The arms race begins

The
European
mis
sile
success
1959 - 1968
The arms
story
race begins
y the end of the 1950s, the world was clearly split into two
opposing blocs. This set off an arms race whereby any
action in one camp automatically triggered a reaction in
the other. A technological race was carried out in parallel, based on
information gathered about the research activities of the adversary.
Escalation
Thus, for example, the development of a new generation of Soviet
tanks resulted in the launch of a new type of anti-tank missile capable
of perforating its armour. The goal was to have service entry dates
that coincided, thereby maintaining balance. No player could therefore
ever hope to gain a clear advantage.A swift victory was highly uncertain,
even following a massive surprise attack against Europe, and even if
the latter were to take place beneath the threshold of nuclear arms
deployment. This form of conventional deterrence complemented the
“balance of terror,” the strategic nuclear doctrine put in place at the
time of the Cuban Missile Crisis.
of the
Cold
In France, this was a difficult period, given the drastic measures of
1958 and the drying up of funds. Budgets were devoted first and
foremost to the war in Algeria, and then to the development of
nuclear weapons and their strategic delivery means, as well as
the design and acquisition of the first generation of French platforms
In 1961, the U.S. Army got caught up in the Vietnam War. On both sides, the use of air-to-air, air-to-ground and groundto-air missiles marked the brutal entry of missiles and their decisive role in conflicts. The Vietnam War resulted in a new
awareness among armies and a redefinition of their needs. (AFP)
to succeed the American materials left over after 1945. At the
same time, France acquired Mirage IIIs and IVs, two aircraft carriers
(Foch and Clémenceau) along with various escort ships, as well as
AMX30 tanks, etc.
Budgetary restrictions gave rise to creative solutions. The few
research grants available were focused on the exploration of techno-
logies that could make missiles more autonomous. To open new market
segments, the sharing of costs with other partners was necessary,
which led to the first European cooperation programmes: Franco-
war
German for Nord Aviation (Milan, Hot, Roland), and Franco-British
for Matra (Martel). In this way, Europe was able to bridge a gap
of four or five years that had accumulated during the 1950s next to
equivalent American projects. Export markets opened up as a result.
In winning the competition to equip the Mirage III with an air-to-air
missile, Matra ensured its own survival following the loss of other
programmes in 1958. The company also enjoyed its first export success
with the R530. Nord Aviation, no longer involved in air-to-air missiles,
recycled itself by transforming its AA20 air-to-air into the AS20
air-to-ground, creating a new niche market for tactical air-to-ground
missiles in Europe. The AS20 paved the way for the AS30, which
equipped a number of NATO air forces. Nord Aviation was also
innovative in deriving from its CT20 target missile the first
long-range anti-ship missile (M20) and the first reconnaissance drone
in Europe (R20). And Italy derived from a ground/surface-to-air
missile one of its first surface-to-surface missiles (Sea Killer).
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Aerial view of missile bases in Cuba. The United States was henceforth within range of Soviet missiles. The Cuban Missile
Crisis of October 1962, which pitted Kennedy and Kruschev against each another, was the apex of the Cold War. (AFP)
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In 1958, a MiG from the People’s Republic of China was
shot down by a Sidewinder missile fired by a Nationalist
Chinese Air Force plane. This triggered the start of short- and
medium-range air-to-air programmes in many countries, and these
missiles rapidly became the weapons of choice for combat aircraft,
relegating heavy guns to a secondary role. At the same time, the
medium- and long-range ground-to-air missile systems put in place
during the 1950s made high-flying strategic bombers too vulnerable.
This became evident when Gary Powers’ U-2 spy plane was brought
down by a missile over the Soviet Union. From then on, air forces
underwent major changes in order to be able to penetrate enemy
An upheaval in
air combat
territory at a lower altitude and escape radar
detection. Missiles evolved accordingly, and
the targets of air-to-air missiles changed. The
goal was no longer so much to destroy a large
bomber flying in a straight line at high altitude,
R530
The Mirage III’s French air-to-air missile
The choice of Dassault’s Mirage III as an interceptor in 1957 called for a worthy air-to-air
missile. The new Cyrano radar made it possible to finally envisage “all sector” and “all
weather” interception, from which arose the need for an air-to-air missile that could be
used by day or by night, even with poor visibility. With this in mind, the Air Force drafted
two programmes. The first, called AA25, aimed to develop an automatic radar remotecontrolled missile. Nord Aviation responded with the N5104, based on the body of the
N5103 (AA20) and featuring beam rider guidance. The second, the AA26, was to equip
the interceptor with a semi-active homing missile. Matra, which responded with the
R530, was awarded the programme in October 1959, following a stiff competition.
