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The Henschel Hs 293 was a World War II German anti-ship guided missile: a radio-controlled glide bomb with a rocket engine slung underneath it. It was designed by Herbert A. Wagner. == History == The Hs 293 project was started in 1940, based on the "Gustav Schwartz Propellerwerke" pure glide bomb that was designed in 1939. The Schwartz design did not have a terminal guidance system; instead, it used an autopilot to maintain a straight course. It was intended to be launched from a bomber at sufficient distance to keep the aircraft out of range of anti-aircraft fire. A Henschel team, under Dr. Herbert Wagner,〔Christopher, John. ''The Race for Hitler's X-Planes'' (The Mill, Gloucestershire: History Press, 2013), p.134.〕 developed it the following year by adding an HWK 109-507 rocket engine underneath, providing 〔Christopher, p.134.〕 thrust for ten seconds. This allowed the bomb to be used from a lower altitude and at an increased range. Some examples used the BMW 109-511 of thrust.〔 The first flight attempts took place between May and September 1940, with unpowered drops from Heinkel He 111 medium bombers used as carrier aircraft; the first Walter rocket motor-powered tests had been conducted by the end of 1940. The weapon consisted of a modified standard 500 kilogram SC 500 bomb with an added "Kopfring" on the nose for maritime use, with a thin metal shell and a high explosive charge inside, equipped with a rocket engine under the bomb, a pair of wings, and an MCLOS guidance and control system, consisting of an 18-frequency-capability ''Funk-Gerät'' (FuG) 230 ''Straßburg'' radio receiver,〔Named after the city of Strasbourg, at the time annexed by Germany.〕 getting its signals from an FuG 203 ''Kehl'' transmitting set 〔Named after Kehl, a German town neighbouring Strasbourg.〕 in the carrier aircraft. Only the elevator, operated with an electrically powered jackscrew as the only proportional control, with the ailerons operated with solenoids provided flight control through the ''Kehl-Straßburg'' radio link, with the Hs 293's control setup having no movable rudder on the ventral tailfin. The rocket provided for only a short burst of speed making range dependent on the height of launch. From a height of the Hs 293 had a range of about . The Hs 293 was intended to destroy unarmoured ships,〔 unlike the unpowered, armour-piercing Fritz X, similarly MCLOS-guided with the Kehl/Strassburg radio guidance gear. The operator controlled the missile with the ''Kehl'' transmitter's joystick. Five coloured flares were attached to the rear of the weapon to make it visible at a distance to the operator. During nighttime operations flashing lights instead of flares were used.〔(Guided German air to ground weapons in WW2 )〕 One drawback of the Hs 293 was that after the missile was launched the bomber had to fly in a straight and level path at a set altitude and speed parallel to the target so as to be able to maintain a slant line of sight and it could thus not manoeuvre to evade attacking fighters without aborting the attack.〔("Pilot Sights Rocket Bomb By Tail Light" )'' Popular Mechanics, July 1944'' - World War Two illustration of Hs 123A-1 and flight path for attacking shipping〕 The Allies put considerable effort into developing devices which jammed the low-VHF band (48.2 MHz to 49.9 MHz) radio link between the Kehl transmitter aboard the launching aircraft and the Strassburg receiver in the missile. Early jamming efforts by the United States Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) produced the XCJ jamming transmitter installed aboard the destroyer escorts USS ''Herbert C. Jones'' and ''Frederick C. Davis'' in late September 1943. The XCJ was ineffective because the frequencies selected for jamming were incorrect. This was updated in time for Operation Shingle at Anzio (Italy) with the XCJ-1 system, installed aboard the two destroyer escorts mentioned above as well as the destroyers USS ''Woolsey'', ''Madison'', ''Hilary P. Jones'' and ''Lansdale''. These six ships rotated service at Anzio, with three deployed at any time. This system met with some success, though because of its manual interface, it was cumbersome to use and easily overwhelmed if large numbers of missiles were engaged. On balance, the probability that a Hs 293 launched (and seen as responding to operator guidance) would actually strike a target (or achieve a damage-inflicting near miss) was about the same at Anzio as it was during Operation Avalanche at Salerno, Italy. Meanwhile, as attacks were taking place at Anzio, the United Kingdom began to deploy its Type 650 transmitter which employed a different approach. This system jammed the Strassburg receiver's intermediate frequency of 3 MHz, and appears to have been quite successful, especially as the operator did not have to attempt to find which of the 18 Kehl/Strassburg command frequencies were in use and then manually tune the jamming transmitter to one of those frequencies. This system automatically defeated the receiver regardless of which radio frequency had been selected for an individual ''Luftwaffe'' missile. Following several intelligence coups, including a capture of an intact Hs 293 at Anzio and recovery of important components of the ''Kehl'' transmitter from a crashed Heinkel He 177 on Corsica, the Allies were able to develop far more effective countermeasures, all in time for the invasion of Normandy and Operation Dragoon in Southern France. This included an updated XCJ-2 system from the Naval Research Laboratory (produced as the TX), the modified airborne AN/ARQ-8 Dinamate system from Harvard's Radio Research Laboratory, NRL's improved XCJ-3 model (produced as the CXGE), the British Type 651 and the Canadian Naval Jammer. Perhaps most impressive of all was AIL's Type MAS jammer which employed sophisticated signals to defeat the Kehl transmission and to take over command of the Hs 293, steering it into the sea via a sequence of right-turn commands. Even more sophisticated jammers from NRL, designated XCK (to be produced as TY and designated TEA when combined with the upgraded XCJ-4) and XCL, were under development but were never deployed as the threat had evaporated before they could be put into service. In contrast to the experience at Anzio, the jammers seemed to have had a major impact on operations after April 1944, with significant degradation observed in the probability that a Hs 293 launched at a target (and responding to operator guidance) would achieve a hit or damage-causing near miss.〔Martin J. Bollinger, ''Warriors and Wizards: Development and Defeat of Radio-Controlled Glide Bombs of the Third Reich,'' Annapolis: Naval Institute Press(2010).〕 To improve control of the weapon and reduce vulnerability of the launching aircraft, wire-guided Hs 293B and television-guided Hs 293D variants were planned; neither was operational before the war ended.〔Christopher, p.135.〕 There was also a tailless delta winged Hs 293F.〔 In addition, there was a Hs 293H air-to-air model.〔 Over 1,000 were built, from 1942 onwards. The closest Allied weapon system in function and purpose to the Hs 293 series was the US Navy's Bat unpowered, autonomously radar-guided unit. The Hs 293 also served as the basis for a number of developments, none completed. These included the Hs 294, "designed specifically to penetrate the water and strike a ship below the waterline", with a different forend shape and a pair of Walther HWK 109-507 engines at the wing roots; the Hs 295, with longer fuselage, larger warhead, and Hs 294 wings; the Hs 296, with Hs 294 afterparts, Hs 295 warhead, and Hs 293 conrol systems.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Henschel Hs 293」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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