PC/WI: SeaDart & SeaWolf used by US Navy?

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
With a post 1960 pod, what would need to happen for both the British SeaDart & SeaWolf missile systems to be fielded by the US Navy instead of the US designed Sea Sparrow and Standard systems?

Would the UK alternatives be able to fulfill the roles of the US systems?

Regards filers.
 
Sea Dart doesn't really offer anything over later model Terrier missiles or Standard-1 missiles.
Sea Wolf has a significantly shorter range (7-10km vs 10-20km depending on versions), lower speed and less boom than Sea Sparrow. The missile itself weighs substantially less (82kg vs 230kg) but the standard full system setup is of non trivial weight (~15 tons), though the light weight version of the fire control system would see that weight drop to about 5 tons.

If there's any hope of the yanks adopting Sea Wolf then it's probably as a CIWS system in place of the RIM-116 instead of in place of the Sea Sparrow...
 
Yeah, I'm honestly not seeing how it's possible. Aside from performance differences countries, especially the US, of the period generally preferred to buy domestically when it came to defence. Even if you changed what Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were to give them better performance over Sea Sparrow and Standard so that someone in the Pentagon chose them Congress, and the defence contractors, would do their nut and never allow it to go through.
 
Yeah. Sea Cat is a maybe as a point defense system since it legitimately fit in a niche that the USN didn't fill until Phalanx and RAM came into service, and will fit on vessels that can't accommodate Sea Sparrow, while also being as reliable as a gun-based system.

This whole Sea Dart was lacking compared to Tartar and Standard-MR, and Sea Wolf had too much shit below deck compared to Sea Sparrow or Sea Cat. So even without contractor bullshit it's not a worthwhile decision.
 
With Sea Dart's short range and poor performance, Iran Air Flight 655 might have lived.
It's not that poor - it remains the only missile to missile kill (during GW1) in the world. But it's not American, which is a major hurdle, and it's not as good. Plus both Wolf and Dart are parts of systems - you'd need to incorporate the radar as well, or carry out significant integration work which is costly and difficult
 
Only possible RN missile would have been Sea Slug, to complement the Terrier, or Standard Missile development goes the way of Typhon
 
Only possible RN missile would have been Sea Slug, to complement the Terrier, or Standard Missile development goes the way of Typhon
Well, there's Popsy/Mopsy - a proto-Tartar that started off as an RN programme, became joint with the USN, acquired an American sustainer motor, Britain lost interest, and then the project was dropped.

Sea Dart is a really hard sell unles Tartar/Standard goes badly wrong; you could conceivably get Sea Wolf, but it's difficult. You'd need Sea Sparrow to not exist or be a failure, and the US to buy a foreign system in its' place. Buying foreign isn't unprecedented, but tends to be an option of last resort.
 

WILDGEESE

Gone Fishin'
With Sea Dart's short range and poor performance, Iran Air Flight 655 might have lived.

SeaDart's poor performance wasn't anything to do with the missile itself but the obsolete Type 995Q & 995 sensors installed on the first group of Type 42's which was rectified by the 1022 package carried first by HMS Exeter

Wouldn't the better sensor suite on the later US vessels improve the performance of the SeaDart?

Regards filer
 
SeaDart's poor performance wasn't anything to do with the missile itself but the obsolete Type 995Q & 995 sensors installed on the first group of Type 42's which was rectified by the 1022 package carried first by HMS Exeter

Wouldn't the better sensor suite on the later US vessels improve the performance of the SeaDart?

Regards filer
Would its performance have been better with Type 988 radar?
 
I imagine the only possible way would be some sort of NATO-based project where the RN and the USN were both developing a common set of missiles, and the USN ends up adopting "Sea Dart" and "Sea Wolf", though obviously the missiles themselves are likely to be almost totally different.
 
Only possible RN missile would have been Sea Slug, to complement the Terrier, or Standard Missile development goes the way of Typhon
Given how terrible Sea Slug was? No.
It's a system that is as large and heavy as Talos, without any of the capability or reliability, and a range comparable to Terrier.

There's a reason the RN only ever put it on two destroyers, and that's because it was spectacularly terrible, and refitting the ships to carry something decent was too expensive.
 
Top