Éric Béranger, MBDA CEO, said:
“FC/ASW is a strategic programme for the UK and France and we are very pleased to welcome Rolls-Royce and Safran Power Units into the team. Their joint expertise will prove fundamental to the success of the subsonic FC/ASW concept, further strengthening the benefits of UK/French co-operation on this programme.”
Alex Zino, EVP Business Development and Future Programmes for Rolls-Royce Defence said:
“Combining the strengths of industry from across the UK and France underlines the significance of this programme. With this collaboration, both companies will be able to demonstrate the strong alignment between the UK and French industry and can effectively work together to provide the power to protect our armed forces and our societies.”
Ghislaine Doukhan, CEO Safran Power Units said:
“We are proud to join the FC/ASW programme which further reinforces the strategic collaboration in this domain between the UK and France which began in the early 90s with the successful development of the SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow cruise missile engine. Safran Power Units brings to the team more than 60 years experience in the development and manufacturing of advanced propulsion systems for missiles such as MBDA Scalp, Exocet and MdCN (missile de croisière naval- naval cruise missile).”
By the end of the decade, Britain and France will both field a stealthy subsonic land attack missile and a supersonic, highly manoeuvrable anti-ship missile.
The United Kingdom and France recently confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) programme, after the signature of a government agreement and associated contracts by the French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) and the British Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S).
The ‘Future Cruise/Anti–Ship Weapon’ project was originally believed to be producing one missile able to strike ships and land targets but has now become two distinct missiles.
🚨 NEWS | Confirmation that the FC/ASW missile plan is now for two distinct missiles. A stealthy subsonic land attack missile and a supersonic, highly manoeuvrable anti-ship missile. Britain and France expected to field the missiles "at the end of the decade" say @byMBDA. pic.twitter.com/hFn3KGwZ4f
— George Allison (@geoallison) February 21, 2022
Eric Beranger, CEO of MBDA said:
“The FC/ASW programme is an example of the value of the ‘One MBDA’ integrated model. By combining technology, industrial capacity and funding across borders, we can deliver unique and advanced sovereign capabilities. Following the conclusion of the FC/ASW Concept Phase, the confirmation of the launch of these preparation works testifies the renewed confidence of our two countries towards MBDA.
The project will take advantage from our sustained French/UK Centres of Excellence. This reinforcement of MBDA’s portfolio of deep strike and anti-ship systems will allow MBDA to offer to our armed forces, whose satisfaction is our priority, a cutting-edge solution fitted to their requirements and adapted to all existing or future operational needs.”
Le Délégué général pour l’armement Joël Barre, le directeur 🇬🇧 @DefenceES & le PDG @byMBDA, ont lancé les travaux de préparation du futur missile antinavire et futur missile de croisière (FMAN-FMC) après signature d’un accord étatique et notification de contrats #NotreDéfense pic.twitter.com/Xbs1j6OO3u
— Direction générale de l'armement 🇫🇷 (@DGA) February 17, 2022
According to a statement from MBDA:
“These preparation works will focus on the co-ordinated development of a programme of next generation deep strike and heavy anti-ship weapons. It will assess two complementary missile concepts, expected to be fielded at the end of the decade: a subsonic low observable concept and a supersonic, highly manoeuvrable concept.
These concepts are to meet the requirements of France and the UK and will provide a game changing capability to overcome land-based and maritime threats, hardened targets and air defence systems, at very long ranges and in increasingly contested battlespace environments.”
What is the Future Cruise/Anti–Ship Weapon for?
The FC/ASW aims to replace Storm Shadow/SCALP air-launched cruise missile in operational service in the UK and France as well as Exocet anti-ship missile in France and Harpoon anti-ship missile in the UK.
In November the First Sea Lord, Admiral Tony Radakin, told the House of Commons Select Defence Committee that options for FC/ASW were still “being looked at” including potential hypersonic weapons.
“The path that we as a Navy want to go down is absolutely that—longer-range missiles from ships with land attack. To Mr Francois’s point earlier about whether that is in the programme, it is in the programme with money that has been allocated for the future cruise anti-ship weapon, but we are only on the cusp of an assessment phase with the French. We have not delineated that it is going to be weapon X, but we have the budget line that supports that approach.
