Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile

The **Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile** is a short-ranged fire-and-forget SAM intended to be used by vehicle-mounts, box launchers on vessels and VLS on surface vessels to provide Squadron and Regiment Level Air Defense. The Miodóg is used on vessels of the SDF-Navy for short-range air defence against aircraft and Anti-Ship Missiles and is a part of the SDF-Army's Sciath Air Defence Complex.

Although primarily a Surface-to-Air Missile, the Miodóg has Air-to-Air Missile Versions, namely Mark III and Mark IV, which are used by the SDF as well. It is the short-ranged member of the family also composed of the Claíomh Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile and the Sleá Long-Range Surface-to-Air Missile.

In 2035, the Miodóg was first supplemented and by 2045 replaced by the Bobaide Short-Range Multi-Purpose Missile.

## Design

The Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile is a 3.2 metre long short-range Surface-to-Air Missile with a diameter of 160 millimetres. It has a total weight of 115 kilograms, twelve of which belong to the blast fragmentation warhead, which can be programmed either to react to a certain proximity to the target or to a direct impact, both with its distinctive advantages and disadvantages. The missile can defeat enemy helicopter gunships.

Powered by a solid propellant rocket motor, the Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile can reach speeds between Mach 3 and Mach 4, or between 3,675.25 and 4,900.32 kilometres per hour, depending on version and distance to target.

The Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile has, in the versions Mark I and II a range of up to 25 kilometres, capable of attacking targets ten metres away from the launcher, while the Mark III and IV need two-hundred metres to activate the warheads and have a range of up to 50 kilometres. All versions can engage targets up to nine kilometres high.

For a short-ranged Anti-Air Missile, be it aircraft-launched or surface-launched, the Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile has a surprisingly high manoeuvrability due to thrust vectoring being used to steer the missile with precision, the missile's body reinforced to withstand forces of up to sixty G.

The solid propellant driving the missile is a special, smokeless mixture, which leaves a minimal trail behind.

## Versions

The Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile is delivered in four different versions, two of which are Surface-to-Air Missiles and two of which are Air-to-Air Missiles. The versions, amongst themselves, mostly differ in the guidance systems.

* Mark I: Infrared-guided Surface-to-Air Missile, Ground-based.
* Mark II: Active Radar Guided Surface-to-Air Missile, ground-based.
* Mark III: Infrared-guided Air-to-Air Missile, aircraft launched.
* Mark IV: Active Radar Guided Air-to-Air Missile, aircraft launched.

Both the infrared-guidance system and the active radar guidance versions are designed to filter out countermeasures, be they chaff and flare or electronic in nature. The missile can also lock onto a target after launch, increasing the range at which targets can possibly be engaged due to that system being able to engage targets outside of the seeker's range at launch.

In addition to being proofed against electronic countermeasures, the Mark II and IV Versions are equipped with an ingenious system enabling the active radar guiding the missile to switch to a passive mode, listening for radar emissions instead of actively searching with the radar and thus being able to lock onto and destroy these emitters, for example on enemy aircraft.

## History

The Selkie were rather early in the application of military rockets, from the Rocket Barrage Anti-Aircraft System mounted on ships of the SDF-Navy in the early 30s to the 12.7 centimetre Rockets used by the Fabhcún and other aircraft. With guided rockets, it was a bit more tricky.

The first vessel of the SDF-Navy to be deployed with a fully-functioning Anti-Ship Missile System and indeed firing that in anger became SDFS Lodan Lir, in 1960, roundabout half a decade after contemporary systems from Lutetii.

In guided anti-aircraft rockets, the Free Lands were even further behind, the first usable example being ready for operations in 1963, the Uafás Surface-to-Air Missile, as it became known. This system was in surface until 1988, long after the Second Vellenge War, where the SDF learned the importance of modern missiles the hard way.

From 1986 onwards, the Free Lands imported foreign anti-aircraft missiles for its use, but that changed drastically on a day in 2012 – the Halfblakistani Expedition and the Battle of Marley Bay, where the SDF suffered massive losses due to outdated weaponry.

A massive drive for new equipment, vessels and rockets and all other manners of weaponry, was started, one of them three anti-air missile programmes, two surface-launched and one air-launched.

The Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile is a result of the failings and shortcomings of one of the two surface-launched missiles, the Claíomh Medium-Range Surface-to-Air Missile, which was abandoned in 2015 and construction started anew as the Miodóg.

Midway, the newly named Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air missile was also adapted as a short-range air-to-air missile. The first test shots were fired in early 2017 and the missile entered mass production a year later, after the tests were successfully concluded.

### Export

In 2018, Gabha acquired the permission to export the Miodóg Short-Range Surface-to-Air Missile for the international market at a price of 225,000 NSD per missile for Mark I and Mark III, with bundles of 1,000 missiles for 200 million NSD. The DPR can be acquired for two billion NSD.

Mark II and Mark IV Missiles are available for 200,000 NSD a piece, with bundles of 1,000 missiles available for 175 million NSD and DPRs for 1.75 billion NSD.