28 January 2022

Sky Sabre enters UK service, replacing Rapier

by Mark Cazalet

The British Army 16 Regiment Royal Artillery's changing of the colours parade on 27 January to mark the official transition from the Rapier FSC to Sky Sabre. (Crown copyright/MoD/Sgt Robert Weideman)

The British Army's 16 Regiment Royal Artillery held a changing of the colours parade on 27 January to mark the official transition from the Rapier Field Standard C (FSC) air defence system to the modern Sky Sabre system, 7 Air Defence Group commander Colonel Graham Taylor tweeted.

Although the ceremony marked the formal introduction of Sky Sabre into UK service, it has been on operational deployment for several months. Col Taylor visited the Falkland Islands in October to attend a ceremony in Stanley to mark the formal retirement of Rapier from service and the informal initial operational capability of Sky Sabre, with 30 Battery (Rogers's Company), which had operated Rapier, handing over the Falklands deployment to 32 (Minden) Battery that operates Sky Sabre.

The Rapier family has been in service with the United Kingdom for 49 years, with the original Rapiers entering limited service in 1973 and achieving full operating capability by 1975. It has been upgraded several times, with the last standard to enter British service being Rapier FSC, which has been the UK's primary air defence system since its entry into service in 1995. The standard has remained largely unchanged since then, only undergoing a minor upgrade to provide the Dagger radar with a Cossor Mk 12 Mode 4 identification friend-or-foe (IFF) interrogator in 2005 to replace the earlier Mk 10A IFF interrogator.

The British Army's 16 Regiment Royal Artillery held a changing of the colours parade on 27 January t...

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