The exciting thing for the Navy is that the more substantial money is in the longer-term line, with the ambition around the future cruise anti-ship weapon and the French partnership. That has got the money in the line, but I agree with you that if we are operating at the hypersonic level, there is a debate as to whether that is at the back end of this decade or the early 2030s.”
It was also stated recently by Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin that the total spend to date on Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon and associated activities by the Ministry of Defence is £95 million.
I’m lost now if the UK is involved in two separate hyper sonic programs or not. The Anglo French one has been running for a decade now and then we have this new Anglo, Australian, American joint venture.
We also need one to be long range, stealthy and low cost so we can procure thousands of them.
The hypersonic missile I’m assuming would only be for high value strategic targets if it’s going to cost 8 figures per unit.
Good to see that this program is still making progress. The £95m spend from the UK MoD is clearly only part of the total. If the French government has put in a similar amount then the program must have spent around £190m so far, excluding industry investment. Lets say it could be as high as £230m – £250m from all sources… My guestimates, based on a single data point. Clearly the hypersonic option has been kicked down the road and possibly moved across to the AUKUS given recent comments and articles. If the RN gets the interim anti-ship missile then… Read more »
CR. You could see where the AUKAS is coming from wanting a hypersonic weapon, given the vast distances involved. I think a high supersonic weapon is more do-able in the shorter term, as per the mutterings on this forum, and stealth makes more sense perhaps for an over land missile where there are more bumps dips and ‘stuff’ to mask an approach
AA
Regardless of AUKUS, Australia and the US have had collaborative Hypersonic development programs running for about 15 years now.
https://adbr.com.au/us-australian-scifire-hypersonic-program-contracts-awarded/
Yes, likewise, good news. I’m hoping for a high supersonic (leadign to hypersonic) capability, especially now that RR are involved.
Honestly, I hope that we don’t put our hypersonic missile plans in with AUKUS; that’ll just mean we buy off the shelf from the US at the expense of an historically successful European initiative. Counter-hypersonics though, I think that’s a decent area of study, especially as us and the Aussies will be running common escort platforms that may need to be fitted with the defence systems.
Why wouldn’t you want the UK to be part of both Hypersonic and Counter Hypersonic development programmes with Oz and the US under AUKUS?
Isn’t the three nations working together better than running separate and overlapping programs? Duplications, wasted money and resources otherwise?
I kind of already touched on it, but basically I have two reasonings on it: We are already working on a hypersonic weapons programme with France, as part of the very successful complex weapons agreement that has produced Meteor, Spear 3, Martlet, Sea Venom, CAMM, and robably others that don’t spring to mind right now. The best thing about these: all countries benefit from any orders placed in terms of manufacturing and development share. The UK MOD has a bad habit of not running more than one programme on a subject at once; if we go in with AUKUS on… Read more »
I can understand your concerns but what hypersonic programme do we have running with the French I am unaware of anything concrete only the hints of investigating it for the anti ship missile which seems to be no more than an aspirational eventual upgrade at best as things stand, so can you expand on this revelation please. The US is studying and testing all manner of hypersonic weapons and concepts as things stand and the costs are enormous. I would think whatever the answer to my question above there is still plenty of scope for other hypersonic weapons as part… Read more »
I’m going off the most recent descriptions and updates regarding FC/ASW: that the two considerations are stealthy+Subsonic and unstalthy+Hypersonic- with most pundits seeming to expect both to be developed. Nothing about the reports and news clips I’ve read suggest “aspirational eventual”, and the latest stuff coming from French sources is saying that they’re only going after that hypersonic capability more aggressively. So I’d love for you to expand on the revelation that they’ve back-pedalled on that. As you’ll be well aware, the UK MOD is about the most opaque military organisation in the democratic world when it comes to putting… Read more »
Naval News (whose owner is French and quite close to French Industry) says the 3 year assessment phase will end next summer where a decision will be taken but is indeed looking like both will be developed. He says the subsonic cruise missile will be mostly British built with French involvement in the engine while the Supersonic ASM will be mostly French built with a British seeker and some other components. It will have a ramjet and I would be surprised if it wasnt Mach 4+.
Rolls-Royce and Safran Team Up for FC/ASW Next Gen Missile – Naval News