Sea Skua
Sea Skua | |
---|---|
General Information | |
Type | Anti-ship missile |
Manufacturer | British Aircraft Corporation (now MBDA ) |
development | 1972-1981 |
Commissioning | 1979 |
Unit price | $ 316,000 |
Technical specifications | |
length | 2.51 m |
diameter | 250 mm |
Combat weight | 147 kg |
span | 720 mm |
drive | Solid rocket motor |
speed | Mach 0.8-0.95 |
Range | 15-25 km |
Furnishing | |
Target location | Inertial navigation platform plus semi-active radar target search |
Warhead | 28 kg high explosive armor piercing |
Detonator | Impact fuse |
Weapon platforms | helicopter |
Lists on the subject |
The Sea Skua (English for Skua ) is a light anti-ship guided missile with short range from British production. The system is primarily used to combat small surface vessels.
development
The Sea Skua was developed on behalf of the Royal Navy as a replacement for the AS.12 currently in use . The development under the designation CL.834 at British Aircraft Corporation (from 1977 British Aerospace , today MBDA ) began in 1972. The first guided missiles were delivered in 1982.
The Sea Skua is primarily used by helicopters, although the Sea Skua does not depend on any particular helicopter model. For example, it can take off from the Westland Lynx or Sea King helicopter. After being released from the helicopter, there is a short unpowered start phase. The rocket motor only ignites at a safe distance from the helicopter. This accelerates the missile to a speed of around Mach 0.8 (approx. 1000 km / h), and the missile sinks at a steep angle to a cruising altitude of 2 to 5 m (depending on the sea ). Using the inertial navigation platform and the AHV-7 radar altimeter, the missile stays on course to its target. For the last 1 to 2 km to the target, the guided missile requires radar target lighting. This is based on the principle of semi-active radar target search. For this purpose, the helicopter uses a target lighting radar . The Sea Skua only has one signal receiver that does not transmit any radar signals itself, but can only receive them. This assumes that the on-board radar for the target approach of the guided weapon continuously sends out radar signals in the direction of the target. The Sea Skua's seeker head uses reflected radar energy to find the target. The rocket hits the target at wave height in the ship's hull. In the optimal case, the guided weapon penetrates the ship's side and the warhead detonates only inside the ship.
Other light anti-ship guided missiles are developed and produced by Israel Military Industries ( Delilah ) and Aérospatiale ( AS.15TT ).
variants
Sea Skua SL
The Sea Skua SL ( S hip L aunched) was developed from 1981 to 1988. It is primarily installed on small ships (patrol boats). There the Sea Skua SL is in a container in which it can be stored, but also fired at the same time. Patrol boats that are to be equipped with it must also be equipped with a Seaspray 3000 or Mk. 3 radar, which is used for target acquisition and illumination.
Contrary to what the name suggests, the SL can also be installed on a truck and fired from land for coastal defense.
Deployment platforms
Helicopter:
- Westland Lynx - four missiles
- Sea King - four missiles
- AB-212 - two missiles
- NH90 - four missiles
Plane:
- Britten-Norman Defender 4000 - four missiles
Ship: (Sea Skua SL)
- To Al Maradim class (Combattante I) - four missiles
commitment
- Falklands War
The Sea Skua experienced its first mission, still untested, in the Falklands War during Operation Corporate . Four rockets were fired on May 3, 1982 in heavy snowstorms at the Argentine patrol boat Alférez Sobral . Three Sea Skua hit their target. Despite severe damage and eight dead crew members, the small ship was able to reach the port of Puerto Deseado without assistance. Four more missiles were later fired at the wreckage of the Río Carcarañá freighter and the Río Iguazú patrol boat .
- Second Gulf War
Further missions followed in 1991 in the Second Gulf War . On January 24, a Royal Navy Westland Lynx sank two Iraqi minesweepers with Sea Skua guided missiles. A third was damaged.
On January 29, a formation of 17 Iraqi landing craft and speedboats were discovered south of Failaka Island . Two of the boats were sunk by the Royal Navy's Westland Lynx using Sea Skua guided missiles. The rest of the boats were sunk or damaged by American carrier aircraft.
On January 30, in the same area as the day before, a group of three Polnochny landing craft , three TNC-45 speedboats and a T-43 mine-layer were discovered. Westland Lynx of the Royal Navy used Sea Skua guided missiles to damage the mine- layer and a Polnochny landing craft . The two wrecks were later sunk by Royal Air Force aircraft .
In February 1991 a Zhuk speedboat, a mine- layer and a Polnochny landing craft were sunk by Westland Lynx of the Royal Navy with Sea Skua guided weapons. Another Zhuk speedboat was damaged.
distribution
Depending on the source, a total of around 800 to 1500 guided missiles of the Sea Skua and Sea Skua SL types were produced.
40 Sea Skua were delivered to the Brazilian Navy (Marinha do Brasil) for the Westland Lynx between 1986 and 1987.
The naval aviators of the Bundeswehr received around 140 Sea Skua between 1988 and 1989. These are used by the Sea King and Sea Lynx helicopters equipped with the Seaspray 3 radar. In the German Navy , the Sea-Skua anti-ship missiles are being replaced by the NSM .
In Kuwait, the naval forces there have been using 80 Sea Skua SL for the Umm-al-Maradim class since 2000, a missile speedboat based on the Combattante I and produced by Chantiers des Constructions Mechaniques de Normandie in Cherbourg.
As of 2007, the Malaysian Navy should receive 48 Sea Skua for their Super Lynx. In a pre-test, however, a Sea Skua failed completely. It neither hit the target nor ignited the warhead. All missiles delivered up to then were then returned for revision. It wasn't until the beginning of 2008 that a revised Sea Skua was able to demonstrate its capabilities.
In 1990 the Navy of the South Korean Armed Forces received 96 Sea Skua, which were supplied along with Super Lynx helicopters.
The Turkish Navy has 120 Sea Skua that are used with the Augusta Bell AB-212 ASW. This helicopter is equipped with a Seaspray 3 radar.
The Royal Navy has been using the Sea Skua with the Lynx since 1982. It is to be retired in the Royal Navy from 2017 and only be replaced by the Sea Venom rocket with the introduction of the AW159 helicopter from 2020 .
References
Web links
- www.fas.org
- Sea Skua Mk. 2 on MBDA.com (en)
- Sea Skua on armedforces.co.uk (en)
- Sea Skua on the-grey-lynx.com (en)
- Presentation of the Sea Skua from forecastinternational.com (en; PDF; 341 kB)
Videos
- MBDA promotional video for Sea Skua SL on youtube.com (en)
- Launch of a Sea Skua at the Malaysian Navy on youtube.com
- short video about various weapon platforms for the Sea Skua (en)
literature
- British secret projects - Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles by Chris Gibson and Tony Buttler, Midland Publishing, 2007, ISBN 978-1-85780-258-0
Individual evidence
- ↑ Naval Lynx website ( memento of September 13, 2012 in the web archive archive.today ) accessed on January 24, 2012
- ↑ http://aviationweek.com/awindefense/germany-buy-norwegian-naval-strike-missile
- ^ Trade Register at sipri.org , accessed May 8, 2010
- ↑ Ben Farmer: "Royal Navy to lose missiles and be left only with guns" Telegraph of November 15, 2016