Shorts Starstreak Missile

The UK MoD has contracted Thales UK to provide high velocity and lightweight multi-role missile systems to offer short-range air defence (SHORAD) to the British Army and Royal Marines, the Ministry announced on 4 March.

Thales UK won the initial contract in 2018, helping to modernise and develop the missile systems as part of the Future Air Defence Availability Project (F-ADAPT). This latest announcement confirms a five-year extension to the contract, valued at $98.4 million (€114 million).

This investment “is the second major contract awarded to Northern Ireland’s defence industry in less than three months, highlighting Northern Ireland’s important contribution to the delivery of our critical defence capabilities,” commented Defence Minister, Jeremy Quin. The earlier contract mentioned was a £30 million order to Spirit Aerosystems for the UK’s first unmanned fighter aircraft.

Delivering rapid potent attack capability, the SHORAD missile systems can be fired from three platform variants: shoulder-launch for single fire; a lightweight multiple launcher (LML), capable of firing three missiles from a tripod; and a self-propelled launcher, designed to fire up to eight missiles from a STORMER armoured vehicle.

www.monch.com

Thales Secures £98 Million UK SHORAD Contract

The UK MoD has contracted Thales UK to provide high velocity and lightweight multi-role missile systems to offer short-range air defence (SHORAD) to the British Army and Royal Marines, the Ministry announced on 4 March.Thales UK won the initial contract in 2018, helping to modernise and develop ...
www.monch.com www.monch.com
 
Moose said:
No, you can see the missile's motor burning in the frame before impact, which you wouldn't see from Starstreak's darts. This particular hit was a conventional MANPAD.
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I'm not sure that's true. The missile is only visible for one frame before impact, and it's only an unresolved bright dot. That might just as well be a reflection from the sun on the missile body, I have seen a lot of videos of stingers from the same conflict and their engine plumes tend to be a lot more visible and there tends to be smoke.
 

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Whether or not the missile that hit the Mi-28 was a star streak if cut off its' tail-boom, I wonder if the crew survived the ground impact?
 
The resolution in the video is fairly bad but FWIW the launch sequence (sans any analysis though) certainly sounds like that of a Starstreak.
 
NMaude said:
Whether or not the missile that hit the Mi-28 was a star streak if cut off its' tail-boom, I wonder if the crew survived the ground impact?
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It's said, they survived, but I have doubts - when you look closely at the video, a heavy cloud of black smoke is visible in the last second rising up behind the trees, what suggests, the chopper was completely destroyed on impact.
 
Surely the booster wouldn't be far behind the darts though given a similar ballistic path and the timing of the release of the darts before impact.
 
Hood said:
Surely the booster wouldn't be far behind the darts though given a similar ballistic path and the timing of the release of the darts before impact.
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No, the booster assembly is quite draggy as it has a flat front with the dart attachment poking out of the front and it has unswept tail-fins so it would decelerate fairly rapidly.
 
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It appears to be a short range engagement, so perhaps the booster was still burning or the nozzle still hot enough to glow.

Chris
 
Grzesio said:
NMaude said:
Whether or not the missile that hit the Mi-28 was a star streak if cut off its' tail-boom, I wonder if the crew survived the ground impact?
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It's said, they survived, but I have doubts - when you look closely at the video, a heavy cloud of black smoke is visible in the last second rising up behind the trees, what suggests, the chopper was completely destroyed on impact.
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There was film of the Mi28 on the ground, it was, unusually, a Mi-28UD...the training version...not sure what that means for Russian forces...the film showed the tailboom (which enabled the identification to be made) and the main fuselage some distance away down a slope burning. It wasn't possible to tell is anyone had escaped or how soon after the impact the video had been taken.
 
Martlet, also known as the Lightweight Multimode Missile (LMM), which uses the same guidance method and firing post as Starstreak got its first kill today, no-one knew it was in Ukraine for sure...a Russian Orlan UAV killed by Ukrainian Paratroopers...who seem rather pleased..

To note its labelled Starstreak by the Ukrainian's who posted it but is in fact Martlet.

EDIT: Changed the Twitter link to UAweapons as they also have a picture of the Orlan after it crashed.


https://twitter.com/x/status/1513097077647200257
View: https://twitter.com/UAWeapons/status/1513097077647200257
 
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Also claims of another kill by Starstreak on an Orion UAV (the Russian equivalent of Predator). Not sure on this...Orion should be up pretty high...but the wreckage is definitely from one.

Can't post the tweet from The Dead District feed (post 1092) because the preceding post which appears here when I try is NSFW. Don't think its Starstreak as the wreckage of the Orion is peppered with fragmentation from a proximity warhead, should be too high for a MANPADS to engage anyway, unless the Russian's are even more incredibly incompetent than they've shown so far.
 
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Martlet or Javelin (the pre-Starburst MANPADS)?

Edit: or Starburst?
 
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TomS said:
Martlet or Javelin (the pre-Starburst MANPADS)?

Edit: or Starburst?
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It looks like Martlet. Don't think any Starburst would still be in depots, they'd all be life expired, the UK tends to dispose of life expired weapons pretty quickly. Perhaps the only exception to that rule might be the recent Sea Skua retirement, suspect they might get picked over for parts to support missiles that remain operational with other nations or to remain in stock until Sea Venom has completely arrived.

Just to confuse matters...you might get UK people calling Starburst... Javelin...because in British Army service it was called Javelin S15...obviously the original Javelin (the RF guided, SACLOS equipped Blowpipe development) was just called Javelin..
 
timmymagic said:
TomS said:
Martlet or Javelin (the pre-Starburst MANPADS)?

