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View Full Version : Sea King - Aermacchi close encounter 21/5/1982 - San Carlos


AndySmith
10th Aug 2019, 19:48
Evening

I was wondering if anyone on this site has knowledge of a close encounter between a Sea King in San Carlos on the 21st May 1982. Said Aermacchi, flown by Owen Crippa, having flown in from the north, nearly shot down a Lynx, then spotted HMS Argonaut, left the Lynx to fly another day flew and attacked Argonaut with cannon and Zuni rockets, then flew through the landing flee, was missed by a blowpipe and goodness what else, suddenly found itself in close proximity to what Crippa has described as being a SK HC4. He described both himself and the pilot of the HC4 making extreme maneuvers in order to avoid each other.

Having previously aided Owen to identify and meet the Lynx pilot, and having not previously heard about the near miss with the Sea King, I was wondering if there was anyone on board, either from 846 NAS or otherwise, who might be able to shed any light on it? Although the Aermacchi flying through the landing fleet was mentioned in Harry Benson's excellent book Scram, no mention of the close encounter with the Sea King. Somebody somewhere has surely heard this dit?

Cheers

Andy

Fonsini
11th Aug 2019, 15:20
On a side note neither Blowpipe or Sea Cat ever seemed very effective, and I was always of the impression that the weapon system that Sea Cat was designed to replace (the 40mm Bofors) was more effective, especially the upgraded L40/70.

It does make me wonder how effective the RN’s close range air defence systems would be against a similar threat today.

TBM-Legend
12th Aug 2019, 03:02
In the RAN days of Sea Cat it was said that "man the seacat" really mesan't "man the lifeboats!"

Lima Juliet
12th Aug 2019, 05:39
It does make me wonder how effective the RN’s close range air defence systems would be against a similar threat today.

Sea Cat was obsolete by the 1970s as a first generation naval SAM system. It had no place really on Op CORPORATE - apart from firing for effect. The Sea Dart and Sea Wolf were the more modern systems - Sea Dart got 7 kills (and a friendly fire sadly) and Sea Wolf 2 kills and 3 probables. Today’s Goalkeeper Close in Weapons System and modern missiles like Sea Ceptor (based upon the highly agile ASRAAM missile body) are so different that they make Sea Cat look like a bow and arrow!!

https://www.royalnavy.mod.uk/news-and-latest-activity/news/2017/december/20/171220-missile-success-for-hms-westminster-as-second-ship-to-fire-new-sea-ceptor

https://youtu.be/D7P0dP6w3YE

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NjA7L7e7uN4

deeceethree
12th Aug 2019, 09:01
On a side note neither Blowpipe or Sea Cat ever seemed very effective ...
And that side note is very quickly taking this thread well off-piste. How about giving the thread author the space to get his answer to what is quite an interesting question? Please?