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The Light Attack Modular Ballistic System missile family is comprised of fixed-wing, rotary and surface launched missiles developed and deployed by the Verhun Defence System company based in the Alteran Republics. The baseline LAMBS missile has served as the basis for the LAMBS, LAMBS Cruise Missile and LAMBS Surface-to-Surface.

LAMBS was originally designed as an air-launched ground attack missile developed by VDS for Altera's Air Defence Force. It was originally intended for "fire-and-forget" use against mass formations of enemy armour, using a millimetric wave (mmW) active radar homing seeker to ensure accuracy even against moving targets. Experience in through both live-fire exercises and deployment overseas led to the addition of laser guidance in subsequent missiles, allowing a "spotter" to pick out specific targets when friendly forces or civilians were in the area. The tandem shaped charge warhead is much more effective against modern tanks than older similar weapons such as the BITEL missile family, while the small blast area minimises collateral damage. Three LAMBS are carried on a launcher that occupies a single weapon station, allowing a single aircraft to carry many missiles.

Design and Characteristics

First conceived in the early 1990s, the Council for Defence was looking for a system of missiles to replace the use of the BITEL in the anti-tank and anti-structure roles. The Council requested a lighter missile system that could be deployed from an aircraft to seek and destroy armoured vehicles and structures, whilst minimising the impact of the blast radius.

LAMBS has a Tandem Shaped Charge (TSC) warhead that employs a smaller initial charge, designed to initiate reactive armour, followed by a larger, more destructive charge, designed to penetrate and defeat the base armour. It has been estimated that LAMBS will be 3 times more effective than similar missiles, employing kinetic or fragmentation warheads, against modern tanks. In combat, LAMBS has demonstrated accuracy and reliability "both well above 90 percent" according to the CoD; sources stating an accuracy of around 98%.

LAMBS was conceived as a "fire-and-forget" missile, which is loaded with targeting data by the weapon systems officer (WSO) prior to launch. It is programmable to adapt to particular mission requirements. This capability includes essentially the ability to find targets within a certain area (such as those near friendly forces), and to self-destruct if it is unable to find a target within the designated area. This information can be provided from the during instalment, from the launch vehicle or via a ground operator.

In addition to the semi-autonomous ability to decide its own targets, the LAMBS has the capacity to determine where on a target to best impact causing the most damage or resulting in elimination of the target. The missile's advanced sensor package includes its extremely high frequency millimetric wave radar, which allows the weapon to image the target and hence choose a target location. With as many as twenty-four missiles in the air, the missile's targeting system also required an algorithm to ensure that missiles hit their targets in a staggered order, rather than all simultaneously.

LAMBS can be fired in a number of attack profiles; direct or indirect against single targets, a column of targets or against an array of targets. The latter utilises a salvo attack capability for multiple kills per engagement. Once launched, the platform is free to manoeuvre away from the target area or engage another target array.

Each launch system incorporates three rails, i.e. one system carries three missiles. This allows a single aircraft to carry large numbers of missiles; for example, a Pochard could carry up to six launch systems, one each on six individual pylons, which gives a maximum payload of eighteen LAMBS missiles, in addition to a useful air-to-air payload.

Applications

LAMBS performed initial airborne carriage trials in 1998, and began live-fire testing in 1999. Although scheduled to enter service in 2001, the missile did not join the AADF's arsenal until March 31, 2005. The program was delayed several times for upgraded guidance and control software for the missile, as well as system upgrades for the Pochard and Condor - the two primary aircraft the missile was designed for deployment on.

Maritime

The maritime application of LAMBS Sea Spear is an air- and surface-launched anti-ship missile designed to strike fast-moving, swarming inshore attack ships. Although erroneously considered to be a basic adoption of LAMBS, the modular nature of LAMBS allows Sea Spear to be different than the base, air-launched LAMBS system. First, the missile is equipped with an inertial navigation system for mid course guidance, in addition to a SAL and mmW seeker for terminal guidance. Secondly, the Sea Spear carries a 16 kg payload, 10 kg larger than any other variant, to ensure it can sufficiently damage fast inshore attack craft (FIAC). Third, the Sea Spear is designed to hit swarming targets, like small unmanned aerial vehicles or missile salvos, not merely fast-moving ones. The Sea Spear model anticipates future battlespaces that will not only present cluttered environments, but also more technologically advanced adversaries.

When fired from a surface vessel, the missile uses a triple- or hex-rail launcher similar to the three-round pylon used for air-launched variants.

Land

The ground-based variant of LAMBS is known as Surface Spear, is a modified version of the base LAMBS that can be launched from the ground or from helicopters. It was developed following lessons observed in overseas conflict, which showed a need for a high-precision guided tactical ground-to-ground battlefield missile. Due to different launch requirements, LAMBS Surface Spear has a much shorter range than its airborne and cruise missile equivalents. It can be launched from a single tube, man-portable system or a quad-tube vehicle mounted launcher.

Surface Spear is a fire-and-forget missile with lock-on before launch and automatic self-guidance, as well as also having the capability of "Fire, Observe and Update" operating mode. With this, the operator can obtain a target if it is not in the line of sight of the operator at launch, switch targets in flight, or compensate for the movement of the target if the missile is not tracking the target for some reason. Hence, the missile can be fired speculatively for a target of opportunity, or to provide observation on the other side of an obstacle. The missile has a soft launch capability – the motor firing after the missile has left the launcher – that allows for the missile to be fired from confined spaces, which is a necessity in urban warfare.

Aerial

LAMBS has seen the widest adoption in its air-to-surface role, commonly deployed on fast jets or drones. When air launched, the missile meets and exceeds many air force requirements for a long-range anti-armour weapon, giving fighter aircraft the stand-off capability of destroying tanks and armoured assets deep behind enemy lines. The aerial variants of the LAMBS missiles system features similar capabilities to the ground and maritime version, with the exception that it can be launched at supersonic speeds.

In 2015, VDS unveiled a successful test of a new variant of the LAMBS - a cruise missile variant. With deployable wings and an extended body, the LAMBS-Cruise Missile (LAMBS-CM) had a range of over 140 kilometres and has seen deployment with the Alteran Air Defence force since 2018 as an air-deployed, mid-range cruise missile suitable for strikes against structures, vehicles and installations.

Specifications

	LAMBS	LAMBS Cruise Missile	Sea Spear	Surface Spear
Range	1 - 60km	<140+ km	<1 - 40km	<1 - 40km
Warhead	HEAT Tandem Warhead	HEAT Tandem Warhead	HEAT Tandem Warhead	HEAT Tandem Warhead
Engine	Solid-Fuel Rocket Motor	Solid-Fuel Rocket Motor	Solid-Fuel Rocket Motor	Solid-Fuel Rocket Motor
Speed	<Mach 1	<Mach 1	<Mach 1	<Mach 1
Guidance System	> Active Radar > INS Autopilot > Laser Guided	> Active Radar > INS Autopilot > Laser Guided	> Infra-red > INS Autopilot > Laser Guided	> Infra-red > INS Autopilot > Laser Guided

Operators

• Alteran Republics
  - Alteran Air Defence Force
  - Alteran Ground Defence Force
  - Alteran Maritime Defence Force
  

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