UK and France to collaborate on anti-ship missile

The announcement was made at this year's Defence Systems & Equipment International Exhibition at the ExCel Centre in London, a biannual gathering of the world's largest defence companies.

The weapon is being developed for use initially in the naval environment and to be launched from different helicopters, including the British Lynx Wildcat and the French NH90 and Panther platforms.

This co-operative project, which meets the UK's Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon and the French Anti-Navire Léger requirements, is the latest in a long history of co-operation between the two nations on missile projects, which has most recently included Meteor and the Sea Viper (Principal Anti-Air Missile System).

The project's Assessment Phase is expected to last just over two years and will cost £35m, to be shared between both nations. Work will be undertaken in the UK and France, using industries within their respective supply chains.

This Assessment Phase is fully consistent with the UK MOD's aims to deepen co-operation with close allies and to take forward the various strands of the Team Complex Weapons initiative.

Minister for Defence Equipment and Support, Quentin Davies, said:

"This announcement demonstrates our commitment to deepen the co-operation between our two countries, particularly where requirements are closely aligned, as they are in this case.

"By bringing together industry expertise from across the nations we are strengthening our technical knowledge, allowing us to equip our forces with the best highly-advanced anti-surface missile for them to use for years to come."

The Assessment Phase will investigate appropriate technologies for a future anti-surface guided weapon that meets the capability requirements for the system. In addition, any previous research will be taken into consideration, along with the opportunity to re-use technology from other programmes.

By the end of the Assessment Phase, sub-system technology will be matured sufficiently to progress into full demonstration of the overall system.

The joint Assessment Phase is being undertaken through the Team Complex Weapons (CW) enabling contract placed with MBDA (UK) last year.

As well as being a further example of co-operative intent between the UK and France, the contract represents a further milestone as part of the wider Team CW approach towards weapons procurement which was announced at the Farnborough Air Show in July 2008.

The French Ministry of Defence is linked to the MBDA (UK) contract through a Memorandum of Understanding signed by the two Governments which came into effect on entering into the contract.