Sea Cat kills?

14 June 0155Z: Canberra (Exeter)

HMS Cardiff shot-down the Canberra on 14th June 1982.

Improved Sea Cat entered service in 1977. It was credited with intercepting targets down to 6 m.

RAF Regiment operated Tigercat in one squadron 1970-78 as Rapier entered service in 1974.

Sea Cat: Original claims – 6, increased to 8 ‘confirmed and 2 probable’ in post war analysis. This was reduced to 0 or 1 kills and possibly 4 damaged in the Defence Operational Analysis Establishment (DOAE) report of 1984.
21 May 1982 1330Z: Dagger shot down by either Sea Cat (Plymouth) or Sea Wolf (Broadsword)

Sea Dart claimed 8 kills. No mention made of reductions, and all confirmed.
9 May 1907Z: SA330L (Coventry)
25 May 1230, 1530Z: A-4B, A-4C (Coventry)
30 May 1735, 1736: Two A-4C (Exeter, although Avenger claimed one by 4.5″ fire)
6 June 0408Z: Gazelle (Cardiff) – this was friendly fire, only recently cleared up.
7 June 1203Z: Learjet (Exeter)
14 June 0155Z: Canberra (Exeter)

Sea Wolf claimed 5 kills. No mention made of reductions, although one might be Sea Cat.
12 May 1644Z: Three A-4B shot down by Sea Wolf (Brilliant) – 2 direct hits, one crashed avoiding fire.
21 May 1330Z: Broadsword or Plymouth (Sea Cat)
23 May 1650Z: A-4B – either Broadsword or Rapier.

Blowpipe had 9 claimed kills and 2 probables. This was reduced to 1 or 2 confirmed kills and up to 6 damaged.
28 May 2000Z: MB.339A

Rapier claimed 9 kills, increased to 14 kills and 6 probable post-war. DOAE reduced this to one kill, two probable, two possibles and as many as eight damaged.
29 May 1500Z: Dagger
23 May 1650Z: A-4B – either Broadsword or Rapier.

The Official History of the Falklands Campaign, Lawrence Freedman, pgs 732-734.

IIRC post Falklands additional Sea Cat missiles were purchased with improved altimetres in order to improve performance against low flying targets.

Was it really necessary to post the same image on two threads, four minutes apart?

Here is an information sheet about tiger cat

Also this is a fantastic site for lots of pictures from the falklands war.
http://freepages.military.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cyberheritage/

The official Seacat ‘score’ published by the MoD after the Falklands war system was eight enemy aircraft. More recent analyses have reduced this to four, but in some cases these ‘kills’ are also claimed by land or ship-based SAM systems.

Mercurius Cantabrigiensis

I thought there was a claim that sea cat took a dagger?

I’ve read recently, to the surprise of my ailing memory, that Sea Cat was still in widespread use by the RN during the Falklands War. I had thought it had been replaced by then.

Does anyone have any info on its success or otherwise against the A4s etc?

Dear Member,

All indications were that the Seacat scored no hits. The Seacat was designed to engage aircraft either in diving or shallow diving mode. Not at wave top. The Argies at San Carolos did not have to go to altitude to hunt their targets. They came right up the sound at wave top. And firing a Seacat at super low altitude would run it in the water most likely. Also, it was to slow. A lot of those present talked of watching Seacat launches commented on them trying to catch the attacking aircraft. After the Falkland’s War SHORT introduced a fix where the Seacat missile had a altimeter radar that maintained it at a minimum height. I don’t know if anyone took SHORT up on that fix. Also the makers of the Sea Wolf offered a conversion for the Seacat launchers to take Sea Wolf and use the Seacat CLOS guidance already installed on warships. As far as I know no one took that offer up either.

Last, the biggest success was the Sea Wolf after the fixed that one software glitch where the automated fire control system would ignore targets not flying directly towards it (ie the reasoning being that missiles that were going to miss the warship were not worth engaging). At one time one of the two Sea Wolf warships with the Falkland’s task force engaged four A-4s and shot down three of them in quick succession in the auto mode. Luckily for the two Sea Wolf warships the civilian engineers for the Sea Wolf stayed with the warships instead of getting off at Ascension Island.

Jack E. Hammond

BTW> The Argies had Tigercat (three round lightweight ground version of the Seacat) at Port Stanley. They had about the same luck as the RN Seacats. The big success was the one French ROLAND firing battery they had that nailed a Harrier (RN/RAF?) and of all things a BOMB in mid air!!!!