Baram (countermeasure)
Baram (Menghean: 바람, "wind") is the general designation for a family of missile countermeasures used on warships of the Menghean Navy. It works by deploying chaff, infrared seduction decoys, and active radio-frequency jammers to draw anti-ship missiles away from the target. Despite the similarity in designations, Baram-1 fires a completely different family of projectiles from Baram-2 and Baram-3, while Baram-2 and Baram-3 use the same projectiles in different mounts.
Type 77
The Type 77 countermeasure launcher was the precursor to the Baram family. It consisted of four 208mm rocket tubes set at a 45-degree angle on a fixed bearing. All four rockets contained a mix of infrared-reflective smoke and radar-frequency chaff.
Baram-1
Baram-1 was developed in the early 1990s to equip the new generation of Menghean warships. It consists of the same 208mm rockets used by the Type 77, but this time in a traversable launcher with eighteen 208mm tubes in a 6×3 arrangement. The launcher can traverse automatically, but it must be set to a fixed elevation by the crew. It also has manual traverse controls in the event that the automatic traverse system fails, and crew accounts suggest that the automatic traverse system was indeed unrealiable. As on the Type 77, all rocket projectiles carried a mix of infrared-reflective smoke and radar-frequency chaff.
Baram-2
The Baram-2 launch system was developed in the 2000s and first mounted on an operational warship in 2010. A replacement for Baram-1, it was designed to be lighter, more reliable, and more compact, while preserving the same basic capability. Like the Baram-1, it has eighteen tubes, but these are smaller (135mm in diameter) and are launched by a pyrotechnic charge rather than a rocket motor. This eliminates backblast from the launcher, which was considered a serious problem on the Baram-1. It also allows more spare projectiles to be stored on the ship, with faster loading by the crew. The Baram-2 launcher has fully automated traverse, elevation, and firing controls, allowing the operator to adjust the range and altitude at which projectiles deploy, and the automatic slewing system is faster and more reliable.
The Baram-2 system also has a wider variety of ammunition types, which are shared with the Baram-3:
- Morae (Sand): chaff projectile which deceives incoming radar-homing anti-ship missiles.
- Diameter: 135mm
- Length: 1.267 m
- Mass: 25 kg
- Flight time to burst: 3-5 seconds
- Bloom time from burst: 10 seconds
- Mŏnji (Dust): IR seduction projectile which deploys heat-emitting flares to deceive anti-ship missiles with infrared homing backup seekers.
- Diameter: 135mm
- Length: 1.262 m
- Mass: 24 kg
- Flight time to burst: 3-5 seconds
- Bloom time from burst: 12 seconds
- Norae (Song): active radar seduction decoy which hangs in the air under a parachute and emits a radar jamming signal to deceive incoming missiles. If the incoming missile has home-on-jam capability, this will draw it away from the target ship.
- Diameter: 135mm
- Length: 1.403 m
- Mass: 31 kg
- Flight time to deployment: 5 seconds
- Deployment time from burst: 5 seconds
- Jammer active time: 45-60 seconds
Baram-3
The Baram-3 launch system uses the same tubes as the Baram-2 launcher, but arranged at fixed angles and bearings on a low-profile mount which is bolted to the deck. Each module has a total of eight tubes in four pairs, set at angles ranging from 45 degrees to 60 degrees. Lighter and more compact than the Baram-2 launcher, but unable to react to targets off the set angle, Baram-3 mounts are most commonly used on missile boats and other light craft.