The MIGHTY British Rapier FSA SAM | DCS WORLD

[@patrickfries6267]

Great Video Cap. I have served in the Swiss Air Force with the Rapier System. In the simulator training we woul have planes come straight at us or flying from left to right or vice versa. The ones coming in straight were the easiest to hit but as soon as they started turning it became difficult to hit them manually. However, when the real jets did some training bombruns on our positions, they would come from way up and divebomb. It was almost impossible to defend against that because the launcher is unable to point the missiles straight up. In reality we would also have multiple batteries with overlapping fields of fire so even one battery might be unable to fire 1 or 2 others would be. I am not sure anymore but I think that the swiss Rapiers are equipped with upgraded missiles which have a proximity fuse. One of those babies costs around 250 000 Swissfranks btw. Have a great day sir!

[@grimreapers]

Cool thx

[@tomsoki5738]

The upgraded missiles are British too, the Mk2 missile. With the proximity fused, used by Britain too

[@Mike-James]

I was in the Royal Air Regiment and the squadron I was in 48f we were equipped with the Rapier. Late 60s The rapiers we had did have proximity fuses .

[@MattWagner]

Challenger II tank, Warrier IFV, Tornado BR are also British.

[@schweizerluchs7146]

There's a Tornado coming?

[@MattWagner]

@@schweizerluchs7146. There has been an AI Tornado GR in the game for years.

[@philipkirwan3844]

please make a jaguar awsome single seat aircraft for ground attack and cas

[@grimreapers]

Roger Wags, I stand corrected :)

[@MattWagner]

@@grimreapers. You bet, Chief Fact Checker (CFC). These are a great videos and a service to all DCS fans.

[@Sicgaming]

Need more British stuff in the game really (AV-8 is the US version of the Harrier) would be nice to have a Jag as I got a chance to work on them at RAF Coltishall. Beautiful aircraft

[@schweizerluchs7146]

SEPECAT Jaguar?

[@Sicgaming]

@@schweizerluchs7146 That is the one. Used by the French and British for many years. Beautiful aircraft

[@philipkirwan3844]

@@Sicgaming i spent 8 years working on them at colt nice aircraft to work on would defiantly own one if some one made it

[@Sicgaming]

@@philipkirwan3844 I was only lucky enough to get two weeks there! (september 9/11 funny enough lol) but I loved every moment on that plane. By the time I had a play they were just used as reccy craft with pods but still fun as hell!

[@AdurianJ]

Hawker Hunter! Preferably the Swiss version with Mavericks

[@slammerf16]

The main disadvantage of SACLOS is that it requires the operator to be not crapping himself as he tracks the target manually. Remember, the target is more than likely heading towards the operator who doesn't know if a missile is coming back at him from the target or his wing-man. This explains why SACLOS works better on the range than on operations. Fire-and-Forget SAMS at least gives the operator a chance to hit the button and start running (whether radar, IR, laser, or optically guided).

[@grimreapers]

Roger

[@timobb]

There used to be a tracked vehicle Rapier, there is one at the tank museum, I think it's an M584 chassis with the missile system bolted on top.

[@grimreapers]

Roger I read about that.

[@Struktualnyj]

S-300 missiles big size is because of kinetic requirements of long range, high altitude intercept.

[@robertbarton4776]

Almost! Operator sat at optical unit, not in 1 ton land rover. Never knew anyone have trouble manually keep track of any aircraft we ‘played’ against. System could exceed G turns of aircraft of its era. If the weather was good enough for flying, it was good enough for shooting. Manual engagements favoured over tracking(wingman would be aware of us once first aircraft engaged, but by then ‘his’ missile was on its way.

[@possiblyadickhead6653]

Then again I don't believe any other tracking system would have trouble with gs and has very high refresh rate and therefore shorter reaction compared to a human

[@grimreapers]

Thanks

[@darrendwyer1018]

What are you talking about. The operator sat at the optical tracker, not in a Landrover. The optical tracker is made up of the Servo Optical group, tv group, camera group and so on. So the operator is viewing the target through optics. With the optics is a tv system that is aligned with the optics. IFF is mounted on the top of the search radar. Sorry your description of a blindfire engagement is totally incorrect. The tracker radar will track the target and also track the missile and provide the corrections. The blindfire will first acquire the missile on launch using its camera group mount on the side. The hardest target to track is a target flying a straight track. A jinking target is very very easy to get. This is because it using rate tracking. I can keep going on. There is so much wrong here but you did get some things right but not much.

