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Sea Dart
Dan Marsh · CC BY 3.0 · Wikimedia Commons

Sea Dart

Surface-to-air missiles

Country of origin United Kingdom
ManufacturerHawker Siddeley
Sea Dart, or GWS.30 was a Royal Navy surface-to-air missile system designed in the 1960s and entering service in 1973. It was fitted to the Type 42 destroyers, the sole Type 82 destroyer and the Invincible-class aircraft carriers. Originally developed by Hawker Siddeley, the missile was built by British Aerospace after 1977. It was replaced starting in 2009 with Sea Viper, with the last Sea Dart leaving service in 2012.
Britain's first naval surface-to-air missile was GWS1 Seaslug, which entered service in 1963. This used beam riding guidance which offered limited accuracy and was effective only against slower targets. The need for a higher performance system was identified even as Seaslug entered service. Bristol Aerospace proposed a new ramjet-powered design, while British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) offered a shorter-range rocket-powered design. The Admiralty requested a proposal combining BAC's layout with Bristol's engine, resulting in the Sea Dart. Compared to Seaslug, Sea Dart was faster, had greater range, and its semi-active radar homing guidance was more accurate and capable of engaging supersonic targets.
The system achieved nine confirmed successful combat engagements, including...

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Specifications

Number built
2,000
Introduced
1973
Entered service
1973
Retired
2012

Countries that use it (1)

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Model data: Wikidata (CC0) and Wikipedia (CC BY-SA). Figures can differ between versions of the same weapon. · Q1755193