NAVY NEWS, NOVEMBER 2010


3


THIS broiling fl ash of fi re and smoke is the moment that more than a decade’s hopes, dreams and toil


comes to fruition. Somewhere within this fi r


e and smoke is the sword of the Sea


Viper weapons system: an Aster 30 anti-air missile, leaving its silo on HMS Dauntless on a test range in the Outer Hebrides – the fi rst time the weapon has been fi red by a Type 45 destroyer.


missile – racing through the sky at upwards of four times the speed of sound – downed a moving drone target over the Atlantic. The missile has already been successfully tested in single launches and salvo fi rings from the Longbow trials barge in the Mediterranean. The fi n


at the Crombie ammunition jetty, on the Firth of Forth, Dauntless made for the ranges at Benbecula in the Western Isles (150 miles northwest of Glasgow). It took two days of boffi nry courtesy of Qinetiq range staff and some 30 contractors from BAE and missile makers MBDA, plus the ship’s company to tweak the Sea Viper system ready for its baptism of fi re. And then with wonderfully- clear skies over the Western Isles, on September 29 a Mirach drone was ready for launch from Benbecula.


weapon – and the Type 45 destroyers which carry it – could be declared operational was to marry ship and Sea Viper, hence the trials off Scotland. After a live Aster was loaded


al test before the


Seconds later the long-range Aster 30


More quantifi able is the fact that the missile system can track 200 potential targets at ranges of up to 250 miles and take out the enemy up to 70 miles away. Or in this case, a solitary target on an course


interception


distance’ (the actual range is, of course, classifi ed).


press the button and... Woooshhhhh.


It fell to CPO(AWW) Eddie Wearing to


And when we say woooshhhhh, we mean woooshhhhh. There’s no bang – roar, à la Sea Dart. Nor even a woooshhhhh – roar, à la Seawolf. More a continuous woooshhhhh. A very brief woooshhhhh at that. So fast does Sea Viper leave its silo that all those privileged to witness this fi rst fi ring from Dauntless’ bridge saw was a fl ash of fl ame and smoke – it took some very fast cameras set to automatic to record the images on this page.


ship’s thermal imaging camera system to track Sea Viper’s lightning-quick progress to its target. In the grainy, monochrome world of the camera, one black blob impacts with another black blob and lots of little black blobs fall to earth. Success.


Closed up in Dauntless’ sprawling ops room, air warfare offi cer Lt Cdr Joe Allfree monitored the heavens to make sure there was no passing civilian air traffi c. With the range ‘green’ (safe) it was time to launch the drone – a remote-controlled jet which cruises through


air at 530kts (610mph)...


the


...which should be meat and drink to Sea Viper (according to the blurb the missile should be able to destroy a cricket ball


at Mach 3… if a cricket ball could


at Mach 3, of course).


travel travelling


And quite a nice feeling aboard Dauntless as a ten-year-plus programme, in which £6bn and hundreds of thousands of man hours have been invested, overcomes its fi nal trials hurdle. Sea Viper is, says Cdr Andy Phenna, D33’s weapon engineer offi cer


sophisticated missile system he’s worked with in 25 years in the RN. Indeed, the success off the Western Isles was, says operations officer Lt Cdr Steve Wall, “the most satisfying fi ring I have done during my naval career. “Sea Viper has shown itself to be a world beating system ready for service with the RN for the next 30 years.” Deputy weapon engineer offi cer Lt James Fickling adds: “Watching and feeling the missile launch from underneath the silo and then seeing the missile hit the target on the thermal imager was awesome and proved that all the work we had put in was worth it.”


Richard Powell: “The fi ring is the culmination of a lot of hard work by the ship’s company, contractors and civil servants involved in the project and has shown the value of teamwork, without which the fi ring would not be the success that it was. “The performance of


outstanding, scoring a direct hit on the target at considerable range proving that the Type 45 is the best air defence destroyer in the world.”


the missile was


His ship is now back in Portsmouth Harbour after paying her inaugural visit to her affi liated town of Great Yarmouth. Following the successful fi ring, Dauntless will be formally declared operational this month. ■ You can watch video footage of the successful firing at www.royalnavy.mod. uk/news-and-events/rn-live/all-news/ sea-viper


And from Commanding Offi cer Capt , the most And then it was gone. It required the at ‘considerable


Pictures: MBDA


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