The R530 embodied France’s mastery of proportional navigation. It was the first
“system” design, something new at the time. The programme was in fact envisioned as
a weapons system integrating aircraft, radar, onboard electronics, etc. With the R530
having been conceived in two versions (radar and infrared), work on infrared homing was
resumed. At the export level, the R530 benefited from the success of Dassault’s aircraft,
along with Matra’s first export contracts.
1959
but to combat smaller, more manoeuvrable
fighter-bombers by attacking near the ground.
To do this, air-to-air missiles had to be more
autonomous in the final phase, using radar
homing for distant targets or infrared homing
for close-range dogfight combat. Ground-to-air
systems also changed. Here, the British led the
way. With the Bloodhound 2 and Thunderbird 2
programmes they had already modified the
electronics of existing systems to allow them to
engage targets at lower altitudes. Then, BAC
came up with something new by launching
the development of a system that would be optimised for short-range use —the first short-range
ground-to-air missile in Europe, the Rapier—
soon followed by the Roland and the Crotale.
Not to be left behind, the Royal Navy embarked
(AFP)
on the development of two surface-to-air systems: one, the Sea Dart,
for medium-range protection of its fleet; and the other, the Sea Wolf,
for short-range anti-aircraft defence.
And so, after absorbing the effects of the large mergers of 1959, a
strengthened British industry began, between 1963 and 1968, the
development of three of its most successful programmes, the Rapier,
1st guided firing in the spring of 1960
Sea Dart and Sea Wolf.
Delivery in November 1963
for the Mirage IIIC
2,300 R530s produced
11 foreign customers
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Sea Dart
A missile powered by Rolls-Royce
The Sea Dart was a surface-to-air missile for naval zone defence, developed
to succeed the Sea Slug aboard Type 42 destroyers. Its development, begun
in 1963, resulted in the GWS30 system, which included a tracking radar that
illuminated the target, a magazine and a twin launcher. The two-stage
missile was fitted with a solid-fuel booster with cruise propulsion powered
by a Rolls-Royce “Odin” ramjet.
1963
Entered service in 1973
Range: 40 km
(ECPAD)
Speed: Mach 3.5
Exported to Argentina
on Type 42s
Rapier
First short-range ground-to-air
The Rapier, developed by BAC, was the first
short-range air-to-air missile ever developed.
Featuring advanced capabilities when it was
introduced, its mission was to defend positions
against low-altitude air attacks. Thanks to the
compactness of the system and the battery’s mobility and light weight, the missile was a major asset
for land forces. The supersonic missile’s SACLOS
electro-optical guidance system originally featured
an optical tracker, which was later replaced in
option by a Blindfire tracking radar, operational
beginning in 1975.
Operational in 1971
Range: 7.5 km
Quadruple trailer-mounted
launcher, towed by Land
Rover 4x4
1963
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Sea Wolf
A fearsome surface-to-air
lthough the two superpowers, the Soviet
Union and the United States, embarked on
an arms race that European countries, who were just
In Great Britain, a need arose for a point
defence system to complete the Sea
Dart’s zone defence. The Sea Wolf missile
was the answer. It underwent a flight test
campaign beginning in 1973, and system
tests were carried out between 1975 and
1977. The system, called GWS25, entered
operational service on Type 22 frigates. It
featured a 32-missile silo and a trainable,
rechargeable sextuple launcher. For lowaltitude firings, it used beam rider/TV
guidance, providing it with anti-sea
skimming missile capabilities.
getting over World War II, could barely keep up with,
1968
the latter found themselves at the heart of the Soviet
threat. Warsaw Pact countries were, in fact, planning a
short, massive invasion of Europe and were piling up
Entered service in 1979
tanks and missiles along the border in Germany, not far
Exported to Brazil
from France. Inferior in number, European countries
needed to come up with ingenious solutions and be
able to fatally strike the heart of the Soviet forces.
