SEA DART

-naval surface-to-air
missile-
 Content

I. Description
II. History
III. Design
IV. Combat service
V. Withdrawal
 I. Description
 Sea Dart or GWS30 was a British surface-to-air missile system designed by Hawker
Siddeley Dynamics and built by British Aerospace from 1977. It was fitted to the Type
42 destroyers, Type 82 destroyer and Invincible-class aircraft carriers of the Royal
Navy.
 The missile system has had nine confirmed successful engagements in combat,
including six aeroplanes, two helicopters and a missile.
 II. History
 Sea Dart began as Hawker Siddeley
project "CF.299", a weapon to replace
the Royal Navy's first-generation long-
range surface-to-air missile, Seaslug.
 It entered service in 1973 on the sole
Type 82 destroyer HMS Bristol before
widespread deployment on the Type 42
destroyer commencing with
HMS Sheffield in 1976.
 The missile system was also fitted to
Invincible-class aircraft carriers but was
removed during refits in the 1998-2000
period to increase the area of the flight
deck and below-decks stowage
associated with the operation of Royal
Air Force Harrier GR9 aircraft.
 III. Design
 Sea Dart is a two-stage, 4.4-metre (14 ft) long
missile weighing 550 kilograms (1,210 lb).
 It is launched using a drop-off Chow solid-fuel
booster that accelerates it to the supersonic
speed necessary for the operation of the cruise
motor, a Rolls-Royce [Bristol Siddeley]
kerosene-fuelled Odin ramjet.
 It is capable of engaging targets out to at least
30 nautical miles (35 mi; 56 km) over a wide
range of altitudes.
 Guidance is by proportional navigation and a semi-active radar homing system
using the nose intake cone and four aerials around the intake as an
interferometer aerial, with targets being identified by a Type 1022 surveillance
radar (originally radar Type 965) and illuminated by one of a pair of radar Type
909. This allows two targets to be engaged simultaneously in initial versions.
 Firing is from a twin-arm trainable launcher that is loaded automatically from
below decks.
 IV. Combat service
1. Falklands War (1982)
 Sea Dart was used during the Falklands War and is credited with seven confirmed
kills (plus one British Aérospatiale Gazelle helicopter downed by friendly fire). One
kill was against a high-flying Learjet 35A reconnaissance aircraft beyond the
missile's stated technical envelope on 7 June. In another engagement on 13 June,
a high-flying Argentine B.Mk62 Canberra was shot down. Other kills were made
against low-flying attack aircraft.
2. Persian Gulf War (1991)
 In February 1991 during the Persian Gulf War the US battleship Missouri,
escorted by Gloucester (carrying Sea Dart) and USS Jarrett (equipped with
Phalanx CIWS), was engaged by an Iraqi Silkworm missile (NATO reporting
name "Seersucker").
 The Silkworm missile was intercepted and destroyed by a Sea Dart fired from
Gloucester. This was the first time an anti-air missile had successfully
engaged and destroyed an enemy missile during combat at sea.
 During the same engagement, Jarrett's Phalanx 20 mm CIWS was placed in
autoengagement mode and targeted chaff launched by Missouri rather than
the incoming missile.
 V. Withdrawal
 The Sea Dart equipped Type 42s reached the end of their service lives, with all vessels
already retired. They were replaced by the larger Type 45 which are armed with the
Sea Viper missile system. Sea Viper is much more capable in the anti-air role but has
no anti-surface capability. The first-of-class began sea trials in July 2007 and Daring
entered service in 2009.
 On 13 April 2012 HMS Edinburgh fired the last ever operational Sea Dart missiles after a
thirty-year career. The last two remaining Type 42s, York and Edinburgh completed
their careers without the system being operational.