Euronaval 2024 – MBDA details its deep strike current and future capabilities
With the increasing tension in Europe, and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict close to reach its third year, the need to hit enemy targets in depth has become more and more obvious. At Euronaval 2024 MBDA exhibited its available systems, as well as its future developments in the deep strike field
For naval forces the available solution is the NCM, for Naval Cruise Missile (NCM), currently in service with the French Navy. With a mass at launch of 1,400 kg, this 6.3 metres long missile can be launched from the A70 Sylver vertical launcher as well as from 533 mm torpedo launch tubes. Known in the French Navy as Missile de Croisière Naval, MdCN in short, it equips FREMM frigates as well as Barracuda submarines while submerged. Although neither the company nor the service provide ranges, estimates give ranges of several hundreds nautical miles, with the ship-launched having a longer range compared to the submarine-launched missile. At Euronaval 2024 MBDA OCCAR, Orizzonte Sistemi Navali and MBDA signed the order for the feasibility study aiming at adding the NCM to the Italian Navy FREMM EVO frigates weapons inventory, the first two ships being scheduled for delivery by June 2029 and June 2030.
The NCM is one of the key elements of the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) initiative, which French, Germany, Poland and Italy signed at the NATO summit in Washington in July this year, an initiative that becomes even more important in the light of the recent issue of the United States elections. MBDA is also working on a land-based version of the NCM, which will then become LCM where the “N” for Naval is replaced by the “L” for Land, the system being truck-mounted.
“However, the deep strike is becoming more and more challenging with the evolution of air defence, and therefore we have to prepare the future,” Pierre-Marie Belleau, head of business development for deep strike missiles, said at Euronaval. “We are therefore developing two products, the first one being the TP 15, a super stealth cruise missile,” the acronym standing for Turbo Prop, revealing the propulsion system.
“The second one is the RJ 10, which will fly at very high supersonic speed and will be highly maneuverable,” here too the acronym revealing the powerplant, RJ standing for RamJet. MBDA aims at developing two missiles that should become “unstoppable” in the next decade, one based on stealthness, therefore avoiding detection until the very last moment of the attack, the other one basing its survivability on speed and maneuverability. “This is a programme which has been start between UK and France and Italy joined in 2023 signing the convergence contract, making it a three-nation program, which I think is essential for the future of the defence of Europe,” Belleau adds, the programme being initially known as FC/ASW for Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon.
While currently the lead on the TP 15 is in the UK and that of the RJ 10 is in France, however the MBDA representative underlined that this is of relative importance, as the real aim is to bring the technology in Europe and exploit the excellences within MBDA.
The assessment phase, which was launched three years ago, will be finished by early 2025. “We have performed some critical tests, and you have to consider that these missiles are one step further in technology compared to what we have done so far, as they are made to address the threat for the next decade,” Belleau underlined, adding that MBDA is currently negotiating the development phase, and that the availability of those two new missiles will depend also on customers’ funding. As for the company, the programme is proceeding full steam, around 750 engineers being involved in the programme, the number being on the increase with the addition of the Italian component. In fact, the FC/ASW acronym does not apply anymore, the programme now looking for missiles capable to perform not only anti-ship missions but also ground-strike missions, including SEAD/DEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defences/Destruction of Enemy Air Defences).
Starting from the TP 15, the issue of stealthness is much more critical for a missile than for an aircraft, as the latter needs to remain undetected until it releases its weapons, usually stand-off systems, while the missile must remain undetected until the last moment. According to MBDA a first prototype of the extra-low observable missile is ready. With a length slightly over 5 metres, it has been already tested in an anechoic chamber to verify its radar cross section; no data were of course provided, while the shape of the missile itself was not unveiled, the picture seen during the briefing being blurred, while the mock-up exhibited in the MBDA stand did not correspond of course to the real one. This kind of critical test was one of the main objectives of the assessment phase, to be sure that these missiles could be developed with an acceptable level of risk.
“We are extremely proud of the results we obtained, it was a massive technical challenge. Now we have made all the tests, the results are very satisfactory, and we can therefore move to the next phase and develop these products,” the MBDA responsible for deep strike missiles said.
Beside the picture of the TP 15 in the anechoic chamber, anther one was shown related to ramjet tests conducted for the RJ 10. While the turbojet for the TP 15 is being developed by Rolls-Royce and Safran Power Units, which jointly signed an Assessment Phase contract with MBDA in July 2022, EDR On-Line understood that the ramjet for the RJ 10 is being developed by Bayern-Chemie, the Centre of Competence for propulsion systems within MBDA which developed and is producing ramjets for the Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile. “For the RJ 10 it is a question to fly long enough at very high supersonic speed and to have the possibility also to modulate the thrust, so the missile can accelerate in flight when required,” Belleau explains. The first engines were produced and tested in a 100 metres long facility. When the missile will manoeuvre at very high supersonic speed in the final attack phase it will need to modulate the thrust, and this will also be possible during the cruise phase, MBDA explained.
Some tests on the seeker were also made. The RJ 10 will feature a radiofrequency seeker, while the TR 15 will have an imaging infrared one. Both seekers will be based on next-generation technology. Talking about the RF Seeker, “MBDA Italy will definitely be a key element in its development, the Fusaro Centre of Competence having developed such an AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) multimode seeker for the Teseo Mk2/E missile which first launch was performed in mid-October 2024,” Franco Donfrancesco, National Sales Business Development Director at MBDA Italia stated. The RJ 10 is being designed mainly to attack ships, to perform SEAD/DEAD missions, destroying enemy radars hence weakening its air defences, and it will also have a capability against high value airborne assets (HVAAs), such as AWACS, tankers, etc, at super long distances. As for the TP 15, it is mostly aimed against ground targets, such as military depots, headquarters, reinforced concrete facilities, while maintaining antiship as a secondary mission. Although nothing was said about warheads, this should mean they will be pretty different. That said, both missiles maintain a considerable flexibility.
No workshare among MBDA national companies has yet been established, the programme being still in the early stage, however what is confirmed is that all three nations will acquire both missiles, as this will allow them to cope with different targets in different conditions. “We have an objective of industrial return, and this makes sense because it’s taxpayer money, but first of all we want to have a product which works and which delivers the value,” was the actual answer.
Awaiting the availability of the TP 15 and the RJ 10, MBDA is proposing saturation and collaborative combat solution, based on available effectors and the Orchestrike AI-driven system.
Image courtesy MBDA, photos by P. Valpolini
