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?
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.