NAVY NEWS, JULY 2008 9
Wolf rocks
MOST things from the 1970s are worth
Outwardly it looks the same – the only really noticeable
forgetting about.
difference is the addition of an electro-optical camera
The Bay City Rollers. The three-day week. Flares.
(more about that in a minute).
Strikes. Rampant unemployment. Rampant infl ation. The
Inside a metal cabin beneath the tracker, BAE’s boffi ns
winter of discontent.
have been carrying out their tests to ensure that the
And yet the decade produced much to be proud of,
claims made of SWMLU – SeaWolf Medium-Life Upgrade,
lest we forget. The Pompidou Centre. The Hollywood
pronounced ‘swim loo’ – are justifi ed.
blockbuster. The Morecambe & Wise Christmas Show. The
And the claims are pretty impressive.
Sea Harrier – and the carriers to take them into battle.
“If a tracker was placed in the centre of London, it should
And Seawolf, the short-range anti-air missile which
be able to detect a cricket-ball-sized target travelling at
defended Type 22 – and later Type 23 – frigates from the
Mach 3 over the M25,” explained BAE’s Steve Hall.
enemy aerial threat.
“It should engage the target somewhere over the
The missile was expected to cope with the anti-ship
North Circular. The whole engagement lasts less than 20
missiles of the day – Exocet being the most (in)famous,
seconds.”
capable of a maximum velocity just below the speed of
Seawolf doesn’t even wait for the missile to come within
sound.
range. It launches before the target is within the weapon’s
Fast forward three decades and, as Capt Brian Archibald,
range, estimating that missile and target will collide at the
head of the Short-Range Air Defence Integrated Project
maximum range – the aim being to minimise damage to the
Team, explains, “Today we are concerned with anti-ship
ship should there be any shrapnel.
missiles travelling at up to Mach 3. They also fl y lower –
Although the revamped missile and tracker effectively
and they are highly manoeuvrable which makes them very
double Seawolf’s existing range, take nothing away from
diffi cult threats to deal with.
the operator: this remains a job which demands split-
“The threat has evolved signifi cantly. So we have to
second judgments.
keep pace with the changing threat.”
He is or she is assisted by leaps in technology with the
The missile itself has already been given an overhaul –
Seawolf console which is now a full-colour, touch-screen
improved Seawolfs have already been delivered to front-
affair.
line RN ships.
Alongside these touch-button controls sits a B&W video
But the crux of the revamp for this battle-proven weapon
feed direct from the electro-optical camera on the tracker.
comes with improving its ‘eyes’ and ‘brain’, the tracker
It’s rather good.
system.
Our target for today is a twin-engined light aircraft
Each Type 22 and Type 23 has two Seawolf trackers –
chugging slowly (200kts) over Solent skies.
the radar system plus the computer systems which seek
The electro-optical follows it out to a good 17,000 yards
out and track the targets, buried in the heart of the ship.
(9½ miles), at which point the aircraft is reduced to a white
Rather than re-inventing the wheel, experts at BAE
blob, a ghostly image rather like a UFO fl itting across the
Systems strip down each existing tracker system when
sky.
it’s removed from a frigate in refi t, rip out the innards and
It grows as it comes closer. Within range (that bit’s
install the new kit in its place. Four out of fi ve components
classifi ed) the green lights fl ash on the Seawolf display.
inside ‘super Seawolf’, if you like, are new.
The system locks on.
It takes about four months to refurbish and replace each Engage.
pair of trackers. First the existing tracker has to be cleaned One missile leaves the launcher, quickly followed by
– after several years’ exposure to the elements what was a second to make sure. A few seconds later, the system
once silver has turned a sort of turquoise-silver. confi rms the ‘kill’. From acquiring its target to destroying it
And so in a huge silver box in Portsmouth, built specially has taken barely 14 seconds.
for the cleaning process, a couple of people wearing what This bit is all simulated. There are no missiles at Fraser.
can only be described as space suits, use a high pressure There are missiles aboard HMS Sutherland, however, and
hose to strip down most of the tracker parts. she’s just received her SWMLU system. Some time next
And there are a lot of parts to strip. There are 13 pairs year she will test it.
of trackers for the 23 fl eet, four for the 22s and two sets of Capt Archibald has no doubt the improved system will
trial trackers. work – and impress.
One test tracker can be found at the Fraser range in “We believe Seawolf is the best anti-ship missile missile
Eastney, looking out over the Solent. in the world,” he said emphatically.
● Seawolf bursts out of a vertical launcher on a Type 23 frigate
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