willey@arrakis.NEVADA.EDU (Adm. Pavel Checkov) (06/14/89)
From: willey@arrakis.NEVADA.EDU (Adm. Pavel Checkov) I missed a few days postings so I appologize if I'm answering a question that's already been answered. A question was asked about anti-air capabilities of submarines. from Military Lesons of the Falkland Islands War ISBN (U.S.): 0-86531-693-7 [stuff deleted about the performance of various missiles] These weapons [Blowpipe] have been acquired by many armies of the world and the British have also adapted it to some of their submarines and surface ships. [stuff about similar missiles deleted] During the war about 100 Blowpipe missiles were fired at enemy aircraft, downing nine. A British Harrier was also downed by an Argentine Blowpipe. Given the number of Blowpipes fired, this is a reasonably good success rate. However, the Blowpipe had several shortcomings which caused this low performance. More modern weapons of this type have been modified to rectify these deficiencies. The Blowpipe is a small (12.7 kilogram) missile in a fiberglass canister. An aiming unit is clipped to the canister. The missile is 1.39 meters long, 19.6 centimeters in diameter when in its container, and 26.7 centimeters in diameter with its wings extended. The Blowpipe, with a range of 6.5 kilometers, is shoulder-fired by a single man at a low-flying aircraft. The aircraft may be identified by an IFF attatchment on the firing canister. An explosive charge expels the missile from its container. The exploding debris is ejected from the rear end of the canister and serves as a hazard to those near the blast. When the missile has left the tubeand its sustainer motor has ignited, the operator, sighting on the missile's tail flares through a monocular sight, guides the missile with a thumb-operated flight controller. The millise follows the directions generated by means of radio signals broadcast to it from a small transmitter is the flight controller unit. The missile, with a proximity fuse, is designed to explode close to its target and its two-kilogram warhead does serious damage to the aircraft. Since the Blowpipe missile homes on only the aircraft's exhaust, the thumb control of the missile proved to be a clumsy means of fire control. Heat flares dropped from aircraft, including helicopters, easily decoyed it. The very small warhead used in a proximity explosion mode frequently proved less than lethal to its aircraft target. Because of its mach 1.5 speed, it only proved adequate for firing at aircraft in the subsonic speed range. The target's movement across the operator's line of sight made manual guidance of the missile virtually impossible. Some of these shortcomings are being rectified by use of a television vidicom unit, which provides semi-automatic guidance for the weapon. When the Blowpipe is used on a submarine, it is configured in a battery of six missiles centered around a television vidicom system, which is mounted inside the bridge on the submarine's sail. For surface ships, a battery of two to ten launchers has been developed, also using the television vidicom system for guiding the missiles. Hope this helps clear up any confusion about the Blowpipe missile and/or its possible use on submarines.