The term ‘Complex Weapon’ can include a number of different types but as a convenient shorthand, they can be thought of as guided rockets and missiles.
Missiles and guided bombs are defined by a number of characteristics;
- Range
- Guidance
- Launch platform and environment
- Target effects
A missile used to destroy small fast attack craft e.g. Sea Skua, has very different characteristics to that of a penetrating cruise missile e.g. Storm Shadow. This may seem obvious but it is a good shorthand for describing the systems.
Range allows the launch platform to stand off beyond enemy air defences or observation. The recent trend to target effects has been to reduce, smaller warheads and more precision strike fit within evolving laws of armed concept interpretation.
A large warhead can still be important, especially for penetrating hard targets such as bunkers or aircraft shelters. Main in the loop guidance is another increasingly important factor in modern weapons, being able to break off an attack at the last minute has proven to provide attacking forces with a valuable means of reducing civilian deaths.
Launch platform can have a large influence on costs, helicopter launch, for example, is much less demanding than a fast jet.
All these factors interplay to define individual systems in response to requirements.
[adrotate group=”1″]Complex Weapons Industry
For the UK defence industry, complex weapons are delivered by a number of manufacturers but the specific Complex Weapons Portfolio means MBDA (owned by BAE, EADS and Finmeccanica (Leonardo)) and Thales.
Following the 2005 Defence Industrial Strategy, in 2006, a new approach to managing the design, development, manufacture and through-life support was announced that would adopt a collaborative partnership, with MBDA and the MoD as the lead. Other partners in the team were Thales, Roxel and Qinetiq.
This arrangement was intended to maintain sovereign industrial capabilities by providing a predictable requirements roadmap. It was a smart move by the MoD and manufacturers and one which I don’t think they get enough credit for. In moving outside of the old-fashioned adversarial supplier-customer arrangement and towards a portfolio partnership it has provided an environment where innovation can be accommodated and the adverse effects of feast and famine reduced dramatically. In return for this assured workstream, industry would commit to a large block of efficiency savings over the initial ten-year timespan.
In 2010, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) signed a long-term partnering agreement with MBDA called the Initial Portfolio Management Agreement (PMA-I).
Key objectives of the portfolio partnership were a desire to maximise commonality, promote reuse of subcomponents, reduce development times improve collaboration with European partners. The agreement covered a spend of approximately £600m per annum.
Non-MBDA/Thales weapons were not included in the portfolio agreements, the Raytheon Paveway IV, Boeing Tomahawk cruise or Hellfire missiles for example. It also excluded infantry weapons such as Javelin and NLAW. This approach was perhaps due to industrial and sovereignty concerns but by putting Raytheon and Boeing ‘outside the tent’ the desired end to end capability management and cost advantages may not have been fully realised.
The portfolio approach was also intended to reduce single service focussed programmes that produce anomalies like RAF Harrier GR.3 rockets and RN Sea Harrier rockets not being interchangeable in 1982. These lessons were not learned by the time Brimstone was introduced but hopefully, SPEAR CAP 3 will have driven out this, frankly, nonsensical situation.
The Complex Weapons portfolio has seen increasing industrial consolidation and integration, indeed, this was one of the fundamental objectives of the portfolio approach. With increasing UK-French defence cooperation, complex weapons have also taken on a more UK/France focus.
The creation of MBDA came from a need to reduce the numerous missile vendors;
The diagram below shows the timeline.
In December 2015, as follow up from the 2010 Lancaster House agreements, France and the UK jointly signed contracts for the development of the Sea Venom missile that will replace Sea Skua in both nation’s armouries. Of more interest was confirmation that work would continue with the creation of a number of ‘Centres of Excellence’.
- France; weapon controllers and test equipment
- UK; datalinks and actuators
These four will be followed by locations for complex warheads, guidance and navigation systems, algorithms and software.
Complex Weapons Research
Extended to 2018, the Materials and Components for Missiles, Innovation and Technology Partnership (MCM ITP) is a joint UK/FRA research fund that feeds into the complex weapons pipeline. The funding is aimed at low Technology Level Readiness concepts, between 3 and 4, and organised into eight domains with each having a lead company;
- Systems, Concepts and Navigation; MBDA, UK
- RF Seekers; Thales Optronic, FR
- Infra-Red Sensors; Selex ES, UK
- Rocket Propulsion; Roxel, FR
- Turbojet Propulsion; Safran Microturbo, FR
- Warheads; QinetiQ (and Nexter), UK
- SAUs and Fuzes; Thales Missile Electronics, UK
- Materials and Electronics; MBDA, FR
The budget is a modest €13 million per annum but the programme has delivered some excellent research outcomes, all feeding into the complex weapon pipeline.
Complex Weapons Programmes
The Selective Precision Effects at Range (SPEAR) programme emerged around 2006 9although internal work had started before that) as a means of defining a number of air-launched weapons as part of the Complex Weapons portfolio. The weapons will be air-launched stand-off weapons that can be used against a wide range of stationary and moving targets in day or night, and with the ability to defeat countermeasures.
It is defined as;
Selective Precision Effects at Range (SPEAR) is the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) research and development request for highly accurate, beyond visual range re-targetable weapons which can receive target information updates over a data-link (network) in near real-time as part of the UK’s Network Enabled Capability (NEC)
SPEAR has been split into a number of capability numbers that have evolved since then.
SPEAR Capability 1; Raytheon Paveway IV precision-guided bomb and subsequent improvements to include reduced collateral and penetrator warhead and enhanced capability against moving targets.
SPEAR Capability 2; a 50kg class powered missile, eventually Block 3, Brimstone 2
SPEAR Capability 3; a longer range 100kg class weapon with the ability to be re-targeted in flight using two-way datalinks. There was some talk of using a derivative of FASGW(H) but this has evolved separately.
SPEAR Capability 4; upgrades to Storm Shadow to sustain it to the OSD
SPEAR Capability 5; longer range replacement for Storm Shadow
The UK has a long track record with guided weapons, as I am sure we all know, the world’s first practical guided weapon, the Brennan Torpedo, was operated by men of the Royal Engineers.
Outside of the formal complex weapons partnering arrangement there are also a number of programmes that will be included in this reference guide.
Great work as always
Read it all (so far) and a brilliant series ,stripping out the jargon and actually explaining the acronyms that are all to often banded about by commentators which are obvious to them but to us laymen baffeling (even your friendly google is stumped most times).
Once again brilliant :-)
Reading about starstreak very interesting . Does anyone know what became of seastreak . Has it every been deployed?
Outstanding, TD! Illuminating and diverting as always.
I’ve been slowly going through the series this far, excellent quality as always!
Don
Seastreak was a proposal and never found any orders, so no deployment.
Rudeboy
Thanks for follow up.
It seemed quite a compact inexpensive standalone system that could easily be Bolted On to even a small vessel in time of crisis. Obvious limitations in range however good against helos and aircraft . But missiles would perhaps be more of a challenge.
Don
Agreed. It seems another of those UK systems that are genuinely world beating that we just haven’t followed through on all the way. Of course it may be that there just wasn’t the interest, but it does seem that we don’t seem to take the punt as often as we should. Another option would be the MSI Seahawk Sigma that TD has mentioned before: 30 mm cannon and 7 LMM/Starstreak alongside. It seems a bit of a no-brainer, as it uses a mount, gun and missile already in RN service, pretty much any RN or RFA could then credibly deal with FIAC and Air threats. With the addition of a small radar it would be a pretty good CIWS.
Rudeboy
Seems a pretty good combination .
And cost effective . Saves overlkill and expense of using a harpoon to sink a speedboat or aster 30 to shoot down a low threat aircraft.
Agree can easily be added to RN / RFA vessel.
Umm, should Trident be on the list?
No articles on Spearfish or Stingray?
ASRAAM added
@TD or anyone else who could enlighten me
We spend all that money on designing/building a platform to fire a weapon and all that money on developing/building said weapon to be used from a platform. Why then does it cost so much to put the two together or integrate them? Am i missing something or is someone pulling a fast one.
I am looking forward to Exactor, arguably one of the most illusive, politically sensitive and secretive weapon systems fielded by the British armed forces.
Sea Viper/ASTER now up
Excellent series – many thanks
I’ll second that! full of quality info.
Very good series!
Another good series TD and as always am eagerly awaiting the ‘hare brained schemes’.
Yep and the Taliban can use a magnetic wave detector to kill all troops looking for weapons.
Hook it up to the high level and when they magnetic wave reached that level bar, it blows up.
Same goes for waves that penetrate the ground.
Iraq war cover up. Walks like poof so CIA sabotaged his strategies and bankrupt their county in a deal, within weeks of handing the Taliban the drone camera codes. Also broke the deal many times.
oblique weapons on fb.
oblique weapons on russian fb page https://vk.com/public122062237
Where’s HoHum when you need him? I think we have a genuine Putinbot on our hands…
DefenseNews reporting Israeli failure to shoot down a Syrian UAV over Israel on the Golan Heights despite launching two Patriot anti-air missiles and F-16. As Israel reputed to be the most professional and experienced operator using the upgraded Patriot PAC-2 am intrigued and wondering what could be the reason of failure of a relatively modern AAM to intercept a UAV.
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/2016/07/17/syrian-launched-uav-evades-israeli-air-defenses/87225302/
A short video which presents the Franco-Italian Aster 30 in service with the French army.
Nick, ,probably going too low/too small for a proper shot. Nothing in real life says you will always hit what you shoot at. :)
A Harpoon Blk 1C launched from a canister on the LCS trimaran USS Coronado failed to hit its target a decommissioned OHP class 4,100 ton frigate at 20 nm during the RIMPAC exercise off Hawaii last Tuesday.
http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense-news/2016/07/20/lcs-harpoon-missile-rimpac-coronado/87371686/
http://www.defensenews.com/articles/uk-supplied-precision-weapons-prove-popular-in-saudi-led-yemen-campaign
Slightly controversial at the moment but encouraging to see exported UK complex weapons in use. I wonder if there would be any use in re-introducing ALARM to the RAF inventory. We don’t seem to need it for sandpit wars at the moment but would it be of any use against Russian AAA/AD?
The UK is taking the sensing and geo-positioning route with regards SEAD rather than radiation homing and position memory: Sensing and deploying the SPEAR weapons, in particular SPEAR 3 has been pencilled in for this.
It makes the likes of Sentinel and the multi-spectral upgrades to that platform really important.