The Ministry of Defence has confirmed its intent to award a direct procurement contract worth £10.8 million for the integration of the British-made Sting Ray Mod 1 lightweight torpedo onto the Royal Air Force’s Poseidon P-8 maritime patrol aircraft.
According to a procurement notice published on 28 May 2025, the deal will cover demonstration, manufacture, and potentially in-service support for the integration programme.
The work is expected to run from February 2027 through February 2032, with a possible extension to 2035.
The Sting Ray integration project is a key step in enhancing the sovereign capabilities of the UK’s maritime patrol force. As noted in an MOD announcement back in November 2023, the Sting Ray will complement the continued use of the U.S.-supplied Mk54 torpedo, offering greater operational flexibility and a UK-controlled capability.
“The programme to integrate Sting Ray Mod 1 on to Poseidon is now under way, and it will give the UK a potent and sovereign torpedo capability,” said the MOD at the time, highlighting the importance of maintaining flexibility within the fleet.
The Sting Ray Mod 1, already in service with the Royal Navy, is an air-launched, anti-submarine warfare torpedo designed for deployment from frigates, helicopters, and maritime patrol aircraft. It features a sophisticated acoustic homing and navigation system, and is capable of autonomously detecting, classifying, and engaging submarine targets of all types.
The MOD noted that Sting Ray has “low through-life costs and requires no intrusive maintenance throughout its service life.”
The procurement notice describes the contract as falling under the “defence and security” special regime and confirms that the value is above the procurement threshold. The MOD estimates the publication of a formal tender notice for this direct award will occur around 19 September 2025.
A bit of background
The Boeing P-8 Poseidon is a maritime patrol aircraft developed for anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASuW), and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) missions. Based on the Boeing 737-800 airframe with reinforced structures and military-specific systems, the P-8 replaces the P-3 Orion in several countries. Operated by the Royal Air Force since 2020 under the name Poseidon MRA1, it is equipped with advanced radar, sonar buoy deployment capabilities, and a comprehensive sensor suite.
The Sting Ray is a lightweight torpedo developed by the United Kingdom for deployment from surface ships, helicopters, and fixed-wing aircraft. Designed primarily for use in anti-submarine warfare, it employs an active/passive acoustic homing system and carries a shaped charge warhead capable of defeating modern submarines. The torpedo is electrically powered, has a range exceeding 8 kilometres, and can operate in both shallow and deep water.
Great- the stingray is the light weight torpedo of choice for the RN and has substantial performance improvements over the older US made Mk46 (which dates back to 1970s technology)
RN doesn’t use Mk46, it uses Mk54, as stated by the article. But Mk54 is partially based on the older Mk46 (or so google tells me).
It’s great having the flexibility to use both torpedos, as we get the best of both worlds in terms of interoperability with allies (Mk54) and other UK platforms (Stingray). In an emergency it’s probably going to be much easier to get our hands on more Mk54s than more Stingrays.
I’m sure there is a cost for this double fleeting, but I wouldn’t expect it to be too onerous.
Didn’t Norway already proceed with integration a couple of years ago ? Assume UK integration will ride on back of that work.
I hadn’t heard about that back let’s hope that’s the case.
The timelines are, as ever, depressingly long (I mean, out to 2035?!). Things certainly take an inordinately long time to come to fruition when it comes to defence procurement.
Still a very welcome move of course. It’s a shame that failures over Nimrod meant we ended up having purchase US equipment but it’s nice to see this step, albeit small, back towards fuller sovereign control of our core ASW capabilities.
Longer term, it would be good to see if a group of like-minded maritime nations (UK, Norway, Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea) could collaborate on a successor platform but with already so much else we need to fix (Trident, F35!) that’s obviously a long, long way down any list of priorities.
Tim, the 2032 might refer to the in-service support element of the work…
“the deal will cover demonstration, manufacture, and potentially in-service support for the integration programme.”
Although, “potentially” suggests that there is some ambiguity about that. I can’t imagine this would take 7 years to complete, unless we are having to get to the end of some kind of US programming queue.!? If so, there must be some serious questions about buying further kit from the US, their customer service just isn’t what it used to be, sadly.
Cheers CR
That makes more sense, thanks for pointing that out!
That’s the problem when you buy from abroad – you’re adding another level of risk to the relationship i.e. on top of having to rely on a private sector firm in the first place. As we can see from the F35 situation where we don’t have independent access to the source code and aircraft parts.
Cheers.
UK Defence Journal article of 30 Sept 2024 about AUKUS integrating Sting Ray onto P8 (which was subsequently denied by Australia) included comments from readers to effect Norway was already integrating Sting Ray onto P8..comments which matches my recollection of reading an article on it about 2-3 years ago…but cant find anything on it now.
& Germany is looking at for it’s P8s
A search on google was inconclusive. The AI said Norway had bought and paid for the Stingray integration, but I couldn’t find a definitive article supporting the statement… A Navy Lookout article from a few years ago said that Norway was using the MK54onits P-8’s but that the navy used Stingray on it’s frigates and ASW helicopters. So it looks like we might be in the same position as the Norwegians, with a mix of MK54 and Stingray for the P-8.
Cheers CR
Let’s hope in the forthcoming SDR 2025 we can increase the airframe numbers of P 8s up to another three aircraft. At least.
GB often explained why this was a good idea.
Very frequently and very emphatically I might add 🙂 But he’s not wrong.
Yeh, I remember. Where is he these days? I kinda miss is inputs.
Who knows!
“the Sting Ray will complement the continued use of the U.S.-supplied Mk54 torpedo, offering greater operational flexibility and a UK-controlled capability”
What they really mean is the Mk54 is a bit duff and string ray actually works.