Thales Blowpipe

History of Thales Blowgun

Advances in aircraft led to the use of machine guns as an anti-aircraft measure, followed by automatic cannons of various calibers. The missile largely replaced earlier types of anti-aircraft weapons and became popular in the 1960s and 1970s, after jet power allowed air systems to fly higher and faster. Thales Air Defence Ltd finally supplied their "Blowgun" to the British military in 1975, the weapon remained in service until 1985 with a production of 34,382.

The line was offered to export customers and became more widely used around the world, enabling it to be used in several notable conflicts. In fact, both sides of the Falklands War - Argentina and Great Britain - used this type, although the gun did not perform well throughout the war.

Externally, the Blowpipe has a unique design form compared to its contemporaries, mainly due to its oversized front, which also houses an integrated optical system at the rear. Extending from the rear of this front is the thinner, more convenient section of the rear tube that makes up the rest of the launch system.

The completed system weighs 22kg, is 4.4ft long, and has a weapon caliber of 76mm. In general, the weapon can be transported and operated by a person (starting from the right shoulder) who is assigned the classification of MANPADS ("Portable Air Defense System") for such systems.

The

Blowpipe missile uses a 2.2kg shaped charge warhead powered by a solid rocket motor, has a speed of Mach 1.5 and an effective range of up to 3.5km. When the missile leaves the launcher, guidance is provided through a semi-automatic action, which then activates the MCLOS ("Manual Command Line-Of-Sight") guidance system. The MCLOS allows the operator to track the missile to the target via a small controller on the launch unit, while aiming/tracking using the included optics.

The missile can be detonated by contact fuze or proximity fuze methods, with the aim of inflicting enough damage to the accelerating aircraft to knock it down.

In practice, the blowpipe design did not perform as well as it did during the 1982 Falklands War. The Argentines had procured a batch of blowpipes before the war, and the guns had already been sent to the British army.

Official results show that one weapon has a low kill rate, one weapon's missiles can be overtaken by faster aircraft, and have difficulty engaging aerial targets that "pass" the missile's launch cone. According to sources, it appears that only two aircraft fired blowpipes during the war - which ended in a British victory.

Old stocks of the weapon were secretly shipped by the British government to Afghanistan, where they were used by jihadist guerrillas against Soviet occupiers and the Afghan National Army. Once again, these weapons have poor air defenses, although for the guerrillas any weapon is better than nothing, and when available, keep using the air guns until the American "stingers" reach useful numbers.

Canadian troops engaged in some of the last notable airsoft combat operations during the 1991 Gulf War and Ecuador during the 1995 Senepa War with Peru.

The Airbrush was eventually replaced by the Javelin, which debuted in the mid-1980s. The Javelin is an improvement over the blowgun as it allows the use of SACLOS ("Semi-Automatic Command Line Sight") which improves accuracy.

This method allows the operator to "semi-automatically" aim the weapon at a target by keeping the target in the crosshairs of his optics. Javelin itself was then replaced by the more advanced 1989 Starburst, which was succeeded by the 1997 Starstreak.

Despite its age and presence on the battlefield, the air gun still appears on the battlefield from time to time - even though it is no longer in service with any of the world's leading military powers.

Thales Blowpipe Specification

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