The rhk111 Military and Arms Page: The C-Star and Mistral 3 Missiles of the Jose Rizal class Frigates

A Scale Model of a C-Star Missile, Photo by rhk111 from Wikipedia Commons

In December 2020, the Philippine Navy (PN) announced the delivery schedules of the Missiles for its new Jose Rizal class Frigates, which will be October 2021 for its Mistral 3 Surface to Air Missiles (SAM) and March 2022 for its C-Star Anti-Ship Missiles (AShM).¹

The Mistral 3 will be the first ever SAM to enter service on the Vessels of the PN while the C-Star will be their first purpose built AShM ever. The PN already started using earlier the Spike Extended Range (ER) Missiles on their Multi-Purpose Assault Craft (MPAC) Mk III as their very first Missile system ever to enter service,² but those are smaller, multi-purpose type of Missile.

‘The C-Star’³

The C-Star is a Sea-skimming, Anti-Ship Cruise Missile made by the South Korean Company LIG Nex1. It is a fairly new Missile, only having entered service with the Republic of Korea Navy (ROKN) around 2004.

It was initially given the Korean name Haeseong which reportedly means “Sea Star” in English, but now LIG Nex1 just uses the name C-Star on their Website for the Missile. The early Production Version was the SSM-700K, but the current Production Version is the SSM-710K introduced around 2008 which uses a South Korean made Radar Seeker.

Aside from South Korea and the Philippines, Colombia is the only other Country so far that uses the C-Star. Approximately at least 150 Missiles have been produced as of now based on data from various Websites.

‘C-Star Characteristics’

Based on Brochure released back in 2016,⁴ the C-Star has a Length of 5.46 m, Diameter of 0.54 m, Weight of 792 kg, Range of over 180 km and flies at Subsonic Speed. It reportedly has a Warhead Weight of 220 kg.⁵

Each Jose Rizal class Frigate has 2 twin-Launchers for the C-Star located just behind the Funnel for a total of 4 C-Star Missiles at the ready per Ship.

‘C-Star Features’

The C-Star’s Guidance System consists of a Global Positioning System (GPS) and Inertial Navigation System (INS) for mid-course Guidance, and an Active Radar Seeker for Terminal Guidance (when it homes in on its Target).

Its Guidance System can be classified as a Fire-and-Forget type since no further control is needed after launch for it to find and attack its Target. In theory the C-Star Missiles can be fired quickly one after the other as long as targets can be designated for them.

The C-Star flies at very low Altitude, close to surface of the Ocean allowing it to hide behind the Curvature of the Earth before the enemy Radars can detect it. Its low altitude also makes it harder for Radars to distinguish it from the Ocean, degrading and further lessening the Distance at which the Radar could detect it.

It is able to do “S-type” Evasive Maneuvers as it approaches its Target culminating in a “Pop-Up Maneuver” where it climbs a certain altitude and dives down towards its Target. This combination of Maneuvers makes more difficult to shoot down by the enemy’s defensive weapons.

‘Air Support’

The Jose Rizal class Frigate can use its own Radars to designate Surface Targets for the C-Star, but their Range is limited because after a certain Distance the natural Curvature of the Earth will start to hide the other Vessels from the Radar’s Line of Sight.

This is what’s known as the “Radar Horizon”.⁶ It is tricky to determine how far this is exactly since it also depends on the height of the Radar and height of the enemy Vessel, but typically this is around 30-40 km, which is much nearer than the C-Star’s Range.

Good thing though that the Jose Rizal class Frigates will have their own Air Support in the form of the AW-159 Wildcat Helicopters which have their own Radars that can designate Targets for the C-Star at much further Distances since it can climb to higher Altitudes and thus see over the Radar Horizon.

‘C-Star Issue’

The C-Star did encounter an issue around 2016 when during a live-fire Test of the ROKN, only 5 out of 9 Missiles (56%) hit their Targets. Prior to that, in 2014 the Missiles managed to hit 17 out of 18 in 2014 (94%) and 10 out of 11 in 2015 (91%).⁶

The problem was later traced to an unspecified Mechanical Error in the Canister Launchers which resulted in the ROKN modifying all of its C-Star Launchers to fix the issue.

‘The Mistral’⁷

The Mistral is a Very Short Range Air Defense (VSHORAD) Missile now made by the European Company called MBDA Missile Systems. It first entered service in the late 1980s and has become one of the most popular VSHORAD Missiles in the World going into service with several dozen Countries.

At least 17,000 Mistral Missiles have been produced so far. Its latest Version is the Mistral 3 which entered service only very recently in 2019 with the Philippines among its first Users.

