Early heat seekers wouldn’t reliably lock an aircraft from the front, since the heat signature is really only visible from the rear.
Something like this would almost certainly need to be actively guided, but then the RWR needs to be more expensive and that cuts into yacht money for the Lockheed execs.
I always wondered why this was not a thing, particularly when short-range heat-seakers were the best missiles on order.
Early heat seekers wouldn’t reliably lock an aircraft from the front, since the heat signature is really only visible from the rear.
Something like this would almost certainly need to be actively guided, but then the RWR needs to be more expensive and that cuts into yacht money for the Lockheed execs.
Especially now that pilots no longer smoke while flying.
Considering it’s a SeaMaster they might be anti-ship missiles
Well that seems unlikely, what are the odds that an airplane is going to be chased by a ship?
It’s a fake out. The boat sees it flying away and stands down then BOOM.
(Also, since it’s a flying boat I don’t know how they’d have an internal bay without a lot of water infiltration.)