How does the Sea Dart SAM compare to the Masurca SAM?

In terms of reliability, range, and overall effectiveness (specifically say against sea skimming AShM and small fighter aircraft like A4 skyhawks and Super etendards)? Asking because i'm working on a timeline where Masurca will definitely be fired off.
 
For the Masurca - we will probably never know how good or bad it was, since it seems it was never used as in a shooting war. It has a edge vs. Sea Dart with regard to the warhead size, while Sea Dart looks as a much more 'realistic' missile, at 1/4 or weight, and comparable kinematic performance.
The much-improved Sea Dart Mod 3 is too late for your new timeline.
 
For the Masurca - we will probably never know how good or bad it was, since it seems it was never used as in a shooting war. It has a edge vs. Sea Dart with regard to the warhead size, while Sea Dart looks as a much more 'realistic' missile, at 1/4 or weight, and comparable kinematic performance.
The much-improved Sea Dart Mod 3 is too late for your new timeline.
Great, i'm basically relegated to a lot of guess work and hypothetical stuff on how well Masurca will intercept incoming threats lol
 
Sea Dart (from memory) was fired 33 times out of 36 attempts during the Falklands campaign

It shot down 7 Aircraft including an unfortunate Blue on Blue when a Gazelle was engaged.

It was the most successful SAM system of the War.

The 3 failed attempt were I believe due to Salt encrustation (the ships had been operating in extremely heavy seas for weeks) which caused the reloading doors to jam during early engagements but this was resolved quite quickly.

Keep in mind that the system fired at targets in pairs so those 7 shoot downs represented 14 of those 33 war shots.

When it was fired 'inside' its engagement envelop it was very likely to hit its target

Of the rest a number were fired 'out of envelop' - for example HMS Invincible fired a number of 'hopeful' shots verses the later Exocet attacks that killed the Atlantic Conveyor and IIRC HMS Coventry attempted to engage the Skyhawks that bombed her.

The last consideration is that the system without even firing a shot had a massive impact on the tactics the Argentine Airforce and Navy Pilots were obliged to use.

Argentina had a pair of type 42s so being the only other user of the Sea Dart system was fully aware of its effectiveness but also knew that it could not engage targets right down on the deck.

Word is that the Pilots were told that because the missile fired in pairs a couple of seconds apart - the first missile destroying the plane and if the pilot ejected the 2nd missile hits the next largest target - the pilot.

I have no idea if this is the case but I bet it focused minds.

So attacks on the British ships were made at very low level giving little time to id targets and then engage them.

This also saved a number of ships from serious damage as in many cases the bombs were dropped so low they did not arm

In 1982 it was not mature enough a system to engage sea skimming missiles - but by the end of the war Exeter did manage to shoot down 2 Skyhawks that were at 10-15 meters of the deck and in 1991 during the Gulf war a type 42 did shoot down a silkworm missile that had been fired at the USS Missouri in an out of arc engagement - ie they had to shoot 'over the shoulder' as the target was behind them - so it became possible towards the end of the war and later on in the Sea Darts Career.
 
Word is that the Pilots were told that because the missile fired in pairs a couple of seconds apart - the first missile destroying the plane and if the pilot ejected the 2nd missile hits the next largest target - the pilot.
JEEZ. Talk about bad luck there...
 
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