The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a contract to MBDA to supply the Sea Ceptor system to protect the British Royal Navy’s new Type 31 frigates.
The contract will see MBDA integrate Sea Ceptor with the systems of Type 31 ships.
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It will also be responsible for the delivery and installation of ship hardware for the Type 31 programme.
Sea Ceptor is a sea-based supersonic missile defence system developed for the British Royal Navy.
It was developed by MBDA Missile Systems, a partnership between BAE Systems, EADS (now Airbus) and Finmeccanica (now Leonardo).
The Sea Ceptor is based on MBDA’s common anti-air modular missile (CAMM).
This system allows the Type 31 frigates to protect themselves from attack from current and future threats such as high-speed manoeuvring missiles, attack aircraft and fast inshore attack craft (FIAC).
The latest contract forms part of the portfolio management agreement (PMA), a partnership which the UK MoD signed with MBDA in 2010.
The Sea Ceptor programme is the second contract awarded under the PMA. The first contract was signed between the MoD and MBDA in 2010.
The PMA delivers advanced military equipment for the British Armed Forces and has secured more than 4,000 jobs at MBDA UK. It generated savings valued at over £1.2bn.
MBDA CEO Eric Beranger said: “We are very pleased to mark this latest success for the CAMM family.
“Sea Ceptor was designed to change the game in naval air defence and, with Type 31 the latest in a growing list of ship classes that Sea Ceptor has been chosen to protect, it is rapidly delivering on this promise.”
Currently, Sea Ceptor is in service on the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates. It is also expected to protect the new Type 26 Global Combat Ships (GCS).
