Atri
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| Joint-stock company | |
| Industry | Arms industry |
| Founded | 1959 |
| Founder | Balam Ek Akhemouk |
| Headquarters | , |
Area served | Worldwide |
Key people | Yaxkin Akhemouk (Chairman) Ihemod Djerba (President and CEO) |
| Products | Guided missiles, UAVs |
Number of employees | 13,000 |
The Atri Corporation (Tamashek: ⴰⵜⵔⵉ ⴽoⵔⵒⵓⵙ, Atri Korpus, tr. "Star Corporation") is a Charnean arms manufacturer and major supplier of the Charnean Army and its allies in the region. It specializes in the manufacture of guided missiles, UAVs, as well as advanced sights and targeting equipment used in other areas of the defense industry. Atri is best known for its innovations in the sector of military drones, a technology which Atri engineers were among the first to embrace and further develop in its earliest days at the height of the Ninvite War. Together with Eruere Enterprises, Atri represents the leading edge of technologically sophisticated manufacturing to begin operations inside Charnea, a feat made possible by lucrative military contracts. It is the largest domestic military contractor in Charnea by revenue and value of Charnean Army contracts, while taking up a second place position behind the Akayon Corporation in number of employees. Many Atri products are competitive on the international market for military contracts due to the low price tag enabled by a combination of low labor costs as well as comparatively simple manufacturing techniques and design philosophies inspired by the tactical demands and financial limitations of the Charnean Army. As a result, this Charnean firm is able to actively compete for contracts with far larger and more established aerospace companies from around the world manufacturing larger, more sophisticated, and significantly more expensive products.
Founded in 1959 in the western Charnean city of Azifa as a munitions manufacturer, Atri originally specialized in artillery shells and unguided surface-to-surface rockets. The business later expanded into early types of anti-tank guided missiles manufactured under license from foreign firms, a production line which would gain Atri the attention of the Charnean military procurement apparatus after the 1977 arms embargoes which deeply impacted the Charnean Army and its domestic military industry. Thanks to its existing production line for related products, Atri gained massive government investment and undertook a rapid expansion of its production of ATGM systems, later branching out into ground as well as air-launched missiles and becoming one of the first companies in the world to manufacture an armed UAV built for direct use in combat in 1981. The company would also undertake a move of its manufacturing center from Azifa to larger, better equipped facilities in Ekelhoc, while moving their corporate headquarters to Agnannet. Since its success in the later Ninvite War, Atri has specialized in the interrelated technologies of guided missiles and drones, while also dabbling in the production of sights and targeting equipment directly related to their munitions manufacturing process which are of use in the manufacturing of military vehicles and aircraft. Most of Atri's production by volume of units falls under the category of man-portable as well as vehicle-mounted guided missile systems for which their primary buyer is the Charnean Army, while its most lucrative contracts are those for UAVs which are their most successful export products.
Products
Unmanned aerial vehicles
Loitering munitions
- Waziz - The Waziz ("Cicada") family, consisting of the Waziz-1, Waziz-2, and most recent ramjet-powered Waziz-3, are a group of related loitering munition types which serve a similar role to cruise missiles at a much lower price point, making them attractive to military forces facing budget constraints, including the Charnean Army. Their general design pattern is that of a simple flying wing carrying a destructive payload, launched from a mobile truck-based launcher using a rocket-assisted take-off system to get airborne before engaging their primary propulsion. Most Waziz drones lack onboard cameras and targeting equipment usually found on such drones and utilize only a satellite communication receiver to receive and execute in-flight course correction while relying on separate target-spotting drones or other reconassiance assets for target acquisition and guidance. Some sources therefore dispute Atri's classification of the Waziz family as loitering suicide drones, characterizing them instead as a "poor man's cruise missile", a far cheaper system for attacking fixed targets but which carry a higher risk of being intercepted in flight.
- The Waziz-1 is one of the earliest loitering munitions to enter service anywhere in the world, deriving its name from the characteristic buzzing of its turboprop engine. Its design is highly simplistic and notable for its use of several commercial grade components including civilian GPS system used for guidance rather than a military grade satellite navigation system. This practice of the Atri designers was influenced both by its ever-present directive to simplify and reduce the cost of its products as well as the pressure of arms-embargoes against Charnea imposed during the Ninvite War and ongoing through the mid 1990s which made it difficult for Atri to import certain electronic and computer systems needed in the manufacturing process.
