Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!cbnews!henry@zoo.toronto.edu
From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: popup maneuvers
Message-ID: <6157@cbnews.ATT.COM>
Date: 2 May 89 03:29:55 GMT
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From: henry@zoo.toronto.edu (Henry Spencer)
>Exocet does not "pop-up" as far as I know, unlike the Harpoon, which does.
>The resaon it does is not to evade enemy fire; in fact, by "popping-up"
>it exposes itself more!

As I recall, the pop-up maneuver was aimed at trying to do more damage.
It has become unpopular recently because of the increased exposure.  The
modern version is to drop to wavetop height (*really* low, as opposed
to rather low) for final approach, to make interception harder.

I'm slightly surprised that nobody has yet built a heavy antiship missile
that simply carries a heavy torpedo and drops it 1-2 km out.  This avoids
*all* the close-in defences, and explodes the warhead in a more effective
place too.  There are one or two antisub missiles that drop an aircraft
torpedo, but nothing designed for antiship use.

                                     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
                                 uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu