Sea Cat


The Royal Naval Air Defences were not as fully effective as originally hoped. Only two ships carried the Sea Wolf system and the Sea Dart missiles were only of much use against planes and missiles at high altitude. The old Sea Cat had to be relied upon, but it had severe limitations in reaction time. Argentinian pilots would fly at very low altitudes and hugging the terrain reducing any reaction time to an attack. Ironically, it was to be the machine guns and anti-aircraft guns that would prove their worth to a modern fleet. It had long been thought that they were anachronistic to a modern fleet and yet the tracers and volume of metal in the air could force pilots to dump their ordinance too early.


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by Stephen Luscombe