[@mattwilson1669]

The gensets actually mounted onto the backs of the Rapier launcher and the DN-181. They weren't actually towed independently. The Optical Tracker was powered via a link to the launcher. The SEZ was powered by the Optical Tracker as was he "stick".

[@Maeyanie]

Never thought about it before, but I guess you're right... radar traditionally is in the centimeter or longer wavelengths, and that heavily restricts the resolution of a receiver in a small body like a missile, which restricts its accuracy. Probably one of the reasons (along with anti-stealth) that modern radars are constantly trying to work in shorter and shorter wavelengths.

[@schweizerluchs7146]

Switzerland, still uses this beauty And we used the Bloodhound too

[@grimreapers]

awesome!

[@Akm72]

Did they update to the Rapier FSC variant*? *Sometimes called Rapier 2000 or Jernas

[@grame141]

Sounds like more of a hittile than a missile

[@andymills4060]

If I remember rightly the warhead was only about a kilo or two.

[@Yinetteification]

My Grandfather worked on the Rapier system in the 60's and 70's as an electrical engineer, he also started out on the Bloodhound out at Woomera testing range in Australia. A good bloke.

[@grimreapers]

Cool

[@jaysonmunnings1601]

I trained on the Raiper. 2001-2003 16th Air Defence Regiment, South Australia

[@davidmarkwick8965]

It did have a small amount of explosive, but it was purely to destroy the missile's electronics so they couldn't be recovered. It went off as soon as the system detected that the missile was past the target. It is very much a kinetic weapon which relies on hitting the aircraft to be effective. Dependent on the skill of the operator in the case of manual tracking, Blindfire was more consistent. The operator sat at the optical tracker itself itself both for manual tracking and Blindfire, always had to have a human fire the missile :) I'm an ex-Raper technician, and the model fidelity is rather good :) but the flare on the back of the missile should be active for the entire flight.

[@daveslow84]

I was in the Rapier CP on stag at Mount Pleasant Airfield in the Falklands around 2012/13 and a RAF guy came in and asked what are max engagement range was... upon hearing our answer he just said "well, that's a bit pointless, isn't it!" and walked out. Needles to say we were a bit sad after that :D no need to be like that, we were well aware that we were what's called obsolescent and that our 8.2km range didn't compete with the Typhoons scrambling long before we would even see the Argies coming in :D

[@TheGrzes1966]

First start 16:25. Until then, an unbroken stream of words.

[@damonried1720]

The attention span of today's generation. Instant gratification. "I want it NOW!"

[@DreamList]

0:00 to 16:25 is actually the most valuable part of the video. The evading technique shown afterwards is really not great (sorry Grim Reapers).

[@karlchilders5420]

Cap you're talking about "torque effect" on a prop aircraft which makes it have a turning tendency. Turning with that effect makes it easier to turn in that direction as opposed to against the torque, but either way has issues. With the torque and you can "over" steer and become uncoordinated if you don't pay close attention. The other way you won't get the same turn rate/performance. Jets of course don't have the same torque effect, just multi-engine types with asymmetrical thrust.

[@AdurianJ]

The British used the Bofors L60 in the was but in the 1950s bought the new and improoved Bofors L70. It had twice everything fire rate tracking speed was slewed electrically and controlled by a fire control radar. This gun the served into the 1970s and was replaced by the Rapier. Here in Sweden the L70 served on into the late 90s, thats because Bofors had managed to miniaturize the Proximity fuze in the early 70s to fit in the 40mm shell. Which is ironic considering the Rapier didnt have a proximity fuze.

