The CAMMs both performed as expected, with their
active Radio Frequency (RF) seeker acquiring the targets shortly after
launch and staying in track until they intercepted their respective
targets.
CAMM is to be used by the Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy in
the Sea Ceptor system and the British Army with the Future Local Area
Air Defence System (FLAADS) Land system.
Dave Armstrong, Group Director for Short & Medium Range Missiles
welcomed the results saying, “The success of these two firings
is a major step forward for the Sea Ceptor programme and the CAMM
missile, and directly benefits the associated FLAADS Land equivalent.
It is also instrumental in proving that the UK MOD’s Portfolio
Management Agreement with MBDA can develop complex weapons through
the use of commonality and modularity, and do so in an affordable
manner.”
Notes to editors
Sea Ceptor secured its first export order with the signing of a contract
on 21st May 2014 for the Royal New Zealand Navy. FLAADS Land entered
its Assessment Phase with the signing of a contract with the UK Ministry
of Defence on 22nd January 2014.
These firings build on a previous campaign of successful CAMM instrumented
firings completed in April 2013, as well as extensive seeker data
gathering trials.
The Portfolio Management Agreement (PMA) between the UK MOD and MBDA
provides a contractual framework for the long-term acquisition of
the UK’s Complex Weapon (CW) military capability, which aims
to improve flexibility and reduce cost. It provides CW military capability
to the UK Armed Forces with Freedom of Action and Operational Advantage,
allowing them to maintain an edge over adversaries now and in the
future. The PMA also ensures the skills and technologies critical
for this are maintained in the UK.
Commonality is the development of common weapon solutions to satisfy
multiple project and/or Customer requirements. This significantly
reduces both recurring and development costs. Modularity is the sharing
of modules, subsystems and technologies between projects, thus reducing
both recurring and development costs.
With a significant presence in five European countries and within
the USA, in 2013 MBDA achieved a turnover of 2.8 billion euros with
an order book of 10.8 billion euros. With more than 90 armed forces
customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile
systems.
MBDA is the only group capable of designing and producing missiles
and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and
future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and
air). In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and
countermeasures products already in operational service and more than
15 others currently in development.
