PT428

[uk 75]

Although this cancelled British mobile SAM of the early 60 was eventually revealed in the excellent British Secret Projects 5, no images or artwork have made it online
Fortunately Alvis offered their Stalwart to carry the PT428 instead the Bedford MK.

 

[zen]

Err....uk 75....

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/bac-pt-42

https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/60s-point-defence-missiles-mauler-and-the-uk-pt-428.1289/

Kinda don't need another thread on it.

 

[uk 75]

sorry Zen it was quite a while back and I wanted to make the point that b all gets put online about pt428

 

[zen]

Good! I agree.

Here's my chief thoughts on it.
1. Not as bad as some make out.
2. Looks like it's using FMCW radar, hence the two dishes.
3. Boosted and unboosted missiles means safe distance away from a launcher is a gamble. Get it wrong and you are either too far away from what it's protecting, or your too close and slap bang inside the kill zone of the boosted weapon.

 

[uk 75]

It is hard not to see this as another UK mistake. Blue Water rather than PT428 should have been ditched-see my Lance thread.
Mauler showed US limitations. Rapier and Roland had no successful US analogue. PT 428 like Seawolf would probably have ended up bigger, more unwieldy and dearer than the early images, but as a tri service system, replacing Rapiers, Seacats, Thunderbirds and perhaps even Bloodhound? Of course just as P1127 was more practical than P1154 so Rapier and PT428?

 

[zen]

We did try to get the US onboard with PT.428, but they had Mauler.
However plowing our lonely furrow this time might well have seen them change their minds as Mauler got bogged down.
Depending on the specifics of the radar guidance, the system may have been able to reach much further.

However the RN was quite impressed with Large PT.428 which is virtually a different missile.

In Blue Water the most impressive and potent technology was the transforming rocket nozzle. It's a shame that died with it.

 

[Grey Havoc]

It is hard not to see this as another UK mistake. Blue Water rather than PT428 should have been ditched-see my Lance thread.

I agree the dropping of PT428 was a blunder, but so was killing Blue Water. With regards as to Mauler, both Britain and Canada were actually conned by McNamara into putting some resources into the program during it's twilight days.

 

[CNH]

The problem with Blue Water was that we were the only customer.

 

[zen]

The main critic by the RN, was not the beam riding guidance, but the size of warhead. This was to Rapier, but we can infer that this would also apply to the earlier missile.
What's important to understand is that this isn't a factor in the guidance system. So a larger warhead on a larger missile is quite reasonable to achieve.