Starstreak is a British short range Man-portable air-defense system
manufactured by Thales Air Defence, in Belfast. It is also known as Starstreak
HVM. After launch, the missile accelerates to more than Mach 4, making
it the fastest short-range surface-to-air missile in the world. It
then launches three laser beam riding submunitions, increasing the likelihood
of a successful hit on the target. Starstreak has been in service with the
British Army since 1997. In 2012 Thales rebranded the system under the
ForceSHIELD banner. Development
Development on the missile began in the early 1980s after an evaluation of
missile and gun options to increase air defence capabilities showed that a
high-velocity missile system would best meet the needs and could also replace
existing shoulder-launched missiles. A General Staff Requirement was drawn up
with the requirements of the system, specifying the requirement of three
launch platforms for the missile: A self-propelled launcher.
A three-round lightweight launcher. A man-portable launcher.
In 1984, the British Ministry of Defence awarded development contracts to British
Aerospace and Shorts Missile Systems. The BAe missile was known as
Thunderbolt. Shorts won the competition and were awarded the £356 million.
Further development and a production contract materialized in November 1986,
and the missile was officially accepted into service in September 1997. The
missile was intended to replace the Javelin surface-to-air missile in
British service. The LML and shoulder-launched versions have been in
use since 2000. In July 2001, Thales received a contract
for a Successor Identification friend or foe system for Starstreak.
In mid-2007, Thales UK in Northern Ireland revealed that it had developed
Starstreak II, a much improved successor to the Starstreak missile. Some of the
advantages included in this new missile are an improved range of 7 kilometres,
an improved targeting system and the ability to operate it at much higher
altitudes, up to 16404 ft. In 2011, when it won a contract for the
Lightweight Multirole Missile, Thales announced it agreed with the MOD to
"re-role previously contracted budgets to facilitate the full-scale
development, series production and introduction of the LMM." The contract
affected is speculated to have been Starstreak.
Starstreak II is a development of Starstreak aimed at increasing range
beyond 7km and improving lethality. Description
The Starstreak missile is transported in a sealed launch tube. This tube is
attached to an aiming unit for firing. The operator tracks the target using the
aiming unit's optically stabilized sight. The process of tracking the
target allows the aiming unit to compute the right trajectory to bring the
missile together with the target. The operator can indicate wind direction to
the unit and, in the case of a long range target, provide superelevation.
When the initial tracking is complete, the operator fires the missile by
pressing a button. The missile then fires the first-stage
rocket motor, which launches the missile from the tube – but burns out before
leaving the tube to protect the operator. When the missile is a safe
distance from the operator, the second stage fires, which rapidly accelerates
the missile to burn out velocity of more than Mach 4 four hundred meters away
from the operator. As the second stage burns out, the three dart sub-munitions
are released. Each dart consists of a rotating
fore-body with two canard fins attached to a non-rotating rear assembly which
has four fins. The rear assembly also houses the electronics that guide the
missile. The dart housing is made from a tungsten alloy. The darts are each 396
millimetres long with a diameter of 22 millimetres and weigh about 900 grams.
Around half the weight of each dart, approximately 450 g, is its explosive
charge, detonated by a delayed-action, impact activated fuze.
The missiles are guided by two laser beams projected into a two dimensional
matrix by the aiming unit. The laser is modulated according to its position in
the projected matrix. Earlier laser guidance systems used a single beam that
had to be kept on the target at all times, if it moved off the target, the
reflection would end and guidance would be lost until the target was regained.
The problem could be reduced by making the laser's beam wider, but only at the
cost of lowering the accuracy and reducing the amount of energy being
reflected. Starstreak's system allows the painted area to be much larger than
the aircraft while retaining pinpoint accuracy.
Each sub-munition contains its own seeker, which can determine the location
of the target by examining the modulation of the laser. The
sub-munitions steer by briefly decelerating the rotating fore-body with
a clutch. The front wings then steer the missile in the appropriate direction.
The three sub-munitions fly in a formation about 1.5 meters in radius,
and have enough kinetic energy to manoeuvre to meet a target evading at 9
g at 7,000 meters. On impact with the target, a delayed
action fuze is triggered. This gives time for the projectile to penetrate the
target before the explosive warhead detonates. The tungsten housing is
designed to fragment and produce maximum damage inside the target.
A demonstration was conducted in September 1999 that showed the missile
being used against an FV432 armoured personnel carrier, showing the missile's
effectiveness as a surface-to-surface weapon. Each sub-munition dart
travelling at 1,250 metres per second has comparable kinetic energy to a shell
from a Bofors 40 mm gun and probably has sufficient energy to penetrate the front
armour of an infantry fighting vehicle. However, it lacks the armour penetration
capabilities of a purpose-built anti-tank guided missile or of a dual
purpose missile. Service history
In 2012, the Ministry of Defence announced that it would be placing a
Starstreak detachment on top of a block of flats in London in preparation for
the 2012 London Olympics. The Ministry claimed that the area was the only
suitable location for an air defence detachment of the type. Some residents
were upset and uncertain of the necessity of the detachment. In 2013,
the British MOD ordered 200 more Starstreak missiles.
