Anti ship "round"

during the Falkland Islands war, the Brits defended their ships from Exocet missles by having helicopters hover between the incoming weapon and the ship. The missle would lock on the chopper, which would then go vertical....quickly....casuing the missle to rise up over the ship, and presumably, below the whirlybird.
 
during the Falkland Islands war, the Brits defended their ships from Exocet missles by having helicopters hover between the incoming weapon and the ship. The missle would lock on the chopper, which would then go vertical....quickly....casuing the missle to rise up over the ship, and presumably, below the whirlybird.

actually, the helicopter would be hovering alongside the ship in order to present a single, larger target to the Exocet's radar seeker. The seeker would not be able to resolve two individual targets and would go for the center of the radar return, thus causing the missile to pass between the helicopter and the ship.
 
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I'm guessing they didn't want to damage the ship and had it aimed for the shipping container? If they didn't so much for it being "anti ship"
 
I'm guessing they didn't want to damage the ship and had it aimed for the shipping container? If they didn't so much for it being "anti ship"
I didn't see any explosion, so either they were testing the delivery system without the warhead or it was a kinetic round.
 
Heck in WW2, in the Pacific campaign, we used Battleships to protect Aircraft Carriers from torpedoes, since the battleships were considered expendable.
 
I didn't see any explosion, so either they were testing the delivery system without the warhead or it was a kinetic round.

Missiles typically have flight data recorders or telemetry packs installed in the warhead section instead of the explosive during normal course of developmental and operational testing. Flight test is much more valuable if you know what the whole missile thinks it's doing during flight vs whether just the warhead section did its job.
 
I guess if hitting an un-important part of the ship's superstructure is "a hit", they should be very happy. If the intention was to sink that ship, the missile's aim was a good 25' too high! Even if it had high explosives in it, it would not have caused that much damage.
 
actually, the helicopter would be hovering alongside the ship in order to present a single, larger target to the Exocet's radar seeker. The seeker would not be able to resolve two individual targets and would go for the center of the radar return, thus causing the missile to pass between the helicopter and the ship.

either way--as a chopper pilot you still must have balls of steel to willingly put yourself between the ship and the missile like that.
 
^ It was a test, thats where they were aiming......
For various reasons (specular reflection, ducting, Kalman filter tracking, shadowing, etc) it is around 10x easier to hit something 40 feet in the air than something 2 feet above the sea level.
 
either way--as a chopper pilot you still must have balls of steel to willingly put yourself between the ship and the missile like that.

Yes and as was pointed out above, in the event of an air attack the carrier escorts will interpose themselves between the incoming missiles and the carrier - absorbing any hits that leak through.

Big balls indeed.
 
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