SEA DART  SURFACE TO AIR SAM

HISTORY

The Sea Dart (or Guided Weapon System MK30 to give it its Royal Navy title) was designed by British Aerospace in the 1960s as a third-generation area defence naval SAM capable of engaging targets such as aircraft and missiles at both very high and, under certain circumstances, very low altitudes. The system was used operationally during the 1982 Falklands war, being officially credited with eight kills, However, recent evidence suggests that the number was actually five: an Aerospatiale Puma helicopter, a Learjet 35A reconnaissance aircraft, a BAe Canberra B.Mk 62 light bomber and two McDonnell Douglas A-4C Skyhawk light attack aircraft. The last aircraft was shot down outside the missile's official engagement envelope at very low level. The launcher is a twin-rail unit and is coupled with two Type 909 target tracking and illuminator radars on the Type 42 (20 missiles) destroyers, 'Invincible' class aircraft carriers (20 missiles), and HMS Bristol (40 missiles), the sole 'Type 82 class destroyer built. Sea Dart can also be used out to 25-30 km (15.5-18.6 miles) against surface targets if required. The system was also sold to Argentina for its two Type 42 destroyers, and this probably explains the relative lack of kills by the system during the war as the enemy already knew its performance capabilities. Guidance is of the semi-active homing type with associated proportional navigation. A ramjet engine powers the missile in flight after a solid-propellant booster unit has brought it up to the velocity required for the main engine to take over. Unfortunately, in the 1981 defence cuts a considerably improved Sea Dart Mk 2 was cancelled: this was a version to combat the Soviet cruise missiles designed to go into a terminal dive from high altitude, and this politico-economic cut has left a serious gap in fleet defences for the period of the late 1980s and early 1990s. A Lightweight Sea Dart system has also been developed for ships down to 300 tons displacement: this uses deck-mounted container-launchers with simplified radars and fire-control units. The Peoples Republic of China planned to purchase this system as part of a modification package for its 'Luda' class destroyers, but the deal was cancelled because of funding problems.