Sea Hawk Mk.50 (France)

This page is about the French premium jet fighter Sea Hawk Mk.50 (France). For the standard British version, see Sea Hawk FGA.6.

◘Sea Hawk Mk.50

◘Sea Hawk Mk.50

France

V Rank

Battle rating:

AB	RB	SB
8.0	8.0	8.0

Class:

PREMIUM

Fighter

Jet fighter

Naval aircraft

Purchase:8 560

Description

The Netherlands placed an order in the mid-1950s for 30 aircraft, as the Sea Hawk Mk 50, a ground-attack variant for the Royal Netherlands Navy, which was financed by NATO funding. The Mk 50 was externally similar to the Royal Navy aircraft, differing in its use of a Philips-built ultra high frequency (UHF) radio; Dutch Sea Hawks were later equipped to each carry a pair of AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. Between 1957 and 1964, the Dutch Navy operated 22 aircraft.

Introduced as Golden Eagles purchase in Update "Dance of Dragons", the '◘Sea Hawk Mk.50 is a premium rank V French jet fighter at with a battle rating of 8.0 (AB/RB/SB). It's a sturdy ground attacker, but also a capable air-to-air fighter. Though not as fast and sleek as other conventional fighters, in the hands of the right pilot, this aircraft can be critical to turning the tide in a match. Though hindered by the straight wings and Rolls-Royce Nene engine, compared to other contemporary aircraft, especially the swept-wing MiGs, the Mk.100 can hold its own in air combat. Though attempting to dogfight with rockets and bombs suspended from the aircraft is unwise, going for the more streamlined approach of just adding two AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles will bring the Mk.50 into contender status. Care is a must when firing a Sidewinder as there is potential for it to latch its targeting system onto friendly aircraft or even the sun. The four autocannons can make short work of other fighters and even bombers when targeting critical components such as engines, cockpit and fuel tanks.

General info

Flight performance

Arrestor gear

Accelerates braking by grabbing the brake cable on the deck of the aircraft carrier

Air brakes

Allows you to dramatically reduce the flight speed by releasing special flaps

Max speed

at 0 m933 km/h

Turn time26 s

Max altitude13 500 m

EngineRolls-Royce Nene-Mk.103

Type

Cooling systemAir

Take-off weight7 t

The '◘Sea Hawk Mk.50 is a carrier-based fighter. Its powerplant is the Rolls-Royce Nene Mk.103 engine, which gives it quite decent thrust to weight ratio of 0.40 with full fuel tanks. The plane is not that fast, at sea level it can reach only up to 933 km/h and can struggle to keep up with some planes like the F9F-5 or the Yak-30 that can reach 1025 km/h at that altitude. If the plane carries missiles it gets even lower, decreasing to 899 km/h. The level acceleration is at most mediocre: getting past 850 km/h can be a challenge in most situations, and it will struggle when the enemy decides to just run away. The energy retention can be considered good, but planes like the F2H-2 or La-15 will easily outperform it in this aspect. The other downside to its overall performance is the subpar climb rate; reaching only 32 m/s at sea level with minimum fuel taken. Flying at full power is limited to 15 minutes, after that time will start overheating. Reducing the power to 95% will cool it down instantly if reduced early enough.

The Sea Hawk does not have swept wings, so its high speed performance suffers a lot, but also makes it a very capable dogfighter at low and medium speeds with its main strength being the instantaneous turn rate. However, the energy retention and poor acceleration make it worse in any prolonged fight than a F2H, Yak-30 or MiG-15; after one or two full circles, it will start struggling a lot. When it has some energy to spare the plane can pull even 13G, more than most of its competitors, making it a very dangerous enemy to any plane with swept wings, although it will significantly reduce its speed. The roll rate is quite good at low and medium speeds, it can reach over 125°/s at 500 km/h IAS, but once the plane gains some more speed it decreases to 65°/s at 850 km/h IAS. The plane is equipped with two huge airbrakes in its wings that can help with reducing speed after reaching the low structural limit value or during the landing. The flaps have very high limits, both positions can be used during the combat to further increase its instantaneous turn rate. Overall the plane is a very stable platform, aiming is very easy and it is pleasant to fly.

