Sea Killer


Sea Killer is an Italian anti-ship missile. It has been built in several versions, with differing guidance systems, and is suitable for launching from ships or aircraft; in the latter form the weapons system is known as Marte. A sea-skimming, solid-propellant missile, it carries a semi-armour piercing warhead. It was initially developed during the 1960s and has been deployed by at least six countries. It was used during the Iran–Iraq War, with at least six ships being hit.

Development and design

Contraves Italiana, an Italian subsidiary of the Swiss armaments company Oerlikon Contraves, began development of a short-ranged ship-based anti-ship missile system, named Nettuno in 1963. Guidance of Nettuno was by beam riding for course control, with altitude controlled automatically by an onboard radar altimeter, allowing the missile to carry out sea-skimming attacks. Command guidance was an alternative guidance method if jamming made the beam-riding method unusable. In 1965, Contraves Italiana began work on an improved missile, Vulcano, which used the same guidance system, but included a two-stage rocket motor to give a longer range. Both missiles could be fired from a five-round trainable launcher.
Testing of Nettuno began in 1966, with a trial installation being made on the Freccia-class patrol boat Saetta of the Italian navy, with the five-round launcher replacing a Bofors 40 mm gun. Testing of Vulcano began in 1969.
showing the five round launcher for Sea Killer missiles
In 1967, the Italian company Sistel was set up as a joint venture by five Italian companies, including Contraves Italiana, and the missile division of Contraves Italina was transferred to Sistel, along with the Nettuno and Vulcano missiles in 1969. Nettuno and Vulcano were renamed Sea Killer Mark 1 and 2 respectively for export, and these names gradually replaced the older names.
Sea Killer Mark 2 was purchased by Iran to arm its Saam class of four frigates, each of which was fitted with a single 5-round launcher. No other sales of the ship-based version were made, but development of Sea Killer Mark 2 into an all-weather anti-ship missile to equip the Italian Navy's helicopters began in 1967, with the helicopter-based weapon system being named Marte.
Marte entered service with the Italian Navy in 1977, with its SH-3 Sea Kings being fitted with two Sea Killer Mark 2 missiles. In 1983, a new version, Marte 2, was announced, with the beam-riding guidance replaced by an active radar homing seeker based on that used by the Otomat anti-ship missile. Testing of Marte 2 started in 1984, and the missile entered service with the Italian Navy in 1987.
The Marte ER, an improvement on the missile family, replaced the rocket motor with Williams WJ-24-8G turbojet propulsion and added a new ISO-caliber cylinder cell, which made it shorter in length but extended its range to over. Fitting trials of the Marte-ER onto the NH90 helicopter, which can carry two missiles, occurred in June 2014; a larger anti-ship missile like the Exocet was rejected for integration as physically too long and heavy. In November 2015, a Eurofighter Typhoon was fit-tested for a fixed-wing version of the missile called the Marte-ERP, which does not feature folding fins and sheds the booster for a larger 120 kg warhead with penetrating and sector-blast properties; though smaller than other options like the Harpoon and RBS-15, a fighter can carry six Marte-ERPs compared to two or three larger missiles.

Operational history

Iran's Sea Killer Mk 2 saw combat service during the Iran–Iraq War, being used to attack merchant shipping in the Persian Gulf, with at least six ships being hit.

Variants

;Sea Killer Mark 1
;Sea Killer Mark 2
;Marte 1
;Marte 2
;*Marte 2S
;*Marte 2A
;*Marte 2N
;Marte ER
;Marte ERP

Operators