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Sea Dart Missile Launcher

The Sea Dart GWS30 is a surface to air missile system, designed by Hawker Siddeley and manufactured by British Aerospace (later BAE Systems) from 1977 that replaced the Sea Slug missile system. Sea Dart was used operationally during the Falklands War(1982), Gulf War (1990-91) and Libyan intervention (2011). It was withdrawn in 2013, and replaced by the Sea Viper system fitted to the Royal Navy’s new type 45 destroyers. The missile is launched using a drop off solid fuelled booster which accelerates it to supersonic speed, and then cruises using a kerosene fuelled ramjet. It is guided by a semi active radar homing system using the nose intake cone and four aerials around it as an aerial. The twin arm trainable launcher is loaded automatically from below decks. Thos launcher was donated to Explosion by BAE Systems in 2012. It is larger than the type fitted to type 42 destroyers, and may originate from HMS Bristol or an aircraft carrier.

Range: 46 miles, after upgrade 92 miles

Ceiling: Over 10.000m

Speed: Mach 2.5

Warhead: 24 pounds (11 kg) high explosive