MBDA has successfully completed maiden firing trial of its Sea Venom/ANL light weight anti-ship missile from an airborne platform. T...
The missile was drop launched from a Dauphin test bed helicopter owned by French defense procurement agency DGA from the Île du Levant missile test range island in France.
Demonstrating maturity, the missile was fired for its maximum range during the first test itself. The next step is to exercise the systems’ operator-in-the-loop capabilities.
With enhanced strike capabilities, the Sea Venom is designed to replace existing and legacy systems such as the UK-developed Sea Skua and the French-developed AS15TT anti-ship missiles.
With 50-50 partnership, UK and France commenced the development in 2014. UK plans to integrate the missile with Royal Navy AW159 Wildcat helicopter, while France will operate the missile from its new Hélicoptère Interarmées Léger (HIL), a military version of the new generation Airbus Helicopters H160 helicopter, slated to enter service from 2024.
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| © DGA Centre d'essais en vol |
The missile has been designed for use from the widest range of platforms, with air carriage trials having been conducted to demonstrate compatibility of the missile on legacy Lynx helicopters.
The 110 kg subsonic missile carries a 30 kg warhead and is powered by a Roxel solid propellant rocket motor.
With a range of more than 20 km, the sea skimming self guided missile homes in to the target using the on board uncooled imaging IR seeker and advanced imaging sensor. A two way RF datalink relays live imaging seeker images to the pilot, enabling in-flight hit point refinement and re-targeting.
The missile is designed to engage vessels ranging from FIAC (Fast Inshore Attack Craft), through medium sized FAC (Fast Attack Craft) up to large vessels such as Corvettes with precision and have a secondary capability to attack coastal and land targets.
Up to 4 missiles can be integrated with medium sized helicopters like the H160 on Stub wings.
