Type 42 Batch III update

[Thorvic]

At the end of the cold war it was envisioned to enhance the Type 42 capabilities by including light weight Sea Wolf in place of the amidships Phalanx on the stretched Type 42's to give them a true 2 teir air defence missile system.

The Standard Sea Wolf was originally menat to be a light weight advanced missile to replace the Sea Cat, however only the more clumbersome 6 cell system was adoptedto be followed by the verticle launch version intended for the Type 23s. However they still envisaged a lighter system to truely replace the Sea Cat both in the Royal Navy and with those export customers still using the Sea Cat. The system designed used a refurbished Sea Cat launcher coupled with the newer Type 911 director. The plans were set for the Invincibles to replace their Sea Dart system with light weight sea wolf and the Type 42s to replace their Phalanx or 30mm guns amidships.

To this end the Invincibles had their Sea Darts removed and its Type 909 directors, the space in the deck was plated over and Sea Wolf was to be fitted in place of the 909 on the island, with the 911 to be fitted onto a revised main mast.

Type 42 Batch III ship HMS Edinburgh (D97) started a refit to become the Trails ship for the Light Weight SeaWolf, one of her Phalanx was removed and the other located fwd aft between the main gun and the Sea Dart, the space left abreast the funnel being earmarked for the Seawolf launchers. However the peace dividened kicked in at this point and the whole program was scrapped as an economy measure.




(Standard Dragon Type 42 HMS York fitted with the intended light weight seawolf)

G

[NARSES2]

Nice looking ship 

[Weaver]

Nice one: I always wondered where the Type 911 trackers would have gone. 

(I still don't know where they'd have stored the reloads, mind.....)

[Hobbes]

It still surprises me that Sea Wolf turned out to be so large, when e.g. Rapier is a very compact system for similar range. I realise Sea Wolf was meant to have very high performance (including antimissile roles), perhaps that results in added bulk (esp. for the tracker).

[Weaver]

Seawolf has a bigger warhead and a proximity fuse to ensure a kill against a very small SSM with a very high relative velocity. Rapier is only as small as it is because it has a pretty small warhead and, at least at first, only a contact fuse: it was designed to kill aircraft, not missiles. It only got a proximity fuse in the late 1980s IIRC.

When people say the Seawolf is big and heavy, the problem is only partly the visible bits, i.e. the tracker and launcher. Much more of a problem was the large volume of 1960s computer cabinets which needed to be installed and cooled below decks in order to achieve the automatic engagement capability. This is part of what killed it off as a re-fit item for Seacat-armed ships: the Seawolf Leanders had to be totally gutted to fit it in and the conversion was deemed uneconomic after five units.

The other problem was reloading: compared to Seacat, the (much faster) Seawolf just crosses the line between man-handleable and team-with-trolley-handleable. On many Seacat ships, the launchers are a long way from the missile rooms and a cast of dozens are needed to get missiles from the one to the other via multiple awkward handling steps. This is just not practical with Seawolf: you have simply GOT to have a properly-designed, semi-mechanical loading path.

To my mind, they should have split the Seawolf programme into two:

1. "Wolfcat", which used as much Seawolf technology as possible but was backwards compatible with Seacat at any price. This would essentially have ended up as "fast Seacat GWS-22".

2. VLS Seawolf, i.e. ALL new-build installations to be VLS. I don't see why tVLS couldn't have been developed much earlier if the 6-box launcher had been abandoned: the first PROJECT SINNER VLS trials were in the late 1960s... 

[Hobbes]

Actually the missiles are about the same length. Sea Wolf has a much bigger diameter, but it's still pretty compact. I was referring to the system as a whole. Rapier fits on a car trailer; Sea Wolf looks like it could fill several shipping containers.

[Weaver]

I edited my original post as you were posting!

Yep - bigger diameter primarily due to the warhead. Rapier is eseentially manually aimed: it could never take on a missile.

[Weaver]

Seacat: weight = 138lbs, length = 4'10", warhead = 45lb w/proximity and impact fuses, speed = mach 0.8

Rapier: weight = 88lbs, length = 7'3", warhead = 4lb  w/impact fuse only (prox.fuse later), speed = mach 2.5

Seawolf: weight = 180lbs, length = 6'7", warhead = 31lb w/proximity and impact fuses, speed = mach 3

They all have about the same range. You can see how much shorter Seacat is than the other two, making it much "handier" to handball about on a ship. Even the lightweight Rapier needs two men to pick it up, primarily due to it's length.