The RSD 58 is an early production
surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile (SAM), also known as a ground-to-air missile (GTAM) or surface-to-air guided weapon (SAGW), is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles. It is one type of anti-aircraft syst ...
system developed by
Contraves-Oerlikon in Switzerland from 1947.
[David A. Anderton]
Swiss Build Mobile Anti-Aircraft Missile
''Aviation Week'', June 30, 1958. Test firings were made in Switzerland and Italy in 1958, and Japan placed a small order for training purposes, but the missile was not produced in high numbers. The missile system was developed from the earlier
RSA Missile developed by the same companies.
Design and development
Contraves-Oerlikon started design work on guided missiles to supplement their
anti-aircraft gun
Anti-aircraft warfare, counter-air or air defence forces is the battlespace response to aerial warfare, defined by NATO as "all measures designed to nullify or reduce the effectiveness of hostile air action".AAP-6 It includes surface based ...
s, like the popular
20 mm cannon, in 1947. The company produced a number of designs, including the
RSA, culminating in the RSD 58 of 1958.
The RSD 58 was a liquid-fuelled rocket-powered missile, guided to its target by riding a radar beam. The missile body was made of wrapped tubing and sheet with Araldite bonding while the wings were of sandwich construction.
Targeting was by search radar and beam transmitter with targets tracked by a search radar until a beam riding transmitter locked on, at which point the missile could be fired, riding the beam until impact, proximity fuze or radio signal detonation. Launchers, slaved to the beam transmitter could launch missiles at any angle form 10° to 90° at a sustained rate of fire of up to two launches per minute. Control of the missiles was by vectoring rocket motor combustion chamber at launch and controllable rear fins at higher speeds.
[
The complete system included a battery command post, target tracking radar, guidance beam transmitter and six twin railed trainable launchers and four diesel generator units.][
]
Operational use
There were no significant orders, except for the delivery of a training battery to Japan. The Swiss Air Force
The Swiss Air Force (german: Schweizer Luftwaffe; french: Forces aériennes suisses; it, Forze aeree svizzere; rm, Aviatica militara svizra) is the air component of the Swiss Armed Forces, established on 31 July 1914 as a part of the army an ...
instead used the British Bristol Bloodhound
The Bristol Bloodhound is a British ramjet powered surface-to-air missile developed during the 1950s. It served as the UK's main air defence weapon into the 1990s and was in large-scale service with the Royal Air Force (RAF) and the forces of ...
. A twin launcher with two missiles and a trailer-mounted radar as used in the system is now at the Full Military Museum and another launcher with two missiles ca be found in the Aviation Museum in Dübendorf.
From 1959, the RSD system was further developed into the RSE, which was also unsuccessfully offered for export under as the Micon.
Lenkwaffensystem RSCD Leitstrahlsender front.JPG,
Lenkwaffensystem RSCD Doppelstartlafette front.JPG,
Lenkwaffensystem RSCD Leitstrahlsender.JPG,
RSCD Werfer.JPG,
RSD Triebwerk.JPG,
Operators
* - Evaluation only.
*
* - Evaluation only.
References
Bibliography
*
* Hogg, Ian: Tykistö- ja ohjusaseet, Karisto, 2011, Hämeenlinna (Translated by: Petri Kortesuo) (s.209)
* Hugo Schneider: ''Armament and equipment of the Swiss Army since 1817: light and medium anti-aircraft air defence anti-aircraft missiles, Volume 12 of armament and equipment of the Swiss Army since 1817'', Author Publisher Stocker-Schmidt, 1982
External links
''Flight'' article 1958
{{Rheinmetall
Surface-to-air missiles of the Cold War
Oerlikon-Contraves
Rheinmetall
Surface-to-air missiles of Japan