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International Exercises HMCS Calgary fires new missiles
Credit: Corporal Pier-Adam Turcotte | On November 1, 2007, HMCS Calgary became the first Canadian ship from the West Coast fleet to fire the new Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile (ESSM) during a multi-national exercise taking place off the coast of California.
Working within the USS Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Group, Calgary used the point defence weapon to fend off an incoming target simulating a fighter-bomber attack. Neither the missile nor the target contained warheads.
In place of its warhead, the ESSM housed telemetric instrumentation that collected and transmitted data about the shoot back to the ship. That information was passed to the Maritime Warfare Centre in Halifax where the data will be analyzed to validate and better understand the weapon’s capabilities.
Developed by several NATO nations, the new generation of Sea Sparrow Missile first rolled off the assembly line in 2002 and has since undergone testing to prove its full range of abilities.
Two East Coast naval vessels have already deployed an ESSM with telemetric components in an exercise scenario, providing the Maritime Warfare Centre with important data to which Calgary will add.
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