Print Size @ 300 dpi 5 x 13 inches / … The Armstrong Whitworth Sea Slug was the Royal Navy's first beam riding surface to air missile and was fitted to County Class destroyers, which were actually cruisers, but falsely identified by the Navy as politicians believed Cruisers were obsolescent. The DPRC also began to have concerns about guiding Red Heathen at its 100,000 yd (91 km) maximum range. Used to escort convoys during the First World War, and in common with other ships of her class, was disguised as a merchant vessel, known as a Q-ship. If one of the boosters did not fire the thrust would be significantly off-axis, a possibility which was addressed by moving the boosters forward so their exhaust was near the centre of gravity of the missile, allowing the missile's small control surfaces to remain effective.

An Armstrong Whitworth Seaslug ship-to-air missile narrowly misses a Fairey Firefly drone aircraft. This meant that large stabilising fins as used on contemporary missiles in service with the Guidance was by radar beam-riding, the beam to be provided by Electrical power when the missile was in flight was provided by a Seaslug was a high-performance weapon in the 1960s, with a single-shot kill probability of 92%, although other sources give lower kill probabilities: 75% for the Mk 1 and 65% for the Mk 2.The last firing of the Seaslug Mk 1 was in December 1981 by The capabilities of the new Sea Slug Mk 2, an almost 2.5 ton missile, were much improved compared to the previous Mk 1. For this reason, UK missile "hit" probabilities are generally much lower than US in spite of actually being significantly more deadly.There is a common error about a liquid-fuel sustainer on this model. Tracing its history as far back as 1943's LOPGAP design, it came into operational service in 1961 and was still in use at the time of the Falklands War in 1982. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft entstand 1912 als Flugzeugbauabteilung des Rüstungskonzerns Sir W.G. A later updated pushed the range to 30,000–60,000 yd (27–55 km) against a 600 kn (1,100 km/h), later 650 kn (1,200 km/h), target. By 1955 the Royal Navy considered using the The final set for the County ships, actually more a cruiser type than a destroyer, was quite complex: a The missile had four wrap-around booster motors that separated after launch.

It was only fitted to the Royal Navy's eight It was planned that Seaslug's medium-range role was to be supplanted by a very long-range missile known as In December 1944, GAP put out a Naval Staff Target for a new anti-aircraft weapon,A March 1945 report called for the first test launches of LOPGAP from converted In 1945 a new Guided Projectiles Establishment was set up under the Controller of Supplies (Air) and in 1946 development of all ongoing missile projects moved to the In a January 1947 Navy review, the program was given the name Seaslug. Some of the County Class destroyers were sold to Chile for the In the post-war period Armstrong Whitworth became involved in the production of missiles, especially the Sea Slug. It was assumed the targets would "jink" at 1G, so the missile needed to maneuver at 4G at sea level and 2.5G at 40,000 ft. Additional requirements were the ability to switch between targets in 6 seconds.The designers ultimately selected a maximum range of 30,000 yards, which included 6,000 yd (5.5 km) of coasting after motor burn-out. The handling arrangements were designed with a nuclear-war environment in mind and were therefore entirely under cover. The boosters gave a total of about 60 tons-force, with 186 kg (410 lb) fuel for each one (145 kg in the Mk 1), accelerating it to over Mach 2. The Admiralty was of another opinion on the matter and argued against the change in priority.The Navy found an unlikely ally in the Army, who were concerned that Red Heathen was too difficult to move to in a single stage and suggested that Seaslug might be the basis for a more immediate medium-range weapon that could be used both on land and sea. Anchusa-class sloop of the Royal Navy, built at the yards of Armstrong Whitworth and launched on 27 October 1917. The handling arrangements were designed with a nuclear-war environment in mind and were therefore entirely under cover. However, by 1956 a new Continual tests took place over the next four years using both the Seaslug needed height, range and bearing information for targets. After the Second World War, Armstrong Whitworth concentrated its guided missile work at the plant, including the development of the Sea Slug surface-to-air missile. They suggested the much longer ranged Red Heathen was more important in the short term. This called for a significantly larger weapon than initially envisioned, capable of single-stage vertical launch, a warhead (and guidance) of 200 lb (91 kg) and an all-up weight of 1,800 lb (820 kg).Development slowed, and in July 1947 the Admiralty approached the In March 1948 a new report from the DRPC noted there was not enough manpower for all four projects, and put Seaslug at the bottom of the priority list, claiming air attack would be less likely than submarine in the event of war. sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( sfn error: multiple targets (2×): CITEREFFriedman2012 ( When they separated because the extreme drag made by the rings all around the missile, the solid fuel sustainer The County-class destroyers were specifically built to carry Seaslug and its associated control equipment.