Exocet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In older English literature there are some uses of "exocet" to mean "flying fish".

There is also a typeface known as Exocet.

Exocet
Exocet
Basic data
Function	Medium-range anti-ship missile
Manufacturer	MBDA's division Aérospatiale
Entered service	1979
General characteristics
Engine	solid propellant engine
Launch mass	670 kg
Length	4.7 m
Diameter
Wingspan	1.1 m
Speed	315 m/s
Range	70 km
Flying altitude	2 m
Warhead	165 kg
Guidance	Inertial and active radar
Launch platform	multi-platform: MM38 surface-launched AM39 air-launched SM39 submarine-launched MM40 surface-launched

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, and airplanes. Several hundred were fired in combat during the 1980s. The name comes from a French word for flying fish.

1 Description
2 History
3 Operators
- 3.1 Current operators
- 3.2 Former operators
4 Popular Culture
5 The Lokata
6 Etymology
7 External links

[edit] Description

The Exocet is built by MBDA, a European missile company. Development began in 1967 as a ship-launched missile named MM 38. The air-launched Exocet was developed in 1974 and entered service with the French Navy five years later.

The missile is designed to hit large warships. It is guided inertially in mid-flight, and turns on active radar late in its flight to find and hit its target. Its solid propellant engine gives the Exocet a maximum range of 70 km. The submarine-launched version places the missile and a Naval booster motor within a launch capsule.

The Exocet has been manufactured in a number of versions, including:

MM38 (surface-launched)
AM39 (air-launched)
SM39 (submarine-launched)
MM40 (surface-launched)

The newest MM40 version (MM40 block 3) has an improved range of 180 km, through the use of a turbojet engine.

The chief competitor to the Exocet is the U.S.-built Harpoon and the Chinese Yingji series.

[edit] History

Exocet missile impact

Exocet launch

In 1982, during the Falklands War, Exocets became famous worldwide when Argentinian Navy Super Etendard warplanes used them to destroy Royal Navy's HMS Sheffield on 4 May and sink the support ship Atlantic Conveyor on 25 May. As well, an Argentine-converted land-based truck fired an MM38 Exocet (previously dismounted from the Argentine corvette ARA Guerrico) that damaged the HMS Glamorgan on June 12.

Argentina claims that a combined Exocet/A-4C Skyhawk aircraft attack on May 30 damaged HMS Invincible; although two A-4C pilots survived the attack and claimed to overfly the aircraft carrier, the British deny it. According a British version this last exocet was destroyed by a direct hit of the 114 mm gun of HMS Avenger. It should be noted that during the conflict the Argentinian military Government claimed several times to have damaged/shot down several ships and Sea Harriers for propaganda purposes. Similarly, the British claimed to have destroyed more Argentine aircraft than they actually did for the same reasons.^{[citation needed]}

The Exocet that struck Sheffield impacted on Deck 2, 8 feet (2.4 m) above the waterline, near to the forward engine room, cracking the hull open roughly 4 feet (1.2 m) by 10 feet (3 m). Accounts suggest that the initial impact of the missile immediately destroyed the ship's onboard electricity generating systems and fractured the water main, preventing the anti-fire mechanisms from operating effectively, and thereby dooming the ship to be consumed by the raging fire. Although the loss of Sheffield was a blow to British self-esteem, the missile used earned itself a curious kind of respect, and the word “Exocet” passed into British colloquial usage to denote, “a devastating attack.” It is still occasionally heard, and as of 2007, remains widely understood. There has been speculation that the Exocet that struck Sheffield did not explode, however the crew of Sheffield and members of the British Task Force strongly disagree with this. The official report from The RN Board of Inquiry now available (2007) on the Internet specifically indicates that from the evidence available the missile warhead did indeed fail to explode. This would suggest that the damage caused was as a result of the significant kinetic energy of the missile and the presence of unused missile fuel which caught fire on impact.

The Exocet that struck Glamorgan failed to explode, but the unburnt rocket fuel caused a significant fire. It is likely that Glamorgan was saved from complete destruction by the prompt action of the officers and men at the helm. In the short warning period (less than 1 minute) that a missile was incoming, they ordered maximum revolutions and maximum wheel towards the missile. As a result when the missile struck, the ship was heeled far over to port and instead of striking the side the missile hit the coaming and was deflected upwards. The dent caused by the impact was clearly visible when Glamorgan was being refitted in late 1982.

In the years after the Falklands War it was revealed that the British government and intelligence agencies were extremely concerned by the perceived inadequacy of the British navy’s anti-missile defences against the Exocet and the missile’s potential to tip the naval war decisively in favour of the Argentine forces. In London, a nightmare scenario was being envisioned in which one or both of the UK force’s two aircraft carriers (HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes) would be destroyed or incapacitated by an Exocet attack. Under such circumstances, military analysts considered that the British would have had serious difficulty in further prosecuting an attempt to recapture the Falklands from the Argentine forces. To counter the mortal threat posed by the Exocet, a major intelligence operation was initiated to prevent the Argentine Navy acquiring more of the missiles and British intelligence (believed to have been assisted by American intelligence) launched a global operation to disrupt Argentine attempts to procure new Exocets for the campaign. The operation included the seeding of intelligence agents whose task was to make contact with the Argentine military and falsely purport to be able to provide them with Exocets. Also, France denied deliveries of recently bought AM39 to Peru in the belief that they would be given to Argentina.

USS Stark hit by two Exocets

Iraq fired an estimated 200 air-launched Exocets against Iranian shipping during the Iran-Iraq War with varying levels of success. Tankers and other civilian shipping were often hit, but a large percentage failed to explode. US and UK EOD teams recovered several warheads and even some complete missiles from target ships.

On May 17, 1987, the pilot of an Iraqi Mirage F-1 allegedly mistook the U.S. Navy Oliver Hazard Perry class frigate USS Stark for an Iranian tanker and fired two Exocets at the warship. Both hit, but only one exploded. The first penetrated the port-side hull; it failed to detonate, but spewed flaming rocket fuel in its path. The second entered at almost the same point, and left a 3-by-4-meter gash—then exploded in crew quarters. Thirty-seven sailors were killed and twenty-one were injured. Stark was heavily damaged but saved by the crew and sent back for repairs.

Though vigorously denied by the French, there are persistent claims from Israeli sources that the Exocet is not an original French design but a licensed copy of the Israeli Gabriel anti-ship missile.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Operators

Two MM38 Exocet missiles on board German Navy S78 Ozelot, Type 143A Gepard class fast attack craft

[edit] Current operators

[edit] Former operators

United Kingdom: Royal Navy operated Exocets until the last MM38 armed surface vessel was decommissioned in 2002.

[edit] Popular Culture

In the film Top Gun, the commander of an aircraft carrier states that the Libyan fighter aircraft, that the F-14 pilots are about to intercept, are carrying the Exocet.
In Lord of War when Yuri Orlov sees Simeon Weisz in the Expo, he says that Simeon has sold Exocet in the Falklands (Obviously, to the Argentine side).
In Milton Bradley's Electronic Battleship: Advanced Mission, the aircraft carrier is equipped with two Exocet missiles.

[edit] The Lokata

Secrecy of the Exocet suffered a blow in the late 1970s when a civilian in Falmouth in Cornwall, England accidentally independently duplicated the Exocet’s navigation system and, despite order from the Patents Office to keep it secret, sold it to the public as a small boat type navigation system called Lokata.

[edit] Etymology

The origin of the word is Greek εξω-κοιτος = “lying down outside”, “sleeping under the stars”, which was then applied to the flying fish referring to its habit of stranding itself by landing in boats.