Military Wiki
Advertisement

Question book-new

This article does not contain any citations or references. Please improve this article by adding a reference. For information about how to add references, see Template:Citation.

RIM-24 Tartar
RIM-24 Tartar on USS Berkeley (DDG-15) 1970
RIM-24 on USS Berkeley in 1970
Type Medium range surface-to-air missile
Place of origin United States
Service history
In service 1962
Used by United States Navy, and Others
Production history
Manufacturer General Dynamics (Convair)
Specifications
Mass 1,310 lb (590 kg)
Length 180 in (460 cm)
Diameter 13.5 in (34 cm)
Warhead 130 lb (59 kg) continuous-rod

Engine Dual thrust, Solid-fuel rocket
Propellant Solid Rocket Fuel
Operational
range
8.7 nmi (16.1 km; 10.0 mi) (RIM-24A)
16 nmi (30 km; 18 mi) (RIM-24B)
17.5 nmi (32.4 km; 20.1 mi) (RIM-24C)
Flight ceiling 50,000 ft (15 km) (RIM-24A)
65,000 ft (20 km) (RIM-24B)
Maximum speed Mach 1.8
Guidance
system
SARH
Launch
platform
Surface ship

The General Dynamics RIM-24 Tartar was a medium-range naval surface-to-air missile (SAM), and was among the earliest surface-to-air missiles to equip United States Navy ships. The Tartar was the third of the so-called "3 T's", the three primary SAMs the Navy fielded in the 1960s and 1970s, the others being the RIM-2 Terrier and RIM-8 Talos.

History[]

The Tartar was born of a need for a more lightweight system for smaller ships, and something that could engage targets at very close range. Essentially, the Tartar was simply a RIM-2C Terrier without the secondary booster. The Tartar was never given a SAM-N-x designation, and was simply referred to as Missile Mk 15 until the unified Army-Navy designation system was introduced in 1963.

The Tartar was used on a number of ships, of a variety of sizes. Initially the Mk 11 twin-arm launcher was used, later ships used the Mk 13 and Mk 22 single-arm launchers. Early versions proved to be unreliable. The Improved Tartar retrofit program upgraded the earlier missiles to the much improved RIM-24C standard. Further development was canceled and a new missile, the RIM-66 Standard, was designed to replace it. Even after the upgrade to a new missile, ships were still said to be Tartar ships because they carried the Tartar Guided Missile Fire Control System.

A dedicated anti-ship version for the Federal German Navy carrying a Bullpup warhead was abandoned when Germany purchased MM38 Exocet instead.

Variations[]

  • RIM-24A: Original missile
  • RIM-24B: Improved Tartar
  • RIM-24C: Improved Tartar Retrofit (ITR) aka. Tartar Reliability Improvement Program (TRIP)

Ships carrying Tartar fire control systems[]

Operators[]

MIM-104 operators

Map with NIM-104 operators in blue

Past Operators[]

Flag of Australia Australia
Flag of France France
Flag of Germany Germany
Flag of Italy Italy
Flag of Japan Japan
Flag of the Netherlands Netherlands
United States

External links[]


All or a portion of this article consists of text from Wikipedia, and is therefore Creative Commons Licensed under GFDL.
The original article can be found at RIM-24 Tartar and the edit history here.
Advertisement