stinger missile launcher pods, each capable
of firing up to 4 fire-and-forget infrared/ultraviolet
guided missiles in rapid succession. Avenger
can be linked to the Forward Area Air Defense
Command, Control, Communications and Intelligence
(FAAD C3I) system, which permits external
radar tracks and messages to be passed to
the fire unit to alert and cue the gunner.
Using the newly developed Slew-to-Cue subsystem,
the commander or gunner can select a FAAD
C3I reported target for engagement from a
display on their HTU, then, by a single push-button,
initiate an automatic cab movement to azimuth.
The slew-to-cue system is not wide-spread,
however.
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