from the submarine's conning tower. Known as "Submarine Launched Airflight Missile", or SLAM, the system was trialled on the World War II-era HMS Aeneas in 1972. These were for a time installed on Israeli Gal class submarines but later removed. The Brazilians never installed the system. A four-round launcher similar to the one developed for SLAM was also considered for mounting on the M113 and FV103 Spartan, but it is unclear if either reached trials. The programmes were officially ended in June 1981. The basic concept was later re-introduced as the three-round "Lightweight Multiple Launchers" (LML) for Blowpipe or Javelin. A larger five-round mount was later offered as "Sea Javelin". In the 1970s, Northrop introduced a new MANPADS combining the Blowpipe missile with a semi-active laser guidance system into the competition that was ultimately won by the Raytheon FIM-92 Stinger. This was the guidance system that was ultimately used by Starburst. Description The missile is supplied as a single round in a storage cylinder/firing tube. The aiming unit is clipped to the launch tube and fired from the operator's shoulder. To reduce the overall size of the container, the rear fins of the missile are stored in the larger diameter cylinder at the front of the tube (this also contains the Yagi antenna for transmitting guidance signals); during firing, the fins slip onto the rear of the missile as it flies through and are held there by heat-activated adhesive tapes. This gives the launch container a unique shape, seemingly oversized at the front and extremely thin at the rear. The missile is powered by a short duration solid rocket for launch, then by a sustainer motor once it is well clear of the launch tube. The Blowpipe's guidance is initially semi-automatic with the missile gathered to the centre of the sight's crosshairs by the infrared optic atop the aiming unit. Two to three seconds after launch, missile guidance is switched to fully MCLOS mode and the operator regains full control of the missile. The operator has to steer the missile all the way to its target manually via a small thumb joystick. The operator can opt not to use auto-gathering when engaging low flying targets such as helicopters but then has to super-elevate the launcher to ensure that the missile does not hit the ground. Four flares in the tail of the missile make it visible in flight, first to