[@grimreapers]

lols roger AJ

[@sloppydog4831]

Cap, in an (kind of) unrelated topic, I tested that you can loft JDAMs without Auto mode. All you need to do is use manual mode and do the same procedure for lofting bombs: at 6-7 nm from the target, you pull up to 30 degrees up, wait for the in range sign and drop. It works fine, the bombs loft and precisely hit the target. I've been using this to defeat SAM'S, once not even the SA-15 engages JDAMs.

[@grimreapers]

Strange, my lofts tend to result in them losing track. May have been patched recently?

[@sloppydog4831]

@@grimreapers maybe in the Last patch. For me they are working fine. Tested with GBU-31.

[@duracelsus]

British hardware? I think thats the swiss version. The silver plate shows the battalion and the numberplate is a swiss army version

[@karlchilders5420]

It's British *made*. That's what he meant. Doesn't matter if the Polish Army used it when deploying against the Girl Scouts, it was innovated by the British to replace their Bofors cannons that they'd used so long and had such success with..

[@duracelsus]

Your right. Was lost in translation🤣

[@The_Wildfish_]

Karl Childers you, are a fucking legend

[@wendyharbon7290]

Namaste, my partner is an RA Air Defence Gunner, Rapier and Blowpipe, he seen this video, he said he blow you out of the sky, if you tried that on him or his old 1970's / 1980's RA Battery Rapier Fire Teams, some of them served in the Falklands too, blowing up more than a few Argentina Skyhawks too. They would set up Rapier Fire Teams, covering each other, you try dodging one Rapier, you would swallow a second Rapier from another launcher you did not see coming! Or you would get caught out, is a Blowpipe MANPAD, missile up your tail pipe! My partner is a disabled veteran, his regiment went from Bofors 40/70's upgrading to towed Rapier (they used 1 ton Landy's GS.101's not just series 2 or 3 LWB 3/4 ton Landy's, plus had Bedford 4 tonnes too), as he say the Bofor 40/70 was a bloody good triple A system, maybe the best ever too, a lot of bang for your buck.

[@miauwgabriel3547]

Bloodhound missiles were used in Australia before the Malkara and Nulka Air defence system was manufactured.

[@gerritmichels7766]

Where is the IR therminal imager?

[@AdurianJ]

16:09 Kirk: See that. A distortion! Zulu: And its getting larger as we close in.

[@grimreapers]

lol

[@allent555]

Great Video, The Rapier Systems would defend our AB in the UK. I was in the USAF. Those guys were great! @patrick fires The Rapiers would always operate at sets of three batteries. Wish DCS would implement this. In real life, it was a very capable system.

[@optony9606]

yeah more SAMS one of the best kinds of enemy in this game

[@Tamburello_1994]

I think aspects of the BAe Lightning are still classified -- No wonder there isn't better U.K. representation in DCS. Surprised we even have a Spitfire.....

[@grimreapers]

lol rgr

[@Slowhand-5]

Love your videos. Still not sure if I'm setting them up correctly in my mission editor. Anyway you can do a video of how to set up the different SAM sites for best usage etc.?

[@TheFleetflyer]

A good freind of mine works on a Rapier unit in the British army. He says many of their missiles are 30+ years old and every second one fails. The newer ones are better, but on the whole he rates it very poorly. His unit will be upgrading to a new system in the next year or so which apparently is the mutt's nuts.

[@grimreapers]

wow thats crazy!!

[@beardedshooter9540]

Your information is wrong I'm affriad there are none that old left in the British army and haven't been for a while.

[@Darkstar198]

Holy fuck, I got the video cranked up all the way on resolution, and I still can't see whether or not the missile is incoming. Scary stuff.

[@grimreapers]

even for me on the original it was only 1 grey pixel.

[@fredh1201]

There are some British land-rovers in dcs, they actually have a really detailed 3D model.

[@grimreapers]

Really? I couldn;t find anywhere?!

[@adamsmith5151]

Needing to take off & put on the tires seems to have more disadvantages than advantages.

[@grimreapers]

agree

[@jordankungalov5992]

Good job Cap The Rapier seems to be working pretty good, definitely a great addition to the game!

[@grimreapers]

agree. Now give Bloodhound please!

