Denel’s Looking at Radar Guided A-Darter Derivative

The South African aerospace company Denel is looking at developing a radar guided version of its A-Darter infra-red short range dogfight missile.

This mirrors the work that Denel and Rafael did on missiles, the R-Darter/Derby.

Eventually, Rafael produced an active radar guided variant of their Python missile called the Derby.

The A-Darter is reported to have a 20km range, and replacing the missile seeker with a more aerodynamic radome would improve range, though I would guess that even if the missile were not to grow significantly, having a version with a lower and longer thrust profile could increase range even further.

The Umkhonto shown above is a SAM based on the A-darter technology.

One of the goals of both the Darter and the Umkhonto programs is to have no foreign components subject to foreign government export restrictions.