Seaspray is series of a British airborne maritime radar systems, initially developed by Ferranti for the Lynx helicopter, built in Edinburgh.
The combination of Lynx and Seaspray has been an export success and operates in numerous armed forces around the world, often along with the related Sea Skua short-range missile.
In 1967, Egyptian missile boat sank the Israeli destroyer Eilat, immediately revealing the serious threat these new weapons presented.
Sea Dart could also be used in this role and had a much longer range, but was too large to fit on the frigates and smaller ships which made up much of the fleet.
These were introduced in the early 1990s as the Seaspray 2000 and 3000 and found use on a variety of aircraft, including the Lynx, Lockheed C-130 Hercules, Westland Sea King, Bell 212 and Fokker F27.
The division of Ferranti that developed Seaspray became GEC-Marconi, then BAE Systems, then Selex ES, and is today part of Leonardo.
In August 2005, the United States Coast Guard bought the Seaspray 7500E radar system for £69m for its 22 HC-130 Hercules aircraft.