Fighter-bombers fitted with long-range air-to-ground
Military parade showing Soviet
ballistic missiles, in Moscow's Red
Square, 1 May 1966. (AFP)
In-depth strikes:
reaching the heart of the enemy
way to accomplish
this. Military leaders
began research in this
area, asking industrials to increase the range of missiles
to far beyond that of line-of-sight guidance used with
first generation air-to-ground missiles.
1958
AS20
An air-to-air swiftly transformed
into an air-to-ground
The excellent results obtained by the
SS11s and SS12s in air-to-ground and
air-to-surface use served in the creation
of the burgeoning air-to-ground field,
though only for slow-flying aircraft whose
ranges were too short. A warhead (30 kg)
adapted to air-to-ground use was mounted
on the body of the series N5103s (AA20)
to create the AS20. It featured manual
radio guidance from the cockpit of the
plane using a small joystick. The speed
advantage of this converted air-to-air
even permitted air-to-ground firing from
rapid aircraft.
AS20 (right) and AS30 (left)
Range: 7 to 8 km
Precision in the order of 5 metres
1st operational tactical
air-to-ground missile in France
8,000 AS20s produced for France,
Germany and Italy
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missiles were one
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A powerful air-to-ground
The French Air Force expressed the need for a 250-kg
warhead, with a range increased to 10 km, to attack
hardened targets. Nord Aviation responded by proportionally enlarging the AS20 and replacing manual radio
guidance with automatic remote control guidance,
eliminating the need for a joystick. From then on,
tracking of the missile was accomplished using its
flare and automatic line-of-sight alignment.
1958
ew needs on the part of air forces meant a technological leap was necessary, since missiles
had to be made completely autonomous. At the time, no existing inertial unit was sufficiently
light and compact to fit into the diameter of a tactical
missile. Industrials leaned towards this new use for an
In quest of new technologies
air-to-ground missile and as a solution opted to divide the flight into two phases: the first involved
inertial pre-guidance to bring the missile into the target zone with precision so that during the second
phase a seeker could pinpoint and lock onto the target.
Harpon
An anti-tank astride two generations
Harpon was the name given to the SS11 upgraded by the addition of automatic
remote control guidance, based on infrared technology developed from 1959 to 1966,
also found on the AS30. The result was greater precision, plus a minimum range
reduced from 700 to 350 metres. This paved the way for the second generation of
Milan- and Hot-type anti-tank missiles.
Entered service in 1963-1964
3,870 units produced
3,000 units exported (Germany, United
Kingdom, Switzerland, etc.)
Numerous spin-offs: experimental AS31 and
AS33, AS34 Kormoran, AS30 Laser
Produced beginning in 1967
In service in France, Germany
and Saudi Arabia
AS31 et AS33
1959
A giant step in autonomous navigation
The AS31 programme was first and foremost experimental in nature. It aimed to
optimise the pre-firing orientation of an
axial gyro to steer the missile towards its
target. The results were satisfactory,
however several elements were still missing, among them accounting for certain
causes of break-up, such as lateral wind.
The AS33 programme filled the last
remaining gaps and led to experiments
on a complete inertial unit: an AS31 axial
gyro plus a new vertical gyro with a threeaxis accelerometer, everything fitting
within a 350-mm calibre. The technical
success of this formula led to two
separate missiles: The German AS34
Kormoran and the French MM38 Exocet.
1960
AS30
AS33 financed 50:50 by France and Germany
Tested in 1964 on the German F-104G Starfighter
Tested from 1965 to 1967 on the French Mirage IIIE
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Milan
he 1960s saw the beginning of the first European missile
cooperation programmes. The primary reason was financial, to
which industries had developed competing
solutions. There was also a technical reason: on
any given segment, each player brought its
The first European
cooperation projects
know-how, often complementary rather than competitive.
