Exocet
_Missile|
name=Exocet|
image=Fr exocet.jpg|
Function=Medium-range anti-ship missile|
Contractor=
MBDA's division
Aérospatiale |
Unit_cost= |
Deployment= 1979|
Engine=
solid propellant engine| Launch_mass=670
kg | Length=4.7
m |
Diameter= |
Wing_span= 1.1 m |
Speed= 315
m/s| Range= 70
km|
Flying_altitude= 2 m|
Warhead=165 kg |
Guidance=Inertial and active radar |
Fuzes= |
Launch_platform= multi-platform:
*MM38 surface-launched
*AM39 air-launched
*SM39 submarine-launched
*MM40 surface-launched|
}}
In older English literature there are some uses of "exocet" to mean "flying fish".:''There is also a
typeface known as
Exocet.
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.
The Exocet is built by
MBDA, a European missile company. It is one of the most successful anti-ship missiles in service. 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.
|
impact of an Exocet missile |
In
1982, during the
Falklands War, Exocets became famous worldwide when
Argentinian Navy Super Etendard warplanes used them to sink
Royal Navy 's
HMS Sheffield on
4 May and 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; the British deny it.
The Exocet that struck the
Sheffield failed to explode but the impact of the missile travelling at 315
m/s and laden with unburnt rocket fuel was enough to set the ship ablaze. Accounts suggest that the initial impact of the missile immediately destroyed the ship's onboard electricity generating systems and prevented the anti-fire mechanisms from operating effectively, dooming the ship to be consumed by the raging fire. Although the loss of the
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 2006, remains widely understood.
The Exocet that struck the
Glamorgan also failed to explode, but again 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 in refit 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 decidedly 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 mistook the
US Navy Perry class frigate USS Stark for an Iranian tanker and fired two Exocets at the warship. Both hit, but only one exploded. The
Stark was heavily damaged but saved by the crew and sent back for repairs.
There are persistent claims from
Israeli sources, vigorously denied by the French, that the Exocet is not an original French design but a licensed copy of the Israeli
Gabriel sea to sea missile.
|
Pakistan Navy Mirage III armed with the AM39 Exocet |
The Exocet is currently in service with
Argentina,
Belgium,
Brazil,
Chile,
Colombia,
Cyprus,
Ecuador,
Egypt,
France,
Germany,
Greece,
Indonesia,
Iraq,
Kuwait,
Libya,
Malaysia,
Morocco,
Oman,
Peru,
Pakistan,
Qatar,
South Africa,
Thailand,
United Arab Emirates,
Uruguay and
Venezuela. It also served with the
Royal Navy until the last Exocet armed surface vessel was decommissioned in 2002.
In the film
Top Gun, the commander of an aircraft carrier states that the
Soviet fighter aircrafts that the
F-14 pilots are about to intercept are carrying the Exocet ; in reality, the Exocet has not been in use in USSR or in Russia.
Secrecy of the Exocet suffered a blow in the late 1970s when a civilian in
Falmouth in
Cornwall in
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.
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.
*
Marine nationale - Alabordache (Exocet missile in the French Navy) *
Photograph of the impact of an Exocet missile on the Jauréguiberry target ship *
Gallery of photographs of various variants of the Exocet missile *
Argentine Account of the role of the Exocet in the Falklands War *
Photos of Exocet damage to USS Stark 
