Sea Wolf Missile

The system was developed by the British Aircraft Corporation (BAC) from a 1964 requirement for a replacement for the Sea Cat missile system to give small warships protection against anti-ship missiles and aircraft. A contract was awarded in 1967 to BAC, Vickers and Bristol Aerojet. Testing lasted from 1970 until 1977, with shipborne trials on a modified Leander class frigate, HMS Penelope, from 1976 onwards. Sea Wolf was tested with a vertical launch system early in the missile’s development on a modified Loch class frigate, Loch Fada, but for unclear reasons work did not continue in this direction: the GWS-26 “VL Seawolf (VLS)” being a much later (1980s) unrelated development. During trials the missile performed impressively, successfully intercepting a 114 mm shell on one occasion. The first deployment, in the GWS-25 form, was on the Type 22 frigate (2 systems) and later on modified Leander class frigates (1 system) in six-round, manually loaded, trainable launchers. It has been used by the Royal Navy since 1979 and has been fired in anger during the Falklands War. Current deployment is the GWS-26 system on the Type 22 Batch 3 and Vertical Launch Seawolf (VLS) on Type 23 frigates. The latter fields 32 vertical launch missiles (VL Sea Wolf) in its missile silo. It is expected to remain in service until 2020.

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