For those who constantly harp on about the sparse defences of RN ships including the QECs, there has been an interesting development:
A target boat took a direct hit in the Irish Sea as the Royal Navy successfully tested its new missile to defeat terrorists and suicide bombers.
HMS Sutherland fired four new Martlet missiles at a fast-moving speedboat off the Welsh coast to see whether the weapon could be launched from a ship as well as a helicopter.
Martlet – also known as the Lightweight Multi-role Missile – was originally designed to be fired by Wildcat helicopters to take out small boats which posed a threat to the Fleet, alongside the heavier Sea Venom for dealing with larger warships.
All ships are armed with a series of machine-guns and Mini-guns (manually-operated Gatling guns) to fend off small craft, while some are also equipped with Phalanx automated guns which spew out a hail of bullets at incoming aircraft, missiles and threats on the surface.
The Royal Navy wanted to add to those defences and turned to the new missile system, modifying it so a launcher could be fitted to the existing 30mm automatic gun.
Just five months after the idea was mooted, the Plymouth-based frigate was off the Aberporth Range at the southern end of Cardigan Bay facing a fast inshore attack craft tearing across the water.
After first proving that the gun could still fire accurately with the missile fitted – 120 rounds obliterated a large red ‘killer tomato’ target – and that the sensors behind Martlet could track its radio-controlled foe at ranges of up to five kilometres.
Finally, four missiles were fired – one to test the effect of the Martlet ‘blasting off’ from its launcher on the gun mounting and the side of Sutherland (the missile accelerates to one and a half times the speed of sound in an instant), three packed with telemetry to measure the missile’s accuracy (ordinarily the weapon carries a 3kg warhead).
All was recorded by high resolution cameras so the team from manufacturers Thales and military scientists could analyse the effects in minute detail.
With recent developments this is a welcomed capability for the Royal Navy to the 30mm gun system, that should be rolled out fleet wide to ships with 30mm mounts, including the possibility of HMS Queen Elizabeth being included in any future capability upgrade.
View attachment 52994 View attachment 52995 View attachment 52996 View attachment 52997 The QECs are scheduled to receive three 30mm guns each in addition to the Phalanx CIWS, and these should makes a significant difference to the ship's self defence capability.
