MBDA completes Sea Venom/ANL carriage and jettison trials on Lynx

[Ethan]

• MBDA has performed air carriage and jettison trials of the Sea Venom/ANL anti-ship missile from a Royal Navy Lynx HMA.8 helicopter
• The initiative is designed to boost the export appeal of Sea Venom/ANL to legacy Lynx and Super Lynx users

European missile house MBDA has successfully performed air carriage and jettison trials of its Sea Venom/Anti-Navire Léger (ANL) anti-ship missile from a Royal Navy (RN) Lynx HMA.8 helicopter under a UK Defence Growth Partnership (DGP)/Defence Solutions Centre (DSC) initiative designed to boost the export appeal of Sea Venom/ANL to legacy Lynx and Super Lynx users.

The trials, undertaken in March at the Larkhill Range in Wiltshire, England, culminated in the jettisoning of two inert Sea Venom/ANL missiles fitted with telemetry kits. The trials marked the last flights of the Lynx HMA.8 in UK service, with the type officially retired from service on 31 March 2017; the MBDA Sea Skua missile was retired from RN service at the same time.

Developed by MBDA to meet the joint needs of the United Kingdom and France for a future helicopter-launched anti-ship missile, Sea Venom/ANL is a high-subsonic, drop-launch sea-skimming missile featuring an imaging infrared seeker, a two-way datalink, a 30 kg semi-armour piercing blast/fragmentation warhead, and a maximum range in excess of 20 km. In the United Kingdom, the missile will equip the RN's Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter to satisfy the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy) requirement and replace the capability previously delivered by the Sea Skua.

Other Sea Skua export customers - such as Brazil, Malaysia, and South Korea - will see their missile stockpiles reach life expiry in the near future. However, their respective Lynx/Super Lynx helicopter fleets are expected to remain in service for another 10-15 years.

A UK industry cluster led by MBDA last year launched a GBP4 million (USD5 million) phased investment programme to integrate and qualify Sea Venom/ANL on existing Lynx/Super Lynx maritime helicopters, with the intention to get this capability 'customer ready' by 2018.
http://www.janes.com/article/69483/mbda-completes-sea-venom-anl-carriage-and-jettison-trials-on-lynx

 

[Ethan]

:استريح:It is good that the Royal British Navy is in constant progress

 

[Ethan]

RN completes last Sea Skua high seas firing

• Three Sea Skua missiles were successfully fired on 25 February from a Lynx HMA.8 operating from the frigate HMS Portland
• This was the RN's last high seas firing before the Lynx and Sea Skua are retired from RN service

A UK Royal Navy (RN) Lynx HMA.8 helicopter from 815 Naval Air Squadron (NAS) has completed the last planned live firing of the MBDA Sea Skua anti-ship missile in RN service.

The high seas firing, performed by 208 Flight from the Type 23 frigate HMS Portland, was undertaken on 25 February in the North Atlantic. According to the RN, the Lynx HMA.8 "successfully fired three Sea Skua missiles for training purposes", using a Killer Tomato surface target balloon as the target.

ea Skua will go out of service at the end of March 2017, coincident with the retirement of the Lynx HMA.8 from RN service. 208 Flight - the RN's last embarked Lynx flight - is due to disembark from HMS Portland on 10 March and return to Royal Naval Air Station Yeovilton prior to 815 NAS's formal decommissioning on 23 March.

The 15 km-range Sea Skua anti-ship missile was purpose-developed to arm the Lynx. Designed to counter Soviet missile-armed fast attack craft and corvettes, the missile used the Lynx's Seaspray radar to provide semi-active guidance support to its target.

The new Wildcat HMA.2 helicopter has entered RN service devoid of any anti-surface guided weapons, leaving a 'hard-kill' capability gap between the retirement of the Lynx/Sea Skua and the arrival of the respective Heavy and Light strands of the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW), namely the MBDA Sea Venom/ANL anti-ship missile and Thales Martlet laser beam-riding lightweight multirole missile. FASGW trials on Wildcat are due to start in mid-2018, with Initial Operating Capability planned for no later than October 2020.http://www.janes.com/article/68338/rn-completes-last-sea-skua-high-seas-firing