The Seagnat Control System (sometimes spelled SeaGnat or Sea Gnat) is a British decoy system produced by System Engineering & Assessment (SEA) Ltd firing rounds produced by Chemring Countermeasures Ltd used on many
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...
warships to safeguard against incoming
missile
A missile is an airborne ranged weapon capable of self-propelled flight aided usually by a propellant, jet engine or rocket motor.
Historically, 'missile' referred to any projectile that is thrown, shot or propelled towards a target; this ...
s.
Each unit consists of six launchers that can be loaded with different rounds, depending on the threat:
*Mk214 Seduction
Chaff
Chaff (; ) is dry, scale-like plant material such as the protective seed casings of cereal grains, the scale-like parts of flowers, or finely chopped straw. Chaff cannot be digested by humans, but it may be fed to livestock, ploughed into soil ...
*Mk216 Distraction Chaff
*Mk245 "GIANT" IR Round
*Mk251 "siren" Active Decoy Round (only on later "DLH" versions)
The rounds are launched as decoys to trick incoming missiles into missing the ship or to prematurely detonating.
Rounds are launched from NATO standard 130mm
Mark 36 SRBOC
The BAE Systems Mark 36 Super Rapid Bloom Offboard Countermeasures Chaff and Decoy Launching System (abbreviated as SRBOC or "Super-arboc") is an American short-range decoy launching system (DLS) that launches radar or infrared decoys from naval v ...
launchers, either fixed or trainable, and typically mounted in groups of around six barrels.
The Active Decoy Round has three phases: a low g rocket motor to project it away from the ship, a drogue to slow the round, and a
parasail wing that allows the decoy to slowly maneuver as it descends to the water. The device is diameter by long. It is powered by a
thermal battery
Thermal energy storage (TES) is the storage of thermal energy for later reuse. Employing widely different technologies, it allows surplus thermal energy to be stored for hours, days, or months. Scale both of storage and use vary from small t ...
and its on-board computer allows the transmitters to radiate in either deception mode or noise (smart or barrage). Range is up to from the ship.
References
External links
{{Commonscat-inline, Seagnat (decoy system)
Missile countermeasures
Missile defense