Characteristics	Max speed (km/h at _,___ m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	919	898	13500	27.0	27.8	25.9	24.4	650
Upgraded	943	933		25.4	26.0	38.8	32.0

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
X	✓	✓	✓	✓	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
1012	370	N/A	836	796	~13	~6

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< 461	< 600	< 550	N/A

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Basic mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
Rolls-Royce Nene-Mk.103		1	4,450 kg		232 kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)			Max Gross Weight
Weight (each)	Type		10m fuel	20m fuel	30m fuel		35m fuel
1,000 kg	Centrifugal-flow turbojet		4,866 kg	5,278 kg	5,789 kg	5,995 kg	7,170 kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (100%/WEP)
Condition	100%	100%/WEP	10m fuel	20m fuel	30m fuel	35m fuel	MGW
Stationary	2,376 kgf	N/A	0.49	0.45	0.41	0.40	0.33
Optimal	2,376 kgf (0 km/h)	N/A	0.49	0.45	0.41	0.40	0.33

Survivability and armour

Crew1 person

Speed of destruction

Structural1 012 km/h

Gear370 km/h

• 64 mm bulletproof glass - Armoured windscreen
• All fuel tanks and engine in the middle of the fuselage

Modifications and economy

Repair cost

AB2 218

RB6 517

SB8 519

Crew training10 000

Experts620 000

Aces2 000

Research Aces1 660 000

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

2 × 130 / 380 / 600 %

2 × 208 / 208 / 208 %

Modifications

Flight performance	Survivability	Weaponry
Fuselage repair Compressor Airframe New boosters Wings repair G-suit Cover Engine EFS		hispano_belt_pack 500 LB 25 lb A.P. Mark II hispano_mk5_new_gun 4 500 LB 60 lb S.A.P. Mark I 1000 LB AIM-9B

Armaments

Offensive armament

The Sea Hawk Mk.50 (France) is armed with:

• 4 x 20 mm Hispano Mk.V cannons, chin-mounted (200 rpg = 800 total)

Suspended armament

Describe the aircraft's suspended armament: additional cannons under the wings, bombs, rockets and torpedoes. This section is especially important for bombers and attackers. If there is no suspended weaponry remove this subsection.

Default weapon presets
Without load 2 x AIM-9B Sidewinder missiles 10 x AP Mk II rockets 30 x AP Mk II rockets 8 x RP-3 rockets 16 x RP-3 rockets 2 x 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (1,000 lb total) 4 x 500 lb G.P. Mk.IV bombs (2,000 lb total) 2 x 1,000 lb M.C. Mk.I bombs (2,000 lb total)

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the aircraft, the features of using aircraft in a team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but instead, give the reader food for thought. Examine the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

In ground battles, this naval jet aircraft truly shines thanks to the high number of rockets it can carry, plus bombs.

In air battles, this naval jet aircraft is still very deadly thanks to its speed, manoeuvrability and access to the Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, but don't get too confident since other nations have some fighters which get early air spawn and some of them have more powerful engine than the Sea Hawk, so if you want to survive, you need to be aware of your surroundings. This is especially important in uptiers when everything you face will be either faster than you, able to turn better than you, or can climb better than you. Or, potentially, all three.

Be careful when using Sidewinder air-to-air missiles as they can also lock on to unintended targets such as the sun or your own teammates.

The best use of the Sidewinders is in a hunter-killer role, wait for your enemy to be at a slower speed (500-600 km/h) before launching. This means that the missile will be incredibly fast relative to your target, and give a much smaller window for them to dodge it at closer ranges. By climbing to ~3000km after gaining speed at the start of the game, you can often pick off enemies as they exit the furball or engage your allies, then track them and wait for them to bleed their speed before hitting them with a missile.

In a down tier, maintain energy dominance over lower battle rating enemies and don't over-commit; any jet can dodge your missile.

Pros:

• Extremely high flap breakage speed (850 km/h for take-off, 796 km/h for landing).
• Good selection of suspended armament options.
• Gets air-to-air missiles, unlike the British equivalent Sea Hawk FGA.6.
• Very good for destroying ground vehicles.
• 4 x 20 mm cannons, high rate of fire and good amount of ammunition.
• Maintains effectiveness even at lower speeds (500 km/h).
• Smaller size makes it harder to hit.
• Very stable

Cons:

• Subpar turning energy retention.
• Not so fast in level flight.
• The missile cannot track manoeuvring and fast targets so well.
• The bomb holders greatly decrease plane manoeuvrability.
• Mk II AP rockets are ineffective.
• Completely helpless against faster jets (MiG-15, F-86, F-84G, F-89, etc).
• Engine loses performance at altitudes exceeding 2,500 m.
• Severely punished by radar SPAA.
• Incredibly weak air frame with cramped modules.

History

Describe the history of the creation and combat usage of the aircraft in more detail than in the introduction. If the historical reference turns out to be too long, take it to a separate article, taking a link to the article about the vehicle and adding a block "/History" (example: https://wiki.warthunder.com/(Vehicle-name)/History) and add a link to it here using the main template. Be sure to reference text and sources by using <ref></ref>, as well as adding them at the end of the article with <references />. This section may also include the vehicle's dev blog entry (if applicable) and the in-game encyclopedia description (under === In-game description ===, also if applicable).

Media

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

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