Seacat (missile)

Seacat is a British short-range surface-to-air missile system intended to replace the ubiquitous Bofors 40 mm gun aboard warships of all sizes. It was the world's first operational shipboard point-defence missile system, and was designed so that the Bofors guns could be replaced with minimum modification to the recipient vessel and (originally) using existing fire-control systems. A mobile land-based version of the system was known as Tigercat. The initial GWS.20 version was manually controlled, in keeping with the need for a rapidly developed and deployed system. Several variants followed; GWS.21 added radar-cued manual control for night and bad-weather use, GWS.22 added a SACLOS automatic guidance mode, and the final GWS.24 had fully automatic engagement. Seacat and Tigercat would both see notable success on the export market. While Tigercat only saw relatively brief service in Britain before being replaced by Rapier, other users would continue to use it into the 1990's. Seacat would see adoption by over a dozen navies before being gradually replaced by more modern missile system such as Sea Wolf and gun-based close-in weapons systems. Most users retired the system during the 1990's and early 2000's.