Exocet

In older English literature there are some uses of "exocet" to mean "flying fish".

''There is also a typeface known as Exocet.

The Exocet is a French-built anti-ship missile whose various versions can be launched from surface vessels, submarines, and airplanes. Several hundred were fired in combat during the 1980s. The name comes from a French word for flying fish.

Description

The Exocet is built by MBDA, a European missile company. It is one of the most successful anti-ship missiles in service. Development began in 1967 as a ship-launched missile named MM 38. The air-launched Exocet was developed in 1974 and entered service with the French Navy five years later.

The missile is designed to hit large warships. It is guided inertially in mid-flight, and turns on active radar late in its flight to find and hit its target. Its solid propellant engine gives the Exocet a maximum range of 70 km. The submarine-launched version places the missile and a Naval booster motor within a launch capsule.

The Exocet has been manufactured in a number of versions, including:

MM38 (surface-launched)
AM39 (air-launched)
SM39 (submarine-launched)
MM40 (surface-launched)

The newest MM40 version (MM40 block 3) has an improved range of 180 km, through the use of a turbojet engine.

The chief competitor to the Exocet is the U.S.-built AGM-84 Harpoon and the Chinese Yingji series.

History

In 1982, during the Falklands War, Exocets became famous worldwide when Argentinian Navy Super Etendard warplanes used them to sink Royal Navy 's HMS Sheffield on 4 May and the support ship Atlantic Conveyor on 25 May. As well, an Argentine-converted land-based truck fired an MM38 Exocet (previously dismounted from the Argentine corvette ARA Guerrico) that damaged the HMS Glamorgan on June 12.

Argentina claims that a combined Exocet/A-4C Skyhawk aircraft attack on May 30 damaged HMS Invincible; the British deny it.

The Exocet that struck the Sheffield failed to explode but the impact of the missile travelling at 315 m/s and laden with unburnt rocket fuel was enough to set the ship ablaze. Accounts suggest that the initial impact of the missile immediately destroyed the ship's onboard electricity generating systems and prevented the anti-fire mechanisms from operating effectively, dooming the ship to be consumed by the raging fire. Although the loss of the Sheffield was a blow to British self-esteem, the missile used earned itself a curious kind of respect, and the word “Exocet” passed into British colloquial usage to denote, “a devastating attack.” It is still occasionally heard, and as of 2006, remains widely understood.

The Exocet that struck the Glamorgan also failed to explode, but again the unburnt rocket fuel caused a significant fire. It is likely that Glamorgan was saved from complete destruction by the prompt action of the officers and men at the helm. In the short warning period (less than 1 minute) that a missile was incoming, they ordered maximum revolutions and maximum wheel towards the missile. As a result when the missile struck, the ship was heeled far over to port and instead of striking the side the missile hit the coaming and was deflected upwards. The dent caused by the impact was clearly visible when Glamorgan was in refit in late 1982.

In the years after the Falklands War it was revealed that the British government and intelligence agencies were extremely concerned by the perceived inadequacy of the British navy’s anti-missile defences against the Exocet and the missile’s potential to tip the naval war decidedly in favour of the Argentine forces. In London, a nightmare scenario was being envisioned in which one or both of the UK force’s two aircraft carriers (HMS Invincible and HMS Hermes) would be destroyed or incapacitated by an Exocet attack. Under such circumstances, military analysts considered that the British would have had serious difficulty in further prosecuting an attempt to recapture the Falklands from the Argentine forces. To counter the mortal threat posed by the Exocet, a major intelligence operation was initiated to prevent the Argentine Navy acquiring more of the missiles and British intelligence (believed to have been assisted by American intelligence) launched a global operation to disrupt Argentine attempts to procure new Exocets for the campaign. The operation included the seeding of intelligence agents whose task was to make contact with the Argentine military and falsely purport to be able to provide them with Exocets. Also, France denied deliveries of recently bought AM39 to Peru in the belief that they would be given to Argentina.

Iraq fired an estimated 200 air-launched Exocets against Iranian shipping during the Iran-Iraq War with varying levels of success. Tankers and other civilian shipping were often hit, but a large percentage failed to explode. US and UK EOD teams recovered several warheads and even some complete missiles from target ships.

On May 17, 1987, the pilot of an Iraqi Mirage F-1 mistook the US Navy Perry class frigate USS Stark for an Iranian tanker and fired two Exocets at the warship. Both hit, but only one exploded. The Stark was heavily damaged but saved by the crew and sent back for repairs.

There are persistant claims from Israeli sources, vigorously denied by the French, that the Exocet is not an original French design but a licensed copy of the Israeli Gabriel sea to sea missile.

Operators

The Exocet is currently in service with Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Cyprus, Ecuador, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Indonesia, Iraq, Kuwait, Libya, Malaysia, Morocco, Oman, Peru, Pakistan, Qatar, South Africa, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Uruguay. It also served with the Royal Navy until the last Exocet armed surface vessel was decommissioned in 2002.

The Lokata

Secrecy of the Exocet suffered a blow in the late 1970s when a civilian in Falmouth in Cornwall in England accidentally independently duplicated the Exocet’s navigation system and, despite order from the Patents Office to keep it secret, sold it to the public as a small boat type navigation system called Lokata.

Etymology

The origin of the word is Greek εξω-κοιτος = “lying down outside,” “sleeping under the stars,” which was then applied to the flying fish referring to its habit of stranding itself by landing in boats.

External links

Marine nationale - Alabordache Exocet missile in the French Navy
Netmarine.net Photograph of the impact of an Exocet missile on the Jauréguiberry target ship.
Netmarine.net Gallery of photographs of various variants of the Exocet missile.
Argentine Account of the role of the Exocet in the Falklands War
Photos of Exocet damage to USS Stark