Mk 74 Tartar FCS

History

The Mk 74 Tartar GMFCS (Guided Missile Fire Control System) was first fitted on the Charles F Adams class in 1961. The fire control system was designed for use with the RIM-24 Tartar missile. The fire control system can only be used to direct missiles. Early in development this was only the Tartar missile, but from the middle 1960's the USN started to replace this missile with the RIM-66 Standard MR, which was longer ranged, more accurate and more reliable.

The Mk 74 FCS uses 1,2 or more AN/SPG-51 missile directors. In addition, the system works with information from the ships search radars for target acquisition and intercept.

Most ships using the Mk 74 FCS used an Mk 13 GMLS, but early ships used the Mk 11 Tartar GMLS. Some light ships used the Mk 22 GMLS, in which case they only used a single director. On the Kidd class, the Mk 26 GMLS was used.

after the NTU (New Threat Update) of the California, Virginia and Kidd class, their Mk 74 fire control system was updated to Mod 14 or Mod 15. This allowed the ships to fire RIM-66 Standard MR 2 (SM-2) missiles and upgraded the amount of targets the tartar system could attack at the same time. This was done by using the inertial guidance on the SM-2 and by time sharing the illumination radars, so the SPG-51 radars were only required to acquire a lock on the target and illuminate it just before intercept

Ships using the Mk 74 FCS are often described as Tartar ships, even if they have never used the Tartar missile itself.

Used on

• DDG-2 Charles F. Adams
• CG-10 Albany
• Cassard class
• Mitscher class
• Charles F. Adams class
• California class
• Lutjens class
• Perth class
• Adelaide class
• Tromp class
• Durand de la Penne class
• ADF 1973 (proposed)
• Brooke class
• Kidd class
• Virginia class

Affiliated systems

• RIM-24 Tartar
• RIM-66 Standard MR
• AN/SPG-51
• Mk 11 Tartar GMLS
• Mk 13 GMLS
• Mk 22 GMLS

Part description

As the fire control system itself (the computers) are not visible in a shipbucket drawing, the part image on this page shows a compilation of the parts directly connected to this fire control system. These can also be found on their own pages.