The Presidential Security Group (PSG) is reportedly one of the Users of the Mistral, bought during the term of former President Cory Aquino in the late 1980s and early 1990s.⁸ Details about them on News Reports are very rare though, and their current status is unknown.

‘Mistral Characteristics’

The Mistral 3 uses an Imaging Infra-Red (IIR) Guidance System to home in on its Target which can also be classified as a Fire-and-Forget type of System. The latest Brochure⁹ says that it flies at a speed of Mach 2.7 (or around 3,348 kph), has a maximum Range of 7.5 km and can maneuver up to a force 30 times the Acceleration of Gravity or 30Gs.

A Scale Model of a Mistral Simbad-RC Launcher, Photo by rhk111 from Wikipedia Commons

Physically it is 1.86 m long and has a total weight of 19.7 kg, 3 kg of which is the Warhead. MBDA claims that the Missile has a “96% Success Rate”, but did provide any additional details of where this is based from.

‘Simbad-RC’

One common use for the Mistral was for the defense of Vessels by a number of Navies around the World starting in the 1990s. It was mounted on an open, manually aimed and fired Platform with 2 Missiles at the ready called the Simbad.¹⁰

The Jose Rizal class Frigates will be using the latest Version of the Simbad called the Mistral Simbad-RC.¹¹ Compared to the Simbad, instead of standing out in the open exposed to the Weather for Hours on end, the Simbad-RC allows its Operator to be seated inside the Vessel and control the Launcher by a Terminal thru Remote Control.

This gives much better comfort and protection for the Operator. It also has better Electro-Optical (EO) System that allows it to be used more effectively during the Day, Night or even Adverse Weather Conditions.

The Simbad-RC System weighs around 480 kg, entered service around 2016, and the PN is among its first Customers.

Each Jose Rizal class Vessel will have 2 Simbad-RC Units located above the Helicopter Hangar, one on the Starboard (Right) side and another one on the Port (Left) side of the Ship.

With 2 Mistral Missiles per Launcher, the Ships will have a total of 4 Mistrals Missiles at the ready for defense. While the Mistral is used mainly for Anti-Air Defense (against Missiles, Fixed Wing Aircraft, Helicopters and Drones), it can also be used against small Water Crafts.

‘Hard Kill System’

The Simbad-RC is part of the Jose Rizal class Frigate’s “Hard Kill” Layered Defensive System, meaning it is designed to physically damage or destroy any incoming threat to neutralize it.

The other “Hard Kill” Systems of the ship comprise of:
- The Oto Melara 76 mm cal. Super Rapid Gun Mount (SRGM) which can be used against all types of threats;
- The Aselsan 30 mm cal. Smash 30 Remote Controlled Stabilized Naval Gun System which can be used against slower moving Aerial threats and Surface Vessels

Of course the more layers are added to it the Ship’s defensive System then the more protected the Ship will be against Threats.

‘Multiple Targets'

With 2 Mistral 3 Missiles at the ready per Launcher and its Fire-and-Forget type of Guidance System, the Simbad-RC can actually engage 2 incoming threats at the same time per side before it needs to be reloaded.

In that way it is better than Gun-based Close-In Weapons Systems (CIWS) since those can only engage one target at a time, it needs to destroy one target first before going to the next.

The Mistral Missile’s range is also at least twice further than that of common Gun-based CIWS.

‘Combat Record’

The C-Star has not been used in actual Combat yet, but so are many Weapons Systems around the World. For the Mistral, despite the fact that it has been in use with many Countries for several Decades now, I could find only one instance of it possibly being used in Combat.

This was in 1999 in Congo where it was suspected of shooting down a British Aerospace (Bae) Hawk Mk 60 Aircraft of the Air Force of Zimbabwe (AFZ).¹²

‘Quantities’

No mention so far from the News Reports or Government Documents on how many C-Star and Mistral Missiles were bought, but as per the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) Arms Transfers Database,¹³¹⁴ 15 C-Star and 40 Mistral Missiles were reportedly bought for the Ships.

If this information is correct then that means around 7-8 C-Star Missiles and 20 Mistral Missiles can be evenly allocated for each of the Jose Rizal class Frigates.

‘Parting Shot’

The Jose Rizal class Frigates will the first Vessels in the PN to be armed with both Anti-Ship and Anti-Air Missiles. The C-Star Missile gives them offensive capability against other Vessels at very good range while its Mistral 3 Missiles gives them additional “Hard Kill” defense against incoming Threats.

These Missiles will make the Frigates the most heavily armed and most powerful Ships in the PN, at least until if and when better armed Ships comes along.