[@schweizerluchs7146]

Swiss used the Bloodhound 😏

[@darthdad82]

blindfire was a radar guided missile add on to rapier

[@millerdog1222]

Also Search and track could be overrided and controlled manually... the b variant had a proxi fuse speaking to the lads who have used this its incredibly hard to get a hit

[@grimreapers]

thx

[@GregAtlas]

Even the Bofors can be considered Swedish.

[@entirecosmos4335]

Fuck I quite actually enjoyed that

[@simoncampbell-smith6745]

With the DN181 Radar it is I do believe field standard B or FSB. Also the commanders station is missing

[@grimreapers]

What does Com Station look like?

[@davozz1]

FSA was BlindFire ( DN181) capable , it needed a certain Mod level.

[@CaramelKittenz]

I learn so much at Super Cap's knee.

[@grimreapers]

lols

[@cornbread5144]

*** Good video !!! Kinda leads to the question - whats the fastest SAM, Air to Air, AGM etc...? I guess I could look at the specifications.

[@grimreapers]

Already know that. Aim-54 mk60 I clocked it at mach 5.6 at 120,000ft

[@cornbread5144]

@@grimreapers Wow ! That answers that :)

[@hartzaden]

so cap, if i remember my force organisation correctly a rapier system has 2 launch units, and the optical tracker is just thrown in the back of one of the rovers

[@grimreapers]

cool

[@hartzaden]

isint the S300 a home by datalink missile?

[@grimreapers]

Interesting, will investigate. Assumed the 300PS was basic SARH.

[@hartzaden]

@@grimreapers i think its like the patriot where its guided by a datalink form the fire control radar of the the missile battery off hand.

[@Struktualnyj]

It is SARH + track-via-missile guidance.

[@hartzaden]

@@Struktualnyj ah thanks, i knew it wasent one of the more conventional homeing methods

[@masterhighground3677]

Tornado, British?! Ich kotze im Strahl!

[@Pulkz]

Aufwischen, sofort!

[@grimreapers]

lols Europische Fluegzug!

[@masterhighground3677]

Grim Reapers Almost, what you mean is ‘europäisches Flugzeug’, I assume

[@theoccupier1652]

TRS2 …. no! no! no! … it's the TSR2

[@grimreapers]

oops

[@chrisc3164]

Good vid ... Short ... Would've loved to see you go at it with helicopters from ussr

[@grimreapers]

that would be REALLY hard

[@chrisc3164]

@@grimreapers yea but we always need a combat test ? No ?

[@billstanden]

SAM series and the F-16 on the way. GR’s found its Wild Weasel. :P

[@grimreapers]

cool

[@TheebayOffroader]

And not one mention of it's use in the Falklands?

[@grimreapers]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/bYWVqJuJepx0grM

[@LockDCS]

I'd love to see a Typhoon and the Tornado.

[@bmw540i]

LockAC04 Typhoon is too new for DCS, Cold War era. Tornado on the other hand ..... Yes please!

[@LockDCS]

@@bmw540i I meant the WWII Typhoon.

[@DrGraypFroot]

The Rapier MKII missiles actually have a proximity detonator. So with the newer ones, you might have been nailed ;)

[@grimreapers]

thx

[@davozz1]

FSA field standard A , in Brit service they were out of service before the proximity fused missle was in service

[@davozz1]

The missle when fired , not sure the pilot would see it or have time to react. The missle launched at mach 2 + and was essentially a fast dart

[@DrGraypFroot]

@@davozz1 I don't know about the british military... I'm in the Swiss military with the Rapier department (which deployed the Rapier system since the 80's). They will be phased out next year. The MKII missiles were introduced some time later. The system displayed here is actually a Swiss one (as seen by the license plates and troup indications "CCC" on the back of the system balance units). The missiles shown here are in fact the MKII's.. What's also missing here (at least compared to the real life system and how we deploy it in the Swiss air defense) is the operating device and the generator (and of course the huge mess of cables ;D). A sergeant sits at the operating device which is usually set up next to the optical tracker. He has an overview of what the search radar sees and gives firing orders to the soldier sitting at the optical tracker who manually tracks the targets and guides the missile (when firing optically). The sergeant ultimately fires the missile and decides whether it's guided optically or by radar. Either way, very nice to see how well they modeled this in DCS!

