Starstreak is manufactured by Thales Air Defence Ltd, in Belfast.
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2 Notes 3 Inventory 4 Variants 5 Combat Performance 6 Characteristics 7 See also 8 External link |
The Stormer variant of Starstreak has been in service with the British army since 1997.
The LML and should-launched versions in use since 2000.
In July 2001, Thales received a contract for a Successor Identification Friend or Foe system for Starstreak.
Starstreak is visually guided to the target by an operator. The aiming unit illuminates the target with a radar beam, and sensors in the missile detect this beam and manoeuvre towards it.
The Starstreak missile breaks up into 3 submunitions, called darts, prior to hitting the target. Using submunitions is intended to increase the hit probability. When a dart hits the target, there is a delay before it explodes; it is intended that the dart will embed itself some way into the target, increasing the lethality of the explosion.
In use with the:
Starstreak can be:
As far as I know, Starstreak has not seen combat use.
If it was used in combat, it may have a number of advantages over some other missiles. Because it uses passive sensors (infra-red and human visual), it cannot be suppressed with anti-radar missiles. Its fast speed makes it more likely to be able to intercept an aircraft, and the use of 3 submunitions makes it is more likely that a munition will hit the target. Because it uses human visual tracking, anti-IR flares would be useless against it, though having said that anti-IR flares are less useful against modern imaging IR missiles.
Similar missiles include: Strela, Igla, Stinger, Blowpipe, Javelin, MistralHistory
Notes
Inventory
Variants
Combat Performance
Characteristics
See also