LONDON - The U.K. Royal Navy's Type-23 frigate, HMS Iron Duke, has become the first ship in the fleet to receive the next-generation Artisan medium-range 3D surveillance radar as well as the most advanced version of the Seawolf missile. The new radar - referred to as "Type 997" in the Royal Navy - is capable of tracking as many as 800 targets simultaneously and feeding information into the Seawolf air-defense missile system, as well as anti-ship systems and the ships air traffic control management system. Artisan replaces the legacy Type 996 surveillance and target indication radar and will be retrofitted to all Royal Navy Type-23 frigates, the two new Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers, the helicopter carrier HMS Ocean and the amphibious assault ship HMS Albion.
The Seawolf missile system remains the mainstay of Royal Navy individual ship air-defense. Fired from a vertical silo, the Seawolf missile came into Royal Navy service in 1979 with a range of 6 miles, but has since been updated several times to give it more potency.
The HMS Iron Duke tested the missile while sailing back to Portsmouth following 8 weeks of at-sea training.
Source: British Forces Broadcasting Service
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