- Waziz-2 is a direct upgrade to the original model, with a larger airframe and a significantly more powerful warhead of 50 kilos compared to a mere 15 in the Waziz-1. It also has a major range improvement, capable of a 2500km one-way flight that more than doubles that of the Waziz-1. The Waziz-2 has seen significant use during the Fahrani Civil War where it enabled the ICA to strike targets inside Fahran from within Charnea without risking valuable air assets to the high-threat environment over the embattled country. The Waziz-2 also proved effective against conventional SAM systems due in large part to its low-altitude flight pattern, which can confuse the radar guidance of older SAM systems which can misidentify the Waziz in flight as a moving ground vehicle.
- The Waziz-3 with its jet propulsion can achieve much higher speeds in flight, and is a reaction to the tactical experiences of the ICA in the Fahrani Civil War, where it was found that the slow speeds of the propellor-driven 1 and 2 models resulted in them being intercepted and destroyed by infantry on the ground at higher rates. The ramjet design is mechanically simple and keep the unit price of the Waziz-3 down, but requires a more powerful rocket-assisted takeoff system to reach the required airspeed to initiate jet propulsion. This resolves the issue of interception by infantry small arms, but greatly increases its heat signature and make it more vulnerable to IR homing interceptors. The ramjet system also sacrifices the prodigious range of the Waziz-2, reducing it by three quarters due to the increased fuel consumption of the ramjet. With an airspeed of 500km per hour and options for onboard targeting systems including IR and anti-radiation guidance systems with LOAL capability, the Waziz-3 much more closely resembles the operational capabilities of a modern cruise missile compared to its propellor-driven siblings.
- Tadast - The Tadast ("Mosquito") is a type of small non-autonomous tactical loitering munition introduced in the 2020s thanks to the evolution of modern drone warfare. Tadast mimics the designs of various FPV racing drones while providing sufficient thrust and lift to carry significant payloads to their targets. The advantage over the commercially available drones modified by armed groups including the ICA prior to the Tadast' introduction is the standardized mounting system and improved payload weight capacity, facilitating the mounting of various anti-personnel mines, grenades and anti-tank charges including the same shaped-charge warhead used in the Tegere ATGM. As with other FPV drones, the Tadast is capable of conducting live reconnaissance during its attack run thanks to its first-person video feed used for guidance. Newer variants of the Tadast have some improved control systems to help combat the effects of anti-drone EW jamming and hijacking methods.
Anti-tank missiles
- Tegere - The Tegere missile is one of the most individually prolific of Atri's munitions, being produced and stockpiled in large numbers for the Charnean Army and serving as its anti-tank workhorse munition since its introduction in 1999. It is an infrared homing anti-tank guided missile with a lock-on-before-launch type targeting system and fire-and-forget capability. This type of targeting and guidance system was developed by Atri in response to the demands of the Charnean Army which criticized older wire-guided and laser beam-riding guidance systems because they require the unit firing the missile to stay in position until after impact, making them more vulnerable to retaliatory fire. The TEL-1 and TEL-2 variants of the Tegere missile are designed for infantry use. Both are tripod-mounted, with the TEL-2 variant additionally having the capability for remote targeting and operation allowing infantry anti-tank hunter-killer units to engage enemy vehicles from a remote protected position safe from return fire. The TEL-3 Tegere missile is the air-launched variant, while the TEL-4 is designed to be mounted on armored ground vehicles. The Tegere's use by infantry, vehicles and aircraft contributes to its ubiquity in the Charnean Army as the favored weapon system for hard targets.
- Agosh - Agosh is the main anti-tank air-to-ground missile for airborne forces of the Charnean Army. It is preferred over the air-launched TEL-3 heat seeking missile due to its dramatically increased operation range of 25 kilometers, but is far less numerous due to its more expensive price tag owing largely to its range upgrades and improved autonomous targeting and guidance system enabling the higher in-flight precision for the Agosh's top-attack mode designed to hit the weak roof armor of an armored vehicle directly from above. The Agosh is highly valued by the modern helicopter-centric aviation units of the Charnean Army due almost exclusively to its range and precision which enable ICA helicopters to engage targets without facing the every increasing threat of enemy MANPADS and small arms fire while providing a much better hit probability compared to pitch-up attacks with unguided rockets. Following the battlefield use of the Agosh missile in recent conflicts by the ICA Air Corps, Atri added the capability to switch the existing shaped-charge anti-tank warhead for high explosive and tungsten-shrapnel warheads optimized for anti-personnel use, as well as an option for an active radar homing system better suited for attacking fortifications and structures occupied by infantry with far smaller IR signatures than armored vehicles.