United Kingdom MOD signs a deal with MBDA for new air defense missile under program FLAADS

Defence & Security News - United Kingdom
 
 
United Kingdom MOD signs a deal with MBDA for new air defense missile under program FLAADS
The British Army is to get a new ground-based air defense missile under the program name FLAADS to replace the aging Rapier system following the signing of a development and manufacture deal by the Defence Ministry and MBDA last month. A British MoD spokeswomen confirmed a program worth £228 million (US $343 million) had been signed with Europe's leading missile maker just before Christmas.
     
The British Army is to get a new ground-based air defense missile under the program name FLAADS to replace the aging Rapier system following the signing of a development and manufacture deal by the Defence Ministry and MBDA last month. A British MoD spokeswomen confirmed a program worth £228 million (US $343 million) had been signed with Europe's leading missile maker just before Christmas.
CAMM(L) is the land-based variant of the FLAADS program and will replace the Rapier missile batteries of the British Army from 2020 or so.
     
The FLAADS (Land) deal has been completed, even though MBDA is only 12 months into to a £36 million, 18-month assessment phase effort.

MBDA is developing a common system solution that will meet the anti-air target guided weapons needs of future sea, land and air-based operations. Given that the target set, ranging from fast jets and helicopters to supersonic cruise missiles and sea-skimming anti-ship missiles, is similar across these operational areas, a solution maximising modularity and commonality has obvious cost and logistics benefits. The common system solution that MBDA is advancing includes the CAMM (Common Anti-air Modular Missile) missile which will be compatible with any existing defence architecture (C2, radars etc).

CAMM, the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile, is the next generation air defence missile designed for land, sea and air environments. Incorporating advanced technologies to provide complete protection against all known and projected air targets. CAMM is currently in full scale development for the UK MOD to deliver the Sea Ceptor ship based air defence system that will equip the Royal Navy Type 23 frigates. The same CAMM missile will form the core of the land based air defence version.

For Maritime project, FLAADS(M) provides a true 360° air defence capability for naval forces out to ranges greater than 25km against the future air threat. Requiring no dedicated tracker/illuminator radars, CAMM can be cued by ship target indication data to provide high levels of protection in open ocean and littoral environments. It can also be used against surface targets.

For ground based air defence (fulfilling the need to replace the UK’s currently in-service Rapier system), FLAADS(L) is expected to form part of the air defence equipment being procured within the UK’s NEADS (Network Enabled Air Defence and Surveillance) programme. FLAADS(L) will provide future land forces with a highly effective and deployable local area air defence system capable of operating as a stand alone unit or of being integrated within a future battlespace network.

In May 2014, a £36M contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) has been placed with MBDA for the CAMM-L Land variant of the Future Local Area Air Defence System (FLAADS Land).

For the Air project, The CAMM missile uses the same airframe and has technology pull through from MBDA’s proven ASRAAM design (Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile in service with the UK RAF and the Australian RAAF) with a range of performance enhancing modifications. CAMM technology can now be used to re-life ASRAAM for its Mid-Life Re-life. FLAADS(A) provides an opportunity to generate a new short range anti-air capability for the RAF in the future.