Could the Rapier missile be navalised?

I was working on some ideas for the Royal Navy in the late 1970's, and one of the ideas that caught my attention was the similarity between the Rapier missile and the Sea Wolf. I wanted to know if the Royal Navy might be able to adopt a version of the Rapier Blindfire to replace the Sea Cat, instead of spending the money to develop an entirely new missile like Sea Wolf. Their performance seems similar enough (if anything Rapier was slightly superior to the early Sea Wolf), yet I can't find anything that indicates Rapier was ever considered for naval applications. Does anyone know if this would have been practical or not?
 

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The United States deployed Sea Sparrow and considered Sea Phoenix. Both missiles were already developed for use by the United States Navy, but it's probably more difficult to make an air to air missile a surface to air missile than it is to take a land based system and redesign it for maritime use.
 
Have a look at the BAC PT428 programme that was cancelled in 1962 in favour of the US Mauler, which was also cancelled and the lessons learned were applied to the Rapier. That said the Seawolf missile itself isn't the driver of the high cost, rather the cutting edge system of radars and computers that allowed it to engage sea skimming targets in 1980.
 
You might be able to use a common missile, since both used offboard guidance, but they have completely different missions and capabilities which are reflected in the complexity of their guidance systems. There's a reason why Rapier could be dragged around by a couple of Land Rovers whilst Sea Wolf weighed 32 tonnes, and it isn't bad engineering.

A simple missile to replace Sea Cat has its' attractions, but it can't fill the same niche as Sea Wolf.
 
You might be able to use a common missile, since both used offboard guidance, but they have completely different missions and capabilities which are reflected in the complexity of their guidance systems. There's a reason why Rapier could be dragged around by a couple of Land Rovers whilst Sea Wolf weighed 32 tonnes, and it isn't bad engineering.

A simple missile to replace Sea Cat has its' attractions, but it can't fill the same niche as Sea Wolf.
I was thinking something along the lines of a common launcher, missile, and guidance system (on the missile at least), but with different (much heavier and more capable) search radar, tracking radar, and guidance computers for the naval Rapier. For land use, or a quick replacement for existing Sea Cat systems, the normal Rapier search/track/guidance systems would be used.
 
I was thinking something along the lines of a common launcher, missile, and guidance system (on the missile at least), but with different (much heavier and more capable) search radar, tracking radar, and guidance computers for the naval Rapier. For land use, or a quick replacement for existing Sea Cat systems, the normal Rapier search/track/guidance systems would be used.
That's actually two completely different weapons systems using a common projectile. Not a bad idea, but you're not going to save much money over OTL.
 
That's actually two completely different weapons systems using a common projectile. Not a bad idea, but you're not going to save much money over OTL.
I wasn't aware they would end up being that different. Oh well, at least it's good for logistics.
 
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