[@DrGraypFroot]

@@davozz1 Most likely, the pilot wouldn't have time to react... they told us back in our training days that the chances of hitting a target in radar guided mode were 99.8% (don't ask me how they got that number lol). However, with modern jets, this system is obsolete (max search radar range is ~11km, max firing range ~7km and max altitude ~10000ft). Most modern air to ground weapons could be fired even way before they would show up on the search radar...

[@puppers2607]

Harrier is kinda brittish to

[@grimreapers]

I guess kinda

[@heycidskyja4668]

@@grimreapers It's very British indeed.

[@watch_general6753]

Iran still operates them

[@faxx2]

Was the rapier updated? I thought it was in the game already?

[@grimreapers]

Same, I only just got around to videoing it.

[@BManx2000]

Cap! The tunguska is radar guided with a backup SACLOS system! When will you learn!

[@grimreapers]

Yes I know it is in real life, but in DCS SACLOS is primary for Sa-19.

[@Ironwulf2000]

The original version was SACLOS with a search radar. Newer versions are radar guided.

[@beardedshooter9540]

Great video and fairly accurate information. I do believe the FSC system has proximity fuse so would of nailed you if it was the current system not the earlier one.

[@grimreapers]

thx

[@Danno419]

This particular version of rapier uses kinetic not prox missiles.

[@jaybee2786]

The guy commenting on this does know the kit at all , and evenless about the blindfire 181 blindfire was all weather capability, if you got a radar lock operator just had to press the fire button if the system worked fgood chance it would hit it.

[@pansarbat]

Sort of reminds me of RBS 70 in that the missile is guided via link, but that one uses a laser beam ride to track. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RBS_70

[@tomsoki5738]

The RBS is more comparable the British Blowpipe series (Blowpipe, Javelin) or the newer Starstreak.

[@f16madlion]

Hey, the harrier jump jet is British Mr Grim Reaper!

[@grimreapers]

AV-8B is American Sir

[@sparkyplug28]

Grim Reapers not in my mind British jet made in America 😂👍🇬🇧

[@herp_a_derp1094]

It's been in for a while mate

[@mpainter22]

If the story I heard is true then the rapier was able to track the B2 Spirit easily

[@grimreapers]

wow interesting

[@slammerf16]

@@grimreapers Yes, but it was pretty much overhead at an airshow and I don't think even the Americans claim the B2 is invisible from right underneath.

[@rickc661]

obviously way late - Ukraine war - I understand England is replacing Rapier with a totally different system. I'm guessing these Rapier 2000 are fairly capable against cruise missiles.... and that Ukraine is running out of its USSR age SAMs with no real replacements. So would say a minim of 50 of these to Ukraine be a great addition, say 6 or 7 protecting Cities like Odessas, Dinipro, Donesk, Slovyansk.... a very strong backbone defense - especially IF they could get say a matching 50 US Truck missile launchers, the M142. 7 of each around the cities.....

[@PerOlofForsman]

cap is this missile up to 3000m

[@pumpkinpie2512]

The reaper roll

[@Struktualnyj]

Did you forget the British Harrier? :)

[@thegloriousretardmagnet4257]

well... the version that we have in game, the AV-8, is an american license build by McDonnell Douglas. So its an american plane ;)

[@grimreapers]

Technically American...

[@bmw540i]

Zak Goedegebuur here here

[@Struktualnyj]

2all Ah, I see.

[@timobb]

Nucular? Nuclear.

[@soyad9840]

nice

[@Stephanthesearcher]

isnt that the system the british took to the falklands to secure the landingsite? it utterly failed and, if i understod the documentary right. it did not fire a single missile while the agies constantly bombed the area. it simply refused to function at all

[@grimreapers]

wow interesting info.

[@beardedshooter9540]

Not exactly correct. They positioned the system too high and it couldn't aim low enough at the jets lower in the valleys. There is unconfirmed report of there being a kill from Rapier.