The German industry rose to life again in 1956, thanks to the manufacturing under licence of French equipment, including the Fouga
Magister, Noratlas and Alouette 2. In the same vein, developments
were jointly carried out by the two countries, among them the
Transall and the Atlantic 1. A first accord among industrials was officially signed in 1958, between Nord Aviation and Bölkow, followed in
Birth of the
Franco-German
partnership
January 1963 by the Elysée Treaty on FrancoGerman reconciliation, which made the will for
cooperation in the armament field official. By
joining their two anti-tank programmes along
with another one in the low-altitude ground-toair field, Nord Aviation and Bölkow made it
possible for both countries, which independently could finance only
two programmes, to carry out a third one by sharing development
A revolutionary missile
1964
enable the sharing of costs on programmes for
The Milan, the product of complementary
French and German technologies, featured
several major breakthroughs. The automatic
remote control system, already tested on
the SS11 Harpon, eliminated the need for
manual guidance using a joystick. The
gunner merely had to hold the target in the
centre of his sight until impact, simplifying
the training of gunners and improving
strike probability from 50 per cent to 90 per
cent. Moreover, the missile was delivered
by container, which facilitated storage,
transportation and launch. In the mediumrange anti-tank field, the Milan was without
rival, providing both industrials and armies
with a significant lead. The result was an
unprecedented success. Upgraded several
times, the Milan is still in production, and
remains the missile of reference in this
field. It has already been used in combat in
more than 15 conflicts.
The Milan offers many advantages
over anti-tank guns:
Lightweight, transportable by two men
Range of 2,000 metres
Perforation capability of 1,000 mm of tank armour
Entered service in 1974
More than 330,000 missiles
and 10,000 firing sites
produced to date
costs. The outcome was today’s well-known Milan, Hot and Roland
41 customer nations
missiles.
Manufactured under
licence in the United
Kingdom, Italy, India and
Spain
Milan’s “big brother”
1964
Hot
Based on the Milan, the Hot missile gained its
superiority with a longer range. This long-range
anti-tank missile featured the same innovations
as the Milan, and like the latter, has undergone
several modernisation programmes.
General Charles De Gaulle embracing Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, sealing FrancoGerman reconciliation and the beginning of cooperation in the armament sector.
Photo taken on 22 January 1963 in the Palais de l'Elysée's Murat salon. (AFP)
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The Hot missile was fitted on several platforms
Helicopters: French Gazelle,
German Bölkow Bo-105
Armoured combat vehicles:
French VAB Mephisto, German Jaguar
Entered service in 1978
Range: 4,000 metres
Production to date: more
than 80,000 missiles
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Roland
A pillar of European ground-to-air defence
AS34 Kormoran
A private cooperation initiative
The AS33 stirred up interest among the German staffs for an all-weather
air-to-surface missile to equip F-104Gs. This programme, led and financed
entirely by Germany, could not count on French participation, due to
blocked financing. However, Nord Aviation found itself associated with
the development on equal terms with Bölkow, with major technology
transfers from France to Germany.
1964
The Roland missile was born of the need to provide ground units
on the battlefield with an anti-aircraft self-defence system that
could be deployed against threats such as low-altitude Soviet
tactical support aircraft flying at speeds greater than Mach 1.
The programme took some time to complete due to the ambitious
capabilities and new technologies that were being developed. It
should be noted that for the first time, a short-range ground-to-air
system brought together aboard a single armoured vehicle all the
elements required for detection and fire
control (surveillance, firing and tracking
radar) along with two launch ramps and a
swivelling turret. Reloading was carried out
using twin launchers. The system has been
upgraded several times.
1968
Preliminary work
from 1964 to 1968
Principal development
contract at the end of
1968
First guided firing in
1971
Series production
beginning in 1977
Two variants of the Roland were developed:
Roland 1 “clear weather”, with automatic
line-of-sight radio command
In service beginning in 1978
Roland 2 “all weather”, with Ku-band fire
control radar
In service beginning in 1981
Range: 6,300 metres
Maximum altitude:
3,000 metres
Speed: 500 m/s
(Eddy Guilloux)
Developed until 1975
Testing and evaluation
from 1976 to 1977
Entered service in
1978
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63
aving watched Nord Aviation’s penetration of the
R440 Crotale
air-to-ground segment thanks to the 1958 directive
launching the AS20 and the AS30, and its penetration of the
short-range ground-to-air segment with the Roland with no
competition, Matra reacted. The company entered into coopera-
Matra ready for
joint projects
tion agreements with the United
Kingdom for Martel air-to-ground and
A lethal bite
The electronics specialist Thomson-Houston, which had no
plans to leave the new field of short-range ground-to-air to
Nord Aviation, nonetheless could not count on the financial
support of the French government, at the time reserved for
the Roland. The company looked elsewhere, and in July
1964 obtained a development contract with South Africa for
a system known locally as Cactus. Thomson-Houston,
having no experience in the design of missiles, entrusted the
development of the R440 (with line-of-sight guidance) to
Matra. Afterwards, the French Air Force adopted the missile,
under the name Crotale, to protect its air bases against
low-altitude aircraft. The missile’s huge export success and
successive upgrades have ensured its longevity.
