Future Cruise / Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) - Design
In order to ensure a high level of performance of future missiles, many improvements in scope, speed, stealth, manoeuvrability and connectivity were under consideration, as part of a concept phase led by MBDA. This concept phase, running from 2017 to 2020, followed a preliminary study, undertaken by both Governments in partnership with MBDA, and precedes the design, development and production phase which is expected to start in 2020.
First, it will make it possible to deal with a confrontation between fleets on the high seas, stemming from the resurgence of hostile states. In concrete terms, the new missile will have to enable both surface ships and aircraft (combat aircraft and maritime patrol aircraft) to neutralise any ship deemed threatening, and thereby protect state interests and those of allies. It is above all a defensive tool, the modernisation of which will enable navies to maintain their prominence in strategic competition at sea.
Secondly, FASW should also be able to be used more aggressively in order to respond to the increasing number of ground-to-air or ground-to-sea defences, in particular those installed along the coasts. Today, these systems have been perfected by the use of antimissile missiles with increased reach and manoeuvrability launched, moreover, from very mobile platforms, which are therefore difficult to reach.
Today, this capacity is delivered by means of SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles, which are now very high-performance, but which will appear obsolete by 2030. The performance of the future cruise missile is also partly linked to the ability of the future anti-ship missile to eliminate the opposing ground-to-air or ground-to-sea defences, in order to enable penetration deep into enemy territory.
The increase in range is a way of reducing the exposure of the missile launch platform on which the personnel deployed in operations are stationed. The “first” entry into the theatre of operations can then be performed, no longer by the platform, but directly by the missile - ultimately resulting in better protection for service personnel. Currently, according to the information available, the Exocet MM40 missile offers a range of 72 km for Block 2 and more than 180 km for Block 3,32 as compared to 125 km for the sea-to-sea version of Harpoon and 300 km for the Harpoon Block 2.33 As to the SCALP/Storm Shadow missiles, they have a range of around 400 km. The spread of air defence systems could lead to an increase in the range to reach approximately one thousand kilometdrs. Increasing the range would require work on air propulsion technologies in relation to other missile features such as the weight of the military payload. Survivability refers to a missile’s ability to “survive” the enemy defenses and reach its target. It is the direct response to the development of A2/AD systems and, for this reason, the guarantee that strategic superiority will be maintained over the theaters of operations. Survivability can come from different types of performance: stealth, speed or manoeuvrability.
Stealth is the quality that reduces the distance at which a missile is detected by enemy defences. It results from techniques and technologies aimed at reducing the waves emitted or reflected by a missile. Faced with the progression in radar technologies, the challenge today is to broaden the frequency band in which stealth is secured. British industrial players boast real expertise in this area.
Speed can ensure the survivability of a missile by limiting the reaction time of the enemy defences and France has invested heavily in the field of hypervelocity due to the choices made in the context of nuclear deterrence. Today, French and British capacities have a speed which, by approaching Mach 0.8 or 0.9 (990 to 1,100 km/h), approach the speed of sound without reaching it. Some nations already have supersonic capabilities and are working to move beyond this stage and reach speeds above Mach 4 (4,940 km/h) or Mach 5 (6,170 km/h). However, achieving this performance requires technological progress in terms of supersonic technology. In order to increase the heat of the engine and, as a result, increase the speed of the missile, better control of high temperature materials is needed. In addition, work carried out in partnership with the National Office for Aerospace Studies and Research (ONERA) will improve the internal and external aerodynamics of the missile, namely air flow in the combustion chamber and air friction on the surface of the missile.
In order to equip the FC/ASW with a suitable terminal guidance mode, significant progress is expected on the homing missiles, in particular regarding the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging radar. France and the United Kingdom both have an industrial sector that masters these technologies and has demonstrated its excellence on several occasions on previous missile programmes. This work on the performance of the FC/ ASW homing missile assumes that both countries commit to a high level of informationsharing, while ensuring that they maintain their respective know how. Analysis of the operational requirement has brought out, in particular, the need for the homing system to be resistant to different environments. For example, optical homing can be a limiting factor because of weather conditions and the technical characteristics of the missiles, particularly in terms of speed. Consequently, in order to overcome the limits of each mode and to improve the performance of the homing system, the FC/ASW could be equipped with a multimode homing system, which could combine a passive or active radar homing mode, with an infra-red solution.
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