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| HMS Cornwall test-fires a Sea Wolf from her aft mounting, April 2009 |
Kuala Lumpur - Air defense missile defense equipment has many types, but for the Sea Wolf it seems very legendary. Because if the Sea Wolf air defense missile itself is known as the famous Royal Navy warship, the Type 23.
Quoted from royalnavy.mod.uk And the Type 23 warship no longer uses the Sea Wolf air defense missile and has been replaced with the Sea Ceptor. Although it has been replaced with Sea Ceptor, the role and gait of Sea Wolf is still well-known.
Quoted from seaforces.org, Sea Wolf is a surface-to-air missile system designed by MBDA. Designed by MBDA, the Sea Wolf is an automatic point defense weapon system. That means the Sea Wolf is designed as a short-range defense against anti-ship missiles. And the planes and some air threats can be finished off by the Sea Wolf.
Please note that the Royal Navy has fielded two versions of the Sea Wolf. Like the Sea Wolf in the form of the GWS-25 Conventionally Launched Sea Wolf (CLSW). And the Sea Wolf GWS-26 Vertically Launched Sea Wolf (VLSW).
Additionally, the Sea Wolf in current Royal Navy service is replaced by the Sea Ceptor. Although it has been replaced by Sea Ceptor, the role of Sea Wolf seems to be very powerful and scary. It is made clear that the Sea Wolf is powered by a Blackcap solid-fuel rocket. From the fuel in the Blackcap, the Sea Wolf is capable of a maximum speed of up to Mach 2.
And Sea Wolf can intercept targets at a fairly close range. Between 1,000 and 6,000 m is the effective range of the Sea Wolf missile. And the minimum effective height of the Sea Wolf apparently can reach a distance of 10 m. And the maximum height of the Sea Wolf can reach a distance of 3,000 m. As well as the Sea Wolf warhead weighs 14 kg and is a HE-fragmenting type that blends with proximity. In manually loaded form the Sea Wolf missile is stored on board in a maintenance free tube,
Whereas the Sea Wolf was apparently sealed until it was used and handled like a guided missile. It should also be noted that the Sea Wolf's weight is also quite light. The unit weight of the Sea Wolf missile apparently only reaches 82 kg. And what makes the Sea Wolf compact is its length which is only 1.9 meters.
And the Sea Wolf itself has a diameter of only about 180 mm. With such a compact weight and dimensions, it is clear that Sea Wolf is quite superior. In Sea Wolf itself has an Automatic Command for Line Of-Sight (ACLOS) which is quite famous.
From the ACLOS system, Sea Wolf is quite precise in targeting. Obviously during the Falklands war, the Sea Wolf is the Royal Navy's only modern point defense weapon.
And it is proven that Sea Wolf equips the Type 22 frigate HMS Brilliant, HMS Broadsword and the Leander Batch 2 class frigate HMS Andromeda. The British ships were tasked with the Sea Wolf missile to provide close anti-aircraft defense of the carrier task force. It is evident that Sea Wolf excels in several of his assignments.
However, for now the Sea Wolf is no longer used by several countries. Like England and Chile, which have retired Sea Wolf.
It should also be realized that the Sea Wolf was produced in 1979. That means that the current age of the Sea Wolf has reached 43 years. And some countries like Malaysia and Brazil apparently still use Sea Wolf as a mainstay. For Malaysia to have the Sea Wolf installed in the Lekiu class installed in the VLS system. And it is proven that the Malaysian Lekiu class can store as many as 16 VLS tubes containing Sea Wolf.
In addition, the Sea Wolf itself has characteristics that are only devoted to warships. As well as for air and land-based defense equipment, Sea Wolf cannot be used.
Apart from that, the Sea Wolf seems to have one fatal weakness. “Sea Wolf was having issues with a hardware failure causing the launch to fail, locks being damaged due to extreme sea conditions,” explains seaforces.org.
From this explanation, it is clear that the excess of Sea Wolf is suspected of extreme sea conditions that can cause failure. For this reason, the Malaysian Navy must be vigilant because it is still using the Sea Wolf as its flagship defense system. Regardless of the Sea Wolf's weakness if still this air defense missile has extraordinary advantages.