1964
anti-radar missiles in 1964. It also
embarked on a French cooperation
programme the same year, as manufacturer of the Crotale shortrange ground-to-air missile developed by Thomson-Houston.
Range: 8.5 km
1st firing in 1967
Series production
beginning in 1978
Production to date:
6,000 missiles
Martel
1964
The first Franco-British programme
The Martel (Missile Anti-Radar TELévision) came about as a result of the convergence between the French AS37 anti-radar project, for which Matra was chosen
for the design leadership in 1963, and the British need for a TV-guided anti-radar
and air-to-ground missile. But the United Kingdom’s budget turned out to be
insufficient to launch both at the same time. Air forces wanted a missile capable
of destroying ground-to-air surveillance radars in order to paralyse air defence
systems and thereby ensure penetration by Allied bombers. Matra and Hawker
Siddeley Dynamics thus proposed a common vector, declined in two versions.
The first was an anti-radar missile largely inspired by the AS37, with a seeker
capable of detecting enemy radar. The second, a TV missile, was the outcome of
the British AJ168 programme (requiring a two-seater launch aircraft).
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Range of 38 km to 150 km
depending on launch
altitude
First guided firing
in June 1965
500 units produced:
150 anti-radar for French
single-seat Jaguar fighters;
150 anti-radar and
200 TV-guided for British
Buccaneers and Nimrods
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Masurca
Participation
in series production
ugust 1945: the first two American atomic bombs, dropped on Hiroshima
and Nagasaki, signalled the beginning of the arms race, nuclear deterrence
serving as the basis of equilibrium between East and West. In France during the
1950s, the Fourth Republic decided to begin a research programme on atomic
Carried out by ECAN (Etablissement des
Constructions et Armes Navales) in Ruelle
and the sole survivor among the groundto-air programmes of 1958, the Masurca
medium-range naval ground-to air missile
was technologically reoriented with the
Masurca Mk2 Mod2 and Mod3 to adapt
to the threat of Soviet anti-ship missiles
(Styx). Faced with the programme’s
delay, the French Navy asked Matra to
help with the final phase of development
of the guided Mod3 version, and with the
series industrialisation, via a work group
in place from 1966 to 1972. The Masurca
equipped the anti-aircraft ships Colbert,
Suffren and Duquesne.
1966
fusion. The outcome was that on 11 April 1955 Council President
French Félix Gaillard gave the green light for the first nuclear detonation,
took place in 1960. This policy was followed and expanded
deterrence which
on by Charles De Gaulle, in spite of opposition both in his own
camp and abroad. The first forces to be equipped with strategic ballistic missiles
were the Air Force and the Navy, followed shortly afterwards by the Army, with the
development of a tactical nuclear ground-to-air missile carrying a 10- to 25-kg warhead.
X422
1964
A cruise missile ahead
of its time
The X422 resulted from an attempt by the
Cannes facility of the former SNCASE,
now Sud Aviation, to build a cruise missile.
The company used the SE4400’s ramjet
propulsion, and field studies were carried
out in parallel, with guidance based on
the memorisation of altitude readings at
key points along the trajectory. This programme too was dropped by staffs in
favour of strategic ballistic missiles.
Prototype ordered in 1964
Three flights at Mach 2+
carried out in 1967
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(SHAA)
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Pluton
he need for airborne targets to train air defence gunners was identified at the
The fires of hell
end of the war. In France, transitional solutions were initially tested, notably
1967
The development of the Pluton programme was entrusted to Nord and Sud Aviation, under the
leadership of Nord (the two companies were finally merged to create SNIAS in 1970). Thanks
to preliminary work begun in 1964, the first flight took place in January 1968. This ambitious
programme, carried out at a brisk pace, resulted in many technological breakthroughs, among
them the AS33 inertial unit; a solid-fuel, single-bloc, bi-composite engine as well as a roll-and-weld
steel propulsion chamber. From an operational point of view,
the idea was to make the system more mobile and rapidly
Declared operational 1 May 1974
deployable by loading it onto an AMX30 tank, a major challenge
21 test firings carried out until late 1973
at the time. Five artillery regiments were equipped over a
Five evaluation firings during 1974-1975
period of 20 years.
