Future Cruise And Anti-Ship Weapon FC/ASW Program Reaches New Milestone

[Zarvan]

Scale model of a notional smart and subsonic FC/ASW missile on MBDA stand at DSEI.

Future Cruise And Anti-Ship Weapon FC/ASW Program Reaches New Milestone​

The head of the French DGA, his British DE&S counterpart and the CEO of MBDA signed a bilateral agreement and contracts for the continued preparatory work for the Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) Programme. The kick-off meeting was held on 17th february 2022.​

Xavier Vavasseur 18 Feb 2022

The objective of the FC/ASW Programme is to replace from 2028, the capabilities currently in service within the Royal Navy, the Royal Air Force (RAF), Marine Nationale (French Navy), and Armée de l’air et de l’espace (French Air Force) for anti-ship and deep strike missions.

Preparatory work has been underway since 2017 culminating in two weapon concepts. With these new contracts, MBDA, the European missile company, and its industrial partners from the two countries, will continue to work on the definition of two missile designs and will assess their performance to counter future threats and to deliver operational advantage through long-range strike.

Sir Simon Bollom KBE CB CEO DE&S, Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA and head of DGA Joel Barre. DGA picture

Since the beginning of the 2000s, France and the United Kingdom have been cooperating in the field of complex weapons on various bilateral programmes, such as the SCALP / Storm Shadow missile and the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW), as well as multilateral programmes such as the Aster missile with Italy and Meteor. This cooperation is one of the main pillars of the Lancaster House Treaties signed on November 2, 2010.

About FC/ASW​

Scale model of a notional supersonic FC/ASW missile on MBDA stand at DSEI.

Following the Lancaster House agreement of 2010, France and the United Kingdom launched in 2017 a joint program with the goal to replace their cruise and anti-ship missiles circa 2030.

Named FC/ASW for Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (or FMAN/FMC for futur missile anti-navire/futur missile de croisière in French), the program is led by European missile leader MBDA. The FC/ASW aims to replace the air launched Scalp/Storm Shadow as well as the air and ship launched Exocet and Harpoon anti-ship missiles currently in service with French and British air forces and navies.

The FC/ASW seeks to develop a new generation of deep strike and anti-ship missiles by 2030. It aims at replacing the capabilities provided by Storm Shadow/ SCALP air launched cruise missile in operational service in the UK and France as well as the Exocet anti-ship missile in France and the Harpoon anti-ship missile in the UK.

MBDA announced the successful achievement of the FC/ASW (Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon) “Key Review” phase, jointly conducted with the British Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) and the French Defense Procurement Agency (DGA) in 2019. In a written parliamentary question Jeremy Quin, British Minister of State for the Ministry of Defence revealed that the FC/ASW will equip both navies, Royal Navy and French Navy (Marine Nationale) starting 2028.

In the meantime, UK was considering an interim solution to replace the obsolete Harpoon Block 1C, off the shelf anti-ship missile solution for its current and future surface fleet (with the first Type 26 frigate set to be delivered around 2025). Dubbed Next Generation Interim Surface Ship Guided Weapon (I-SSGW), the missile were set to be delivered starting December 2023. However the plan was cancelled in early 2022:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1493933433311141889

Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon FC/ASW Program Reaches New Milestone - Naval News

The head of the French DGA, his British DE&S counterpart and the CEO of MBDA signed a bilateral agreement and contracts for the continued preparatory work for the Future Cruise and Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) Programme. The kick-off meeting was held on 17th february 2022.

www.navalnews.com

 

[Muhammad Saftain Anjum]

So subsonic cruise Missiles still have a significant place in future oriented weapon systems.I hope PN also continues to upgrade its Harbah and B3 cruise missiles besides development of Supersonic and hypersonic weapon systems.

SCALP air launched cruise missile in operational service in the UK and France

Wow Scalp is an excellent missile already.

 

[Zarvan]

So subsonic cruise Missiles still have a significant place in future oriented weapon systems.I hope PN also continues to upgrade its Harbah and B3 cruise missiles besides development of Supersonic and hypersonic weapon systems.


Wow Scalp is an excellent missile already.

That is because subsonic are most stealth cruise missiles. They fly really low which makes it really difficult for radars to detect them.

 

[Zarvan]

UK, France confirms future cruise/anti-ship weapon project



Image credit: MBDA

European missile maker MBDA has annunced that the United Kingdom and France confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the Future Cruise / Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program, after the signature on 18 February of a government agreement and associated contracts by the French Direction générale de l’armement (DGA) and the British Defence Equipment & Support (DE&S).

Eric Beranger, CEO of MBDA said: “The FC/ASW programme is an example of the value of the ‘One MBDA’ integrated model. By combining technology, industrial capacity and funding across borders, we can deliver unique and advanced sovereign capabilities. Following the conclusion of the FC/ASW Concept Phase, the confirmation of the launch of these preparation works testifies the renewed confidence of our two countries towards MBDA. The project will take advantage from our sustained French/UK Centres of Excellence. This reinforcement of MBDA’s portfolio of deep strike and anti-ship systems will allow MBDA to offer to our armed forces, whose satisfaction is our priority, a cutting-edge solution fitted to their requirements and adapted to all existing or future operational needs.”

These preparation works will focus on the co-ordinated development of a programme of next generation deep strike and heavy anti-ship weapons. It will assess two complementary missile concepts, expected to be fielded at the end of the decade: a subsonic low observable concept and a supersonic, highly manoeuvrable concept.


These concepts are to meet the requirements of France and the UK and will provide a game changing capability to overcome land-based and maritime threats, hardened targets and air defence systems, at very long ranges and in increasingly contested battlespace environments.

As noted by the company, FC/ASW will complement MBDA’s portfolio of existing products that continue to be evolved to adapt to new threats.

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Executive Editor

About this Author​

Dylan Malyasov
U.S. defense journalist and commentator. Aviation photographer. Dylan leads Defence Blog's coverage of global military news, focusing on engineering and technology across the U.S. defense industry.

UK, France confirms future cruise/anti-ship weapon project

European missile maker MBDA has annunced that the United Kingdom and France confirmed the launch of the preparation works for the Future Cruise / Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) program, after the signature on 18 February of a government agreement and associated contracts by the French Direction...

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