The Shorts Blowpipe is a man-portable (MANPADS) surface-to-air missile that was in use with the British Army and Royal Marines from 1975 to 1985. It also saw service in other military forces around the world. Most examples were retired by the mid-1990s. It is unique among MANPADS in that it is manually guided to its target with a small joystick, sending guidance corrections to the missile over a radio control link.

Blowpipe underwent a protracted and controversial development between the programme's initial conception in 1966 and 1975 when it finally entered service. It had its first use during active combat in the Falklands War in 1982 when it was used by both sides of the conflict. Its demonstrated performance was poor, with only two confirmed kills.

As a result of the poor performance of the system, an improved version offering semi-automatic guidance was introduced as Javelin. This was further improved with a laser designator system in Javelin S15, which was later renamed Starburst. Both Javelin systems were used only briefly before being replaced by the dramatically more powerful Starstreak in the 1990s.

Several advanced variants and alternative launchers, including a submarine-based system, did not see production. Approximately 35,000 missiles were produced in total.

History

Development

Short Brothers began researching a man-portable anti-aircraft system in 1962 In 1966, the Ministry of Defence awarded them a development contract as part of an effort to acquire a MANPADS system. Whether or not there was a need for such a weapon was constantly debated, with the Secretary of State for Defence stating as late as 1968 that the question remained open. Ultimately, the decision was made in 1968 to start development of the Shorts proposal, which won the contract specifically because it was believed to be the least expensive option.

To reduce cost, Shorts' design did not include a guidance system on the missile. Instead, the guidance was on the launcher, which communicated with the missile using a simple radio command system. This meant the missile itself had fewer components, and expensive components, such as a seeker head, were not expended when firing. Shorts, additionally, claimed that this system made it suitable for head-on engagements, while infrared homing systems of the era, like the FIM-43 Redeye, were only useful in tail-chase engagements where the missile's short-range and slow speed led to performance that was significantly lower than initially specified.

Concerns about the control fins at the front of the missile led to one of the distinguishing features of Blowpipe. It was considered to be a difficult problem to make movable control fins that also folded for storage so the decision was made to have the guidance fins unfoldable. This required the forward section of the launcher to be large enough to hold them in their flight positions, which leads to the seemingly oversized cylinder at the front of the launcher. The rear fins, used for stabilization only, are placed at the rear of this cylinder on a separate ring, and the missile flies through it until they reach the end of the fuselage where the ring locks into place. As they exit the tube, the tips of the rear fins fold out further.

The programme immediately ran into problems. On 7 May 1969, Minister of Defence for Equipment Sir John Morris in Parliament claimed that the Blowpipe's development was "...proceeding satisfactorily but is at too early a stage for any firm production order." Two years later, on 11 February 1971, Minister of State for Defence Robert Lindsay noted that "The development programme for this missile continues to make progress although it will still be some time before it is completed. It would be contrary to normal policy to give detailed forecasts of the Forces' production requirements." On 16 March 1972, Under-Secretary for Defence for the Army Geoffrey Johnson-Smith said of Blowpipe "This is now in an advanced stage of development and some successful trials with it have been carried out. It, too, should be in service in about two years' time."

In June 1973, an order for 100 launchers was received from the Canadian Army. As an industrial offset, Shorts would use the Pratt & Whitney Canada PT-6 engine on their Shorts 330 30-passenger airliner. To reduce the overall size of the container, the rear fins of the missile are stored in the larger diameter cylinder at the front of the tube (this also contains the Yagi antenna for transmitting guidance signals); during firing, the fins slip onto the rear of the missile as it flies through and are held there by heat-activated adhesive tapes. This gives the launch container a unique shape, seemingly oversized at the front and extremely thin at the rear. The missile is powered by a short duration solid rocket for launch, then by a sustainer motor once it is well clear of the launch tube. Only one confirmed kill was attributed to Blowpipe when an Argentine Navy Aermacchi MB-339A (4-A-114) was shot down on 28 May by a missile fired by the Royal Marines Air Defence Troop during the Battle of Goose Green. The pilot, Sub-Lieutenant Miguel, was killed.

Argentine experiences were similarly disappointing. On 21 May, a Harrier GR.3 (XZ972) was shot down by Argentine 601 Commando Company over Port Howard. The pilot, Flt Lt Jeff Glover, ejected, and was held as a POW until 8 July. On 8 June, Corporal Hugo MacDougall of the 6th Regiment damaged another Harrier GR.3 (XZ989), which crashed during an emergency landing at San Carlos.

Blowpipe was found to be particularly ineffective when used to engage a crossing target or to chase a target moving rapidly away from the operator. Its poor performance led to it being withdrawn from British service. In 1986, some of the mothballed units were sent clandestinely to equip the Mujahideen whom Britain was supporting, fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. The system again proved ineffective, and was eventually supplanted by the US Stinger missile. While Blowpipe was available on the international arms market and therefore its origins were open to speculation, the Stinger was restricted, which at the time indicated a more open acknowledgement of Western support for the Mujahideen. With the arrival of Stinger, Blowpipe was used primarily as a manually-guided long-range weapon against ground targets. Blowpipe missile systems were still being found in weapon caches as recently as May 2012 in Afghanistan.

The Canadian military took Blowpipe from storage to provide protection for their naval contribution to the 1991 Gulf War, although age had degraded the weapons, and nine out of 27 missiles tested misfired. The Javelin GL, which was backward compatible to the Blowpipe, was then hastily purchased as a replacement.

Blowpipe saw use in the Cenepa War of 1995 between Ecuador and Peru, where it was deployed mainly against Peruvian Mil Mi-17 and Mil Mi-18 helicopters. Although there are claims of some success, none of these have been verified.

Operators

thumb|400px|Map with Blowpipe operators in blue

Current operators

; Afghanistan

;

  • Ecuadorian Army – (220 launchers)

; Guatemala

:(82 launchers)

;

  • Israeli Navy – (3 systems installed on Gal class submarines)

;

  • Military of Malawi – (12 launchers)

; Malaysia

;

  • Nigerian Army – (48 launchers)

;

  • Royal Army of Oman

;

  • Military of Qatar

;

  • Royal Thai Air Force
  • Royal Thai Army

;

:(about 20 launchers)

;

:285 launchers in storage not in use replaced by Starstreak MANPADS

  • British Army
  • Royal Marines

Former operators

;

  • Argentine Army

;

: Canadian Army – 111 launchers

;

  • Chilean Navy
  • Chilean Air Force

;

:Portuguese Army – 57 launchers – replaced by FIM-92 Stinger

;

  • Revolutionary United Front - Seized from demobilized fighters in Sierra Leone.

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

  • Falklands Air War, Chris Hobson,
  • The Battle for the Falklands, Max Hastings & Simon Jenkins,