The British Aerospace Rapier is a lightweight, mobile, com-mand-to-line-of-sight air defense system. The basic Towed Rapier System has been upgraded over the years, including the addition of the Blindfire radar and the Darkfire electro-optical tracker. Nearly 25,000 missiles have been built to fulfill orders from 13 countries since it first entered service in 1971. Of these, BAe indicates that approximately 12,000 have been fired in combat, trials, or exercises. The latest version of the system is designated Rapier 2000 (a.k.a. Field Standard C or FSC) and entered production in 1993 to meet British requirements; work on this effort was completed in 1995. British Aerospace is making a major export push on the Jernas desertized version in the Mid East.
展开▼
