Blowpipe
A Canadian missile detachment of 129th Airfield Air Defense Battery, RCA, with Blowpipe during NATO Exercise Cornet Phaser. The Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery ( Fr: le Régiment royal de l'Artillerie canadienne is the Artillery Personnel branch of the Canadian The North Atlantic Treaty The men are wearing Nuclear, Biological and Chemical (NBC) protective gear. A weapon of mass destruction ( WMD) is a weapon which can kill large numbers of humans and/or cause great damage to man-made structures (e
Type	Manportable surface-to-air missile
Place of origin	UK
Service history
In service	1975 to 1985 [1]
Used by	See Operators
Wars	Falklands War, Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, Gulf War, Cenepa War
Production history
Designer	Thales Air Defence Limited
Designed	1975
Manufacturer	Thales Air Defence Limited
Produced	1975 to 1993 [1]
Number built	34, 382 [1]
Specifications
Weight	14. The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the The Soviet war in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet-Afghan War or just the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, was a nine-year conflict involving The Cenepa War ( January 26 – February 28, 1995) also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between Thales Air Defence Limited, formerly Shorts Missile Systems, is a defence contractor based in Belfast, Northern Ireland producing short-range or close air Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Thales Air Defence Limited, formerly Shorts Missile Systems, is a defence contractor based in Belfast, Northern Ireland producing short-range or close air Year 1975 ( MCMLXXV) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. Year 1993 ( MCMXCIII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link will display full 1993 Gregorian calendar) 5 kg (missile in launch tube) 22 kg (complete system) 6. 2 kg (launcher)
Length	1. 35 m
Diameter	76 mm
Crew	1
Effective range	0. 5 to 3. 5 km
Warhead	Shaped charge
Warhead weight	2. A shaped charge is an Explosive charge shaped to focus the effect of the explosive's energy 2 kg
Engine	Solid Rocket Motor
Speed	Mach 1. 5
Guidance system	MCLOS system

The Shorts Blowpipe is a man-portable surface-to-air missile (MANPADS) which was in use with the British Army and Royal Marines from 1975. MCLOS (short for Manual Command to Line of Sight) is a first-generation method for guiding Guided missiles With an MCLOS missile the operator must Short Brothers plc is a British Aerospace company usually referred to simply as Shorts, that is now based in Belfast, Northern Ireland A surface to air missile ( SAM) or ground-to-air missile ( GTAM) is a Missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy Aircraft Man-portable air-defense systems ( MANPADS) are shoulder-launched Surface-to-air missiles (SAMs The British Army is the land armed forces branch of the British Armed Forces. The Royal Marines ( RM) are the marine corps and amphibious Infantry of the United Kingdom and along with the Royal Navy It was superseded by an interim design, Javelin, and later the greatly improved Starstreak missile. Javelin is a British man-portable Surface-to-air missile, formerly used by the British Army and Canadian Army. Disambiguation Starstreak redirects here For the Marvel comics superheroine named Starstreak see Julie Power.

Description

The missile is shipped as a single round in a storage cylinder/firing tube. The aiming unit is clipped to the launch tube and fired from the operator's shoulder. In Human anatomy, the shoulder joint comprises the part of the body where the Humerus attaches to the Scapula. To reduce the overall size of the container, the rear fins of the missile are stored in the larger diameter cylinder at the front of the tube (this also contains the Yagi antenna for transmitting guidance signals); during firing the fins slip onto the rear of the missile as it flies through and are held there by heat-activated adhesive tapes. A Yagi-Uda Antenna, commonly known simply as a Yagi antenna or Yagi, is a Directional antenna system consisting of an array of a dipole This gives the launch container a unique shape, seemingly oversized at the front and extremely thin at the rear. The missile is powered by a short duration solid rocket for launch, then by a main sustainer rocket once it is well clear of the launch tube. A solid rocket or a solid-fuel rocket is a Rocket with a motor that uses solid propellants ( Fuel / Oxidizer)

Guidance of the Blowpipe is initially semi-automatic with the missile gathered to the centre of the sight's crosshairs by the infrared optic atop the aiming unit. A guidance system is a device or group of devices used to navigate a Ship, Aircraft, Missile, Rocket, Satellite, or other Infrared ( IR) radiation is Electromagnetic radiation whose Wavelength is longer than that of Visible light, but shorter than that of Two to three seconds after launch, missile guidance is switched to fully MCLOS mode, and the operator regains full control of the missile. MCLOS (short for Manual Command to Line of Sight) is a first-generation method for guiding Guided missiles With an MCLOS missile the operator must The operator has to steer the missile all the way to its target manually via a small thumb Joystick. The thumb is the medial -most digit of the hand The English adjective for thumb is pollical A joystick is an input device consisting of a stick that pivots on a base and reports its angle or direction to the device it is controlling The operator can opt not to use autogathering when engaging low flying targets such as helicopters, but then has to super-elevate the launcher to ensure the missile does not hit the ground. Four flares in the tail of the missile make it visible in flight, first to the infrared optic, then to the operator. A flare, also sometimes called a fusee, is a type of Pyrotechnic that produces a brilliant light or intense heat without an Explosion. Detonation is either by proximity or contact fuse. A proximity fuze (also called a VT fuze for "variable time" is a fuze that is designed to detonate an explosive device automatically when the distance In an Explosive, Pyrotechnic device or military Munition, a fuse (or fuze) is the part of the device that initiates function In emergencies, the operator can end an engagement by the operator shutting off the power to the transmitter with the system switch, after which the missile will immediately self-destruct. The aiming unit can then be removed from the empty missile container and fitted to a new round.