Edit: or Starburst?
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It looks like Martlet. Don't think any Starburst would still be in depots, they'd all be life expired, the UK tends to dispose of life expired weapons pretty quickly. Perhaps the only exception to that rule might be the recent Sea Skua retirement, suspect they might get picked over for parts to support missiles that remain operational with other nations or to remain in stock until Sea Venom has completely arrived.

Just to confuse matters...you might get UK people calling Starburst... Javelin...because in British Army service it was called Javelin S15...obviously the original Javelin (the RF guided, SACLOS equipped Blowpipe development) was just called Javelin..
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Thanks, I'm not quite sharp-eyed enough to tell the difference in the canisters.
 
I've read at two sites, it was Igla.
t.me

Груз 200

Несколько часов назад в Донецкой области бойцы 231-го Днепропетровского батальона ТрО, из переносного зенитно-ракетного комплекса «Игла» уничтожили российский боевой вертолёт Ми-35. Экипаж вертолёта приземлился прямиком в ад. Подпишись. Покажи гражданам РФ
t.me t.me
 
A quick and crude analysis of the clip attached ;- slow it right down at 13.9, the missiles just entering the view at mid frame height, left side. It’s approaching the helo from about it’s 7-8 o’clock. Impact occurs at 14.2 in which time the Helo has barely moved forward a fuselage length. In this time the missile covers at least 15 times that. A Hind is approx 18m in length so in 0.3s it’s is doing 60m/s (120kts, quite reasonable ), so the missile has to be traveling at 900m/s and no vapour trial, so it’s motor burn has burned out.

Peak burn out velocity SA18 (Igla) = 570m/s, Stinger = 750m/s, Mistrel = 900m/s, and Starstreak = 1300m/s. Given burn out has occurred its velocity will be dropping.

I’ll leave it at that and RIP to the aircrew.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Sk46aVOCIwE
 
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Zoo Tycoon said:
A quick and crude analysis of the clip attached ;- slow it right down at 13.9, the missiles just entering the view at mid frame height, left side. It’s approaching the helo from about it’s 7-8 o’clock. Impact occurs at 14.2 in which time the Helo has barely moved forward a fuselage length. In this time the missile covers at least 15 times that. A Hind is approx 18m in length so in 0.3s it’s is doing 60m/s (120kts, quite reasonable ), so the missile has to be traveling at 900m/s and no vapour trial, so it’s motor burn has burned out.

Peak burn out velocity SA18 (Igla) = 570m/s, Stinger = 750m/s, Mistrel = 900m/s, and Starstreak = 1100m/s. Given burn out has occurred its velocity will be dropping.

I’ll leave it at that and RIP to the aircrew.
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It's certainly possible. The only thing I'd add is that all of the Martlet shots (and single brief glimpse of a Starstreak tube) that we've seen have been by Ukrainian Paratroopers, the location where the Mi-28UB was downed was also an area where one of the Ukrainian Airborne units has been fighting. Might be something or nothing, but I wonder if the Ukrainian's are spreading out some weapons like NLAW and Javelin across the entire force but other, more complex weapons, like Martlet/Starstreak or Mistral, are deployed specifically with one brigade to make training, support and re-supply significantly easier. It might also be that Azov SSO were the ones who released/took the video but didn't take the shot of course...

The missile track looks like a single missile though, and it hits exactly where you'd expect an IR homer to hit (on the exhaust), could be a Starstreak rear aspect shot as well, speed is certainly significant (I'd not managed to pick up the missile at all until I saw your time...
 
TomS said:
Thanks, I'm not quite sharp-eyed enough to tell the difference in the canisters.
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It's really easy.
If you see a tube that is the same diameter along its entire length...its Starstreak. We've only seen this once so far...very briefly in a video (the triple launcher has also never been seen).
If its tapered at the rear, with a wider 'venturi' at the end its Martlet.
 
timmymagic said:
It's not Martlet. But I suspect its an IR homing missile rather than Starstreak.
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It did seem to seek out an engine on retrospect, and maybe a little slow for Starstreak based on the fact you could actually see it by pausing the screen.
 
Forest Green said:
It did seem to seek out an engine on retrospect, and maybe a little slow for Starstreak based on the fact you could actually see it by pausing the screen.
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It's been reported that it was an Igla. No idea which model though. Also appears that Azov SSO released the video but that it may have been a TDF unit that took the shot. It was an Mi-35M however, that has been definitively confirmed.
 
timmymagic said:
It's been reported that it was an Igla. No idea which model though. Also appears that Azov SSO released the video but that it may have been a TDF unit that took the shot. It was an Mi-35M however, that has been definitively confirmed.
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TDF?
 
A longer version of the same event as above. It shows there were in fact two Mi-35’s, the other may have used flares to successfully decoy an earlier MANPAD launch. What’s interesting is that the flares seem to be released in anticipation of the MANPAD launch. Indeed if you look closely the MANPAD may not have been aimed at the Mi-35 that deployed the flares…. Such are the odd circumstances of real life.

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=jX8XBURg0ug
 
All these sad reports show that it would be highly appropriate to equip combat helicopters with zero-zero ejection seats like in the Ka-52. Although not a guarantee of survival, this would at least give the crew some chances in certain situations.
 
Zoo Tycoon said:
the other may have used flares to successfully decoy an earlier MANPAD launch
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Yes, it seems a missile narrowly misses this chopper at 0:12.
On the other hand, smoke trail of this missile is so insignificant, that it could be just invisible in the recording due to poor image quality in case of the chopper that was shot down.
 

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