Variants ATASK: Fired from a helicopter. This was
developed in combination with McDonnell-Douglas and Lockheed-Martin
electronics between 1995 and 1998 specifically for use with the AH-64
Apache. It has yet to enter service. LML: Fired from a Lightweight Multiple
Launcher that holds three missiles ready for firing and can be used as either a
stationary launch unit or mounted on a light vehicle such as a Land Rover or
HMMWV. The LML originated in a proposal under the Army Suggestions Scheme for
the Javelin system. Seastreak: Two versions of a naval
mounting have been demonstrated—a one-man mount similar to the LML but
carrying a total of six missiles, and a close in weapon system mounting holding
24 missiles. SP HVM: Carried on an Alvis Stormer AFV
with a roof mounted eight round launcher with internal stowage for a further 12
missiles. Starstreak Avenger: Built to a U.S. Army
requirement in the early 1990s, this system integrated the Starstreak missile
on the Boeing Avenger vehicle, replacing 1 pod of Stinger missiles with 1 pod of
4 Starstreak and modifying the fire control system accordingly.
Starstreak Mark II: Upgrade to the Starstreak.
THOR/Multi Mission System: A four missile turret mounted on a Pinzgauer
cross-country chassis, unveiled by Thales UK in 2005.
RapidRanger weapon launcher on URO VAMTAC vehicle
= Advantages= Starstreak has a number of advantages
over infrared homing guided, radar homing guided, and radio command
guidance MCLOS/SACLOS missiles: It cannot be jammed by infrared
countermeasures or radar/radio countermeasures.
It cannot be suppressed with anti-radar missiles.
Its high speed makes it more likely to be able to intercept a fast moving
aircraft. Three submunitions increase the size of
the lethal area, increasing the probability that the target will be hit
by at least one submunition. Its high speed reduces the amount of
time for effective usage of any potential countermeasure, such as the
beam manoeuvring or illuminating the guidance laser source with a dazzling
battlefield laser. = Disadvantages=
The major disadvantage is the submunitions, having no proximity fuze,
must collide with the target in order to harm it.
The guidance laser may be detected after the missile is fired, if the target
aircraft is equipped with a suitable passive laser warning system. In
contrast, to detect a passively guided Infrared homing missile requires MAWS
detectors with significant disadvantages: radar-based
closure-detecting style MAWS radiate an easily detectable signal that reveals
the aircraft and may be used as an auxiliary homing signal by AA missiles,
and Infrared launch signature detector-based MAWS tend to be subject
to a high false alarm rate, which reduces attention paid them by the
pilot. Battlefield obscurants, such as smoke,
can degrade the ability of the missile operator to see the target, and could
potentially interfere with the guidance laser. This is also the case in misty or
rainy conditions. The training level of the operator is
critical since, unlike infrared guided missiles, the operator has to track the
target exactly with the sighting unit aimpoint. If the aircraft detects the
targeting laser, it has the whole period of the missile flight time to engage in
avoidance manoeuvres, which adds additional challenge to the missile
operator's target-tracking task. Operators
= Current operators= United Kingdom
SP HVM – Approx 30 systems for a front line establishment of 24
South Africa LML – 8 LML launcher systems. Stockholm
International Peace Research Institute trade registers list the number of
Portable SAMs delivered as 96 with another order for 82
Thailand Royal Thai Army – Ordered in 2012
Indonesia Indonesian Army – First order was in
November 2011, followed by a second but no deliveries were made and the contract
was renegotiated in January 2014 to equip five batteries with Starstreak
missiles, ControlMaster200 radars and weapon coordination systems, lightweight
multiple launchers on LandRover Defenders and RapidRanger weapon
launchers on Sherpa vehicles, at a cost of over £100m.
Malaysia Malaysian Army - Ordered an undisclosed
number of LML and vehicle-based variants in July 2015.
See also Fireflash, a missile from the 1950's
that used a similar configuration of an unpowered, guided munition that receives
a initial acceleration from booster rockets
Similar missiles include: Strela, Igla, Stinger, Anza, Blowpipe, Javelin,
Mistral and RBS 70. Notes
References "Army Technology, Starstreak Close Air
Defense Missile". External links
Improved Starkstreak Starstreak short-range surface-to-air
missile man portable system(Army recognition)
Starstreak High Velocity Missile – Armed Forces International
"Starstreak". Thales. Archived from the original on 2006-11-24.
Starstreak HVM – British Army website STARSTREAK HIGH VELOCITY MISSILE –
armedforced.co.uk Starstreak HVM – Global Security
THOR/Multi Mission System – howstuffworks.com