Blowpipe was developed as a SAM for submarines, fitted as a cluster of four missiles into a mast that could be raised from the submarine's conning tower under the name Submarine Launched Airflight Missile (SLAM) trialled on HMS Aeneas (P427) in 1972. A submarine is a Watercraft that can operate independently below water as distinct from a Submersible that has only limited underwater capability A conning tower is a raised platform on a ship or submarine often armored from which an officer can con the vessel i HMS Aeneas (P427, named after the hero Aeneas from Greek mythology, was an ''Amphion''-class Submarine of the Royal Navy

Combat performance

British Royal Marine uses a Blowpipe during the Falklands War

Blowpipe was used by both sides during the Falklands War in 1982. The Royal Marines ( RM) are the marine corps and amphibious Infantry of the United Kingdom and along with the Royal Navy The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the The Falklands War (Guerra de las Malvinas/Guerra del Atlántico Sur also called the Falklands Conflict/Crisis, was fought in 1982 between Argentina and the Year 1982 ( MCMLXXXII) was a Common year starting on Friday (link displays the 1982 Gregorian calendar) With the targets being fast flying aircraft, flying low and using the ground to hide their approach the Blowpipe had about 20 seconds to spot the target, align the unit and fire. A British officer compared using the weapon to "trying to shoot pheasants with a drainpipe. Pheasants are a group of large Birds in the order Galliformes. " The official report stated that of the 95 missiles fired by the British, only 9 managed to destroy their targets and all of these were slow flying planes and helicopters ^[2]. A later report determined that only two kills could be attributed to Blowpipe: A British Harrier GR3 (XZ972) and an Argentine Aermacchi MB-339A (0766 (4-A-114)). WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft. Please see WikipediaWikiProject Aircraft/page content for recommended layout

Similar discrepancies arose over other weapons systems, notably Blowpipe (one to two confirmed kills as against nine confirmed and two probables in the White Paper) and Sea Cat (zero to one against eight confirmed and two probables in the White Paper). ^[3]

Blowpipe was found to be particularly ineffective when used to engage a crossing target or to chase a target moving rapidly away from the operator. The poor performance led to it being withdrawn from UK service.

In 1986 some of the mothballed units were sent clandestinely to equip the Mujahideen fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan ^[4]. A Mujahid (Arabic ar مجاهد, literally "struggler" is a Muslim involved in a Jihad, id est fighting in a war or The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991 Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت, The system again proved ineffective ^[5]. With Blowpipe ineffective, a more effective system had to be found. While Blowpipe was available on the international arms market and therefore its origins were open to speculation, the provision of the US Stinger missile, which was restricted, meant that there had to be more open acknowledgment of western support for the Mujahideen. The FIM-92 Stinger is a personal portable Infrared homing Surface-to-air missile developed in the United States and used by all the U Blowpipe missile systems are still being found in weapon caches as recently as June 2003 in Afghanistan ^[6]. Afghanistan /æfˈgænɪstæn/ officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan ( Pashto: د افغانستان اسلامي جمهوریت,

The Canadian military took Blowpipe from storage to give some protection to their naval contribution to the 1991 Gulf war, however sheer age had affected the weapon and 9 out of 27 missiles tested mis-fired in some way. Year 1991 ( MCMXCI) was a Common year starting on Tuesday (link will display full calendar of the Gregorian Calendar. ^[7]

Blowpipe saw more effective use in the Cenepa War of 1995 between Peru and Ecuador, being feared by Peruvian pilots. The Cenepa War ( January 26 – February 28, 1995) also known as the Alto Cenepa War, was a brief and localized military conflict between ^[8]

Another photo of the Canadian Blowpipe detachment in NBC suits

Replacement

Blowpipe was replaced by the Javelin surface-to-air missile, which was of a generally similar design but improved in performance and with a semi-automatic guidance system (SACLOS) – the operator now controls the missile by keeping the target in his sight, and the aiming unit steers the missile to remain centered in the sight. Javelin is a British man-portable Surface-to-air missile, formerly used by the British Army and Canadian Army. SACLOS (short for Semi-Automatic Command to Line of Sight) is a second-generation method of Missile guidance

The basic Javelin missile body was retained in the Starburst surface-to-air missile, but the guidance system was further improved to a self-contained system in the missile itself. Starburst is a British man-portable Surface-to-air missile produced by Shorts Missile Systems of Belfast (since 2002 known as Thales Air Unlike the Javelin where the guidance is calculated in the controller unit and sent to the missile via radio, in Starburst a laser in the control unit "paints" the target, and the missile passively guides itself to intercept the laser. Radio is the transmission of signals by Modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible Light. This renders it largely immune to any possible jamming.

Starburst was used only briefly, before being replaced by the dramatically improved Starstreak. Disambiguation Starstreak redirects here For the Marvel comics superheroine named Starstreak see Julie Power. Starstreak uses the same beam-riding concept of Starburst, but dramatically improves the missile and warhead. In Starstreak the missile very quickly accelerates to Mach 3. 5, then separates to release three dart-like interceptors. Each dart is independently guided by riding the laser beam, dramatically improving the chances of a hit. The darts are also excellent at penetrating armor.

Operators

• United Kingdom (285 launchers)
• Ecuador (220 launchers)
• Canada (111 launchers)
• Portugal (57 launchers)
• Nigeria (48 launchers)
• United Arab Emirates (about 20 launchers)
• Malawi (12 launchers)
• Qatar
• Argentina
• Chile
• Thailand
• Oman
• Malaysia

References

• Falklands Air War, Chris Hobson, ISBN 1-85780-126-1
• The Battle for the Falklands, Max Hastings & Simon Jenkins, ISBN 0-330-35284-9

See also