The Future Cruise Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) programme has entered its development phase and is moving toward Full Business Case approval in 2026, according to Defence Minister Luke Pollard.
Pollard said the project, which is being developed in partnership with European allies, continues to assess “how best it can meet and exceed user requirements which stretch well beyond current requirements and capabilities to meet future threat needs.”
The FC/ASW programme is intended to replace both the Royal Navy’s Harpoon anti-ship missile and the RAF’s Storm Shadow cruise missile, providing a new generation of precision strike capability against surface and land targets.
Once approved, the Full Business Case will formally set the programme’s Key User Requirements, establishing the operational and technical standards for UK service entry.
According to Pollard, the missile’s development aims to ensure a step change in range, speed, and survivability, keeping pace with evolving maritime threats and ensuring interoperability with key allies.
The UK and France formally launched the joint FC/ASW effort through MBDA in 2022, following a decade of studies under the Lancaster House defence accords. Both governments have since reaffirmed their commitment to the programme, with its next phase expected to define system design, test requirements, and production planning ahead of flight trials later in the decade.
Pollard confirmed that the MOD “continues to progress” the programme with European partners, saying that the weapon will be central to the Royal Navy and RAF’s long-range strike portfolio for the 2030s and beyond.
This is really needed, hopefully there’s some mechanism by which it can actually be sped up rather than slipping to the right.
I suppose the MoD won’t have the foresight to specify submarine- or ground-launched options?
Yes I’d like to see something like the USN’s NMESIS
I’m not sure if anyone on here would know, but are both variants of STRATUS anti-ship capable? Or is one land-attack and the other Anti-ship?
Im sure I recall hearing the supersonic version is more suited to an anti-shipping role Vs the longer range stealthy one which is optimised for land strike?
Yeah, both variants should have an anti-ship capability. The subsonic STRATUS LO has an imaging IR seeker and the supersonic STRATUS RS has an active radar seeker. So, the Typhoon should have a standoff anti-ship missile by 2030.
Ok grateful for this, this reply does partly answers my query below though some more meat on the bone is welcome.
I have drifted from close attention of this programme, or may have felt so having read the article. Is it still two distinct missiles in this programme, one land attack the other anti ship. I thought the land attack version was expected to be operational by end of decade while the anti-ship version was to follow about 2 or 3 years later, yet this article doesn’t seem to give any distinction within programme progress. Can someone who is more up to date add any further details or is this information related to one of the two missiles (whether they are truly separate or now deemed modified versions of a single platform). My last information suggested it was one highly stealthy but subsonic, the other supersonic with different timelines. Just seems odd considering different capabilities and reported timelines that they would be lumping in these stage achievements together with no distinction between them and relative progress, whereas this report lumps in land attack and anti ship as if they are still at the same stage which would suggest a very early stage still. Certainly sounds very general and nebulous unless things are different to what I last read about the programme.
Two missiles, both launched from all of mk41, angled deck canisters and jets.
LO is subsonic but stealthy, has a new propulsion system from RR and Safran for extremely long range (likely an efficient turbofan) and is secretive enough that the current models don’t even show an air intake. IIR seeker for anti-ship and target matching and probably quite a big warhead.
RS is ‘high supersonic’ probably c. Mach 3 and using propulsion similar to Meteor but also with long range. Active radar seeker for detecting vehicles, ships and even large aircraft, with a hint in a recent MBDA video that it will be able to actively evade missiles fired at it using the seeker. Probably a slightly smaller warhead than LO.
‘a hint in a recent MBDA video that it will be able to actively evade missiles fired at it’
I’m more sceptical on this being active avoidance. I think its more likely that MBDA were showing a stylised version of a terminal phase evasive manoeuvrer, as is common across a variety of modern missiles.
I think that’s a distinct possibility. We now know that Iskandar has radar detection and countermeasures capabilities. Against older radar systems that use older pulse-doppler or semi-active radar homing (SARH) techniques, it is relatively easy to detect when you are being locked up for missile tracking. The newer AESA modes not so much, as it requires more expensive processing. Which for a one way weapon isn’t really cost effective, unless you had to guarantee the missile reached the target.
A lot will depend on the radar that the Stratus-RS gets. If its a traditional mechanically scanned radar, then it will struggle with the ability to search for and track its target, whilst conducting electronic surveillance. Whilst if they use an AESA radar, it has the scope for doing multiple activities simultaneously. Where it could be used for detecting and its data used for analysing threat radars. The other option would be like Iskander to fit a dedicated radar warning system. But, it is quite possible to link the radar detection to pre-programmed evasion manoeuvres, which I believe Iskander can also do.
Fair enough, I’d no idea the technology was in widespread use. I knew the Americans had been experimenting with it on their LRASM and JASSM.
Was just reading the Wiki article just now to get myself up to speed, one thing that interested me was that the design and propulsion of the Stratus-RS, being done by the French, is apparently quite similar in design to the ASMP. Wonder if there’s a thought there that we might actually get ourselves back into the air-launched deterrent game again. If we did, it’d be a whole lot more believable than air-launched gravity bombs from F-35s…
Also interesting about the large aircraft/ ‘airborne high value targets’ piece- that’s what the US is currently doing by strapping SM-6s onto F/A-18s. Will be interesting to see if Stratus-RS feeds into whatever comes after Aster, in a kind of reverse-direction development.
When Italy signed on in 2023, they gave an updated press release saying that the anti-ship variant (now called Stratus-RS, but at the time TS10) would be ready 2034, while the land-attack variant (now Stratus-LO, but at the time TP15) would be coming online 2034.
You’re right about the two different missiles, but @torpedoJ has already given you a decent run over those.
“STRATUS”
I’d missed that. Is that official?
Yep, sadly not Blue Stratos, as that could kill all women within 50ft. Probably not a good thing to advertise.
It is indeed, for both versions, with the suffixes LO (low Observable) and RS (Rapid Strike) for the stealthy and fast versions respectively. I believe I’ve seen quotes from MOD representatives calling them that as well.
Yeah, MBDA renamed up, presumably to boost their export potential. FC/ASW doesn’t have much of a ring to it (nor does STRATUS for that matter).
“Pollard said the project, which is being developed in partnership with European allies, continues to assess “how best it can meet and exceed user requirements which stretch well beyond current requirements and capabilities to meet future threat needs.”
So they keep interfering and moving the goal posts as to what they want. Gee, I wonder if there might be negative consequences to doing that ?
There’s only so far they can move the goalposts now, at least for the subsonic, British-led variant. The design for that has been frozen and revealed – it’s the Storm Shadow looking missile in the headline image.
Forget the crap, we could be in a shooting war before it ever gets off the drawing board.
A little expediency please.