Archie to SAM: A Short Operational History of Ground-Based Air ...

OPERATIONS BETWEEN VIETNAM AND THE PERSIAN GULF
Figure 74. Rapier. Another British SAM employed in the Falklands campaign
was the Rapier. (Reprinted from USAF.)
weapon, the question of the actual kills casts some doubt on
these assertions. The army unit (T Battery) fired only with optical
tracking and achieved 40 percent of its kills in the tailchase
mode. The missile’s kinetic (direct hit) system coupled
with contact (not proximity) fuzes worked well, as British gunners
often had to fire over their own men and ships. Firing
over friendly forces also highlighted the manual-control feature
(it is not a fire-and-forget weapon), which proved useful
because the operator could pull the missile off a target if it flew
behind friendly forces. 38
The British naval air defense concept consisted of Harriers
as air cover, destroyers armed with Sea Dart missiles as longrange
defenses, and a close-in air defense of ships armed with
guns and other missiles. The British claim that Royal Navy
SAMs downed 21 aircraft. The large Seaslug missile, which entered
service in 1962, received no credits. The two-stage Sea Dart
destroyed five to eight aircraft, but more importantly, forced
Argentine aircraft into low-level tactics. However, it could handle
only one target at a time, as was dramatically demonstrated
when four A-4s attacked the HMS Coventry (fig. 75). The destroyer’s
Sea Darts destroyed the first two Argentine aircraft,
166