Sea Sparrow

The Sea Sparrow Missile is used in a claim by some flerfs to support the flat earth nonsense. As always this is based on lies, misunderstandings, and lies.

The claim goes like this:

1. The Sea sparrow Missile has a long range
2. The ship launching it must paint the target with a "2° RF pencil beam"
3. It goes super far, too far for globe
4. Magic
5. Therefore flat

Each of these steps is incorrect. The Sea sparrow Missile has a long range Here's the claim from Quantum Eraser's toilet paper brand called Welcome to Flat Earth

Wow! 50km you say? He even quotes a web page and links to it. This is reverse psychology in action. Flerfs won't look, they think that since there's a citation it must be true. But, let's look at the context:

In context the lie is exposed. The system doesn't have a range of 50km, the motor does. That doesn't mean the system does. The citation QE provides doesn't state the range of the system. There are no sources that state the range of the system, this is classified.

Further, the Sea Sparrow is a Surface to Air missile. The range of an air target is significantly longer than a surface ship.

The ship launching it must paint the target with a "2° RF pencil beam" 2 degrees is not pencil thin. At 20km a 2° beam is nearly 700m wide. Hardly pencil thin.

"On board ship with a 50-foot radar height, Earth’s curvature should block targets beyond 13.9 km (8.65 miles) by 463 feet, yet the ESSM Block I hits targets over 50 km away."