Range of 120 km
aircraft controlled remotely from Mistral platforms, aircraft retired from active service,
or missiles from the SE1500 family dropped from planes. In 1953, targets were to be
used to develop the first anti-aircraft missiles. This was the case
From target for the CT20, which served as a target for Matra’s R511. The
of using a target as a means of long-distance surveillance
to drone notion
first appeared at the start of the 1960s, with the R20. However
the technology and the needs of the day were not clearly defined, and the concept did
not come into being until the 1970s.
Retired from service in April 1993
CT20
1st flight in 1955
Entered operational service in 1958
Exported to four countries:
Egypt, Greece, Italy and Sweden
Continuous production from 1958 to
1984 for a total of 1,530 units
1955
The “success” target
Designed to simulate the slow flight of
propeller bombers, the CT10, largely
based on the V1, rapidly became obsolete. A new target missile was needed to
simulate new jet fighters and bombers.
The CT10’s successor, the CT20, was
twice as fast as its predecessor. It was
capable of reaching 900 km/h, and its
ceiling was more than tripled to 15,000
metres, compared with 4,000 for the
CT10. To accomplish this, the CT20 was
powered by a Marboré turbojet, similar to
that used by the Fouga Magister fighter
aircraft. It was used by NATO on the
NAMFI missile firing installation in Crete
and served to develop numerous French
missiles, among them the Masurca,
R530, Roland, Crotale, Magic and Aster.
The CT20 gave birth to the R20 reconnaissance drone and to the M20 anti-ship
missile for Sweden.
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First attempt at a fire-and-forget anti-ship missile
R20
The first French UAV
Nord Aviation was searching for new niche markets to make up for those
lost in 1958. The transformation of the CT20 target into a reconnaissance
drone named R20 came about as a result. It was the first unmanned aerial
vehicle to enter service in Europe.
Matra’s victory with the R530 provided
Nord Aviation with food for thought
regarding the uncertain future of remote
guidance. The company embarked on the
search for a programme to perfect
homing guidance. The opportunity came
from Sweden, which requested the
transformation of the CT20 target into an
anti-ship missile equivalent to the Soviet
Styx. The development of the M20 was
carried out from 1959 to 1965 in collaboration with Saab-Scania. The missile
relied on radio guidance until the final
approach to the target, switching to active
radar homing in the terminal phase.
1959
1960
M20
Testing carried
out in 1963
Entered service
in 1966
62 units produced
for the French Army
Entered service in 1967
on destroyers and in
coastal artillery batteries
98 units produced
in Sweden under the
designation Rb08A
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ontraves Italiana was founded in Rome in
1952. A local subsidiary of the Swiss company
Contraves, the company specialised in electronics and
radars for anti-aircraft defence systems. Starting in 1960,
Contraves Italiana began privately developing tactical
missiles destined to work with the fire control systems
developed by the parent company in Switzerland. It first
Italy enters
the race
tried to stir up the interest of the
Italian government regarding its
Indigo ground-to-air system, then
transformed the latter into a naval
surface-to-air variant (Sea Indigo) before finally turning
it into a surface-to-surface missile, which was Italy’s first
missile to be successfully exported (Sea Killer). In 1967,
Contraves transferred the development and commercialisation of this burgeoning missile industry to
SISTEL SpA (Sistemi Elettronici), which, in addition
RSC-50 missile during trials in France.
to Contraves Italiana, had among its shareholders
other major Italian defence companies-Finmeccanica,
RSC and Micon
The source of Italian inspiration
FIAT, SNIA, Viscosa and Montecatimi Edison.
SISTEL’s principal shareholders later changed to
Selenia, OTO Melara and Breda.
Beginning in 1947, the two Swiss companies Oerlikon and Contraves, along with the
latter’s Italian subsidiary, launched the private development of a ground-to-air missile
system based on the RSC missile. Prototypes were tested in France and Switzerland in
1950, then in the United States in 1952. Italy acquired a number of them for training
purposes at the end of the 1950s and carried out tests on the recently set up Salto di
Quirra missile test centre in Sardinia. The training missiles could be recovered using
parachutes. A new solid-propellant version was studied starting in 1959. This new
variant, known as Micon (MIssile CONtraves) featured radar guidance. Italy proceeded
to test the Micon, but in the end the system found no buyers. This missile nonetheless
gave birth to a succession of derivatives, which Contraves designed in an attempt to
interest Italy in its products, with varied success until the adoption of the Marte almost
ten years later.
Range: 35 km
Weight: 800 kg
1959
Micon missiles in Sardinia
Micon missile at Salto di Quirra.
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From ground-to-air to surface-to-air
1963
Sea Indigo
The Sea Indigo missile was the naval surface-to-air version
of the Indigo, developed starting in 1963. The prototype was
competed in 1964, and associated with the Contraves Sea
Hunter firing control system.
Sea Killer Mark 1
(RID)
First forays in
the ground-to-air segment
Indigo
The Indigo programme was the Italian
industry’s first attempt in the short-range
ground-to-air missile field. The system,
never adopted by the Italian Army, was
to be towed on tracked vehicles and
featured radar guidance. Although it
never made it past the experimental
stage it was qualified in 1973 in terms of
its MEI mobile system (shelters mounted
on tracked vehicles).
Testing carried out
in Sardinia between
1963 and 1966
50 per cent strike rate on a
target of one square metre
(RID)
Transformation into surface-to-surface
On the basis of the Sea Indigo, Contraves Italiana began
studying a light anti-ship missile, the Nettuno, renamed Sea
Killer Mk1 in 1967. This surface-to-surface, single-stage,
solid-fuel missile with a 10-km range used radar guidance, as
well as remote control guidance in back-up mode. A single
quadruple carriage was put into experimental service onboard
a Saetta rapid patrol boat.
1963
Range: 10 km
1960
74
80 firings during development
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(RID)
Sea Killer Mark 2
First export success
Marte
In 1965, Contraves Italiana launched a study called Vulcano,
based on the Nettuno. A solid-fuel stage was added to the
Nettuno, doubling its range. It featured beam rider/inertial
guidance, with vertical control regulated from the launch
vessel by a remote-controlled altimeter, ensuring descent into
sea-skimming mode. In case of radar jamming, a secondary
radio guidance system, using the TV line-of-sight of the Sea
Hunter 4 firing control system, was added to the missile. The
Sea Killer Mk2 was the Italian company’s first export success.
The contract covered the equipping of four of the Imperial
Iranian Navy’s “Saam” class frigates. In its surface-to-surface
version, the Sea Killer Mk2 led to the Marte missile.
1965
(RID)
The beginning of a long history
Study of the Marte missile, based on the Sea Killer Mk2
surface-to-surface missile, was undertaken by SISTEL in
1970. The goal of the Italian industrial was to come up with
a helicopter-launched all-weather light anti-ship missile.
1970
Radar guidance using
SMA’s APQ-706 radar
Entered service on the
Sikorsky SH-3D
Sea King helicopter
Range: 20 km
Prototype available
in 1969
The success of the Mk2 pushed Contraves to
develop and introduce a new variant of the
Sea Killer, the Mk3, equipped with a seeker.
Still, the project was discontinued, the Italian
Navy favouring the TESEO (Otomat), which had
a far greater range. The Mk3 version was used
by others, however, and in Israel gave rise to
the Gabriel missile.
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77
Nearly 22,000 French SS11 anti-tank missiles were ordered by the U.S. Army in 1964. The following year the missile was fitted
on UH-1B Iroquois helicopters (top photo) of the 1st Cavalry Division, the first large air division to be deployed to Vietnam. (AFP)
(AFP)
78
Three Israeli Mirages flying over the Sinai near the Israeli-Egyptian border, 1967. Even before the Six Day War, numerous air combat
incidents pitted brand new Israeli Mirage IIICs against Soviet MiGs. In November 1965, an R530 missile brought down a Syrian
MiG 19, scoring Israel's first air victory. (AFP)
An Israeli Half-Track jeep advancing in the Negev desert in late May 1967. SS11 quadruple launchers were fitted on this semi-tracked
type of vehicle and used by Israel's motorised infantry. (AFP)
79