The Tartar Guided Missile

Fire Control System A fire-control system (FCS) is a number of components working together, usually a gun data computer, a director, and radar, which is designed to assist a ranged weapon system to target, track, and hit a target. It performs the same task as a h ...

is an air defense system developed by the

United States Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage ...

to defend warships from air attack. Since its introduction the system has been improved and sold to several United States allies. Tartar missile

Description

The Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System, or Mk 74 Guided Missile Fire Control System, or just "Tartar", is a US-built medium-range anti-aircraft missile system. The French version used on the s is composed of a vertical rotating magazine holding 40 missiles, a Mk 13 launcher, two

AN/SPG-51 The AN/SPG-51 is an American tracking / illumination fire-control radar for RIM-24 Tartar and RIM-66 Standard missiles. It is used for target tracking and Surface-to-air missile guidance on s, s, and s. The Italian Navy used it aboard their ''Au ...

fire-control radar A fire-control radar (FCR) is a radar that is designed specifically to provide information (mainly target azimuth, elevation, range and range rate) to a fire-control system in order to direct weapons such that they hit a target. They are sometim ...

s and one DRBJ11 three-dimensional air search radar. Though the entire weapon system is commonly called Tartar, tracing back to its original linkage to the

RIM-24 Tartar The General Dynamics RIM-24 Tartar was a medium-range naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Tartar was the third of the so-called "3 T's", the three primar ...

missile, it utilizes medium-ranged

RIM-66 Standard The RIM-66 Standard MR (SM-1MR/SM-2MR) is a medium-range surface-to-air missile (SAM), with a secondary role as an anti-ship missile, originally developed for the United States Navy (USN). A member of the Standard Missile family of weapons, the ...

missiles.

Deployment

It was installed on numerous US

cruiser A cruiser is a type of warship. Modern cruisers are generally the largest ships in a fleet after aircraft carriers and amphibious assault ships, and can usually perform several roles. The term "cruiser", which has been in use for several hu ...

and

destroyers In navy, naval terminology, a destroyer is a fast, manoeuvrable, long-endurance warship intended to escort larger vessels in a Naval fleet, fleet, convoy or Carrier battle group, battle group and defend them against powerful short range attack ...

in the 1960s through early 1990s such as the s, s, s and the s. It is also in use in other countries such as the fleet escorters of the

French Navy The French Navy (french: Marine nationale, lit=National Navy), informally , is the maritime arm of the French Armed Forces and one of the five military service branches of France. It is among the largest and most powerful naval forces in t ...

''Kersaint'', ''Bouvet'', ''Du Chayla'' and ''Dupetit-Thouars'', and was also in use on and {{ship, French frigate, Jean Bart, , 2.

RIM-66B Standard

Starting in the middle 1960s a new family of guided missiles referred to as the Standard missiles were developed to replace the poor performing missiles used by existing fire control systems. The RIM-66A/B Standard replaced the earlier RIM-24C Tartar used by the system. The new missile made Tartar into a true medium ranged system. Besides having longer range than the RIM-24, the new missile was more accurate and reliable.

New Threat Upgrade

Vessels of the ''California'', and ''Virginia''-class cruisers and the Kidd-class destroyers had their Tartar systems upgraded to modification 14 or 15 standard which enabled them to employ the Standard Missile 2 as part of the

New Threat Upgrade New Threat Upgrade (NTU) was a United States Navy program to improve and modernize the capability of existing cruisers and destroyers equipped with Terrier and Tartar anti-aircraft systems, keeping them in service longer. The Program was select ...

(NTU) program. The New Threat Upgrade equipped vessels could utilize the

inertial guidance An inertial navigation system (INS) is a navigation device that uses motion sensors ( accelerometers), rotation sensors ( gyroscopes) and a computer to continuously calculate by dead reckoning the position, the orientation, and the velocity ...

systems on the SM-2 and time share illumination radars for semi-active homing in the terminal phase of the intercept, increasing the number of targets the Tartar system could attack at the same time. The

Tartar ships could function nearly as well as

Aegis Combat System The Aegis Combat System is an American integrated naval weapons system developed by the Missile and Surface Radar Division of RCA, and it is now produced by Lockheed Martin. Initially used by the United States Navy, Aegis is now used also by ...

equipped vessels, except for dealing with saturation missile attacks. The NTU still requires the AN/SPG-51 radar to acquire a lock on the target and illuminate it just before intercept.

External links

Global security - MK-74 Guided Missile Fire Control System
- The SM-1 MR is installed on FFG-, DDG-, CG-, and CGN-class ships equipped with a Tartar combat system. Mk074 French Navy technology Military electronics of the United States Military computers fr:Tartar SM1

Description

Deployment

RIM-66B Standard

New Threat Upgrade

See also

External links