MBDA unveils Perseus next-gen strike weapon

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MBDA, the missile-maker in the EADS Cassidian stable, is showing off its idea of the multi-role strike weapon system for 2030 and beyond. The CVS 401 Perseus concept missile system may replace the current generation of heavy anti-ship and cruise missiles, the company says.

The company adds the new system will have to be capable of launching anti-ship strikes, land attacks and engaging time-sensitive targets such as relocatable missile launchers “in an ever more complex tactical environment and with the minimum risk of collateral damage”. This new system will also have to be modular and deliverable from a surface vessel, a submarine, a carrier-based platform or a maritime patrol aircraft.

The missile company says Perseus, unveiled earlier today, features multiple operating modes suitable for engaging a wide variety of land and maritime targets with the added capability of being able to overcome the most effective of enemy anti-missile defences. “It is designed to be a tactical weapon system operated through an advanced operations and mission planning system at the crossroads of naval, land and air warfare,” MBDA said in a statement. “The advanced supersonic (up to Mach 3), agile and stealthy airframe is powered by a revolutionary ramjet motor built around a highly compact Continuous Detonation Wave Engine. This revolutionary solution, at the very edge of propulsion technology, opens up the possibility of developing a smaller airframe with more energetic efficiency.
“This airframe will make Perseus an unrivalled penetrator of enemy defences and an effective weapon for use against fast moving, relocatable targets that it will be able to reach in a matter of minutes even at ranges of up to 300km,” MBDA avers.
“An advanced dual-mode sensor package (comprising an Active Electronically-Scanned Array or AESA radar combined with a laser radar or LADAR) allows for all-weather operations in all configurations of terminal engagement. Radar modes such as SAR (Synthetic Aperture Radar) and DBS (Doppler Beam Sharpening) allow for long range target detection and discrimination in complex land and naval tactical environments including those involving advanced counter measures.”

Overall weapon system robustness is reinforced by an advanced, hybridised navigation system, MBDA continues.

The lethal package includes two guided “effectors” that are ejected from the modular payload bay and a third warhead remaining on-board for a dispersed lethal effect on large or multi-element targets such as a major warship or a ground based missile system. Moreover, the missile’s modular composite structure allows for reductions in the overall mass of the weapon and fosters opportunities for through-life capability enhancement, simplifying maintenance operations through the whole life cycle and supporting the eventual development of a family of products.
“Perseus features a highly original shape providing to optimise key performance characteristics and adaptability for integration on a range of naval and air platforms. The weapon’s general performance with regard to its flight characteristics, its manoeuvrability, its propulsion as well as the detection capabilities of its sensors and the efficiency of its multiple military warhead have all been evaluated through digital simulations,” MBDA adds in the media release. “As Perseus will be a tactical missile, the question of its operational deployment and access to tactical theatre data has also been considered so that a coherent and efficient weapon system architecture can be proposed.”

Steve Wadey, Executive Group Director Technical and Managing Director MBDA UK, says a team of nine British, French, German and Italian engineers from MBDA, together with representatives from the Royal Navy and the French Navy, evaluated the requirement for the weapon from operational analysis through to key performance specifications and proposed Perseus as the solution.
“The aims of MBDA’s Concept Visions process are to promote innovation with our customers, supply chain and employees to shape the future of the missile systems market,” Wadey adds. “By bringing together and synthesising the know-how of our diverse group of highly talented engineers with that of equipment end-users, MBDA is able to offer the market a radical and accomplished vision of future missile system concepts and a demonstration of world leading innovation”.

CVS 401 Perseus is the second project that MBDA has exhibited to show its vision of the future within the framework of a company initiative known as Concept Visions. This initiative was presented for the first time at last year’s Farnborough Air Show when MBDA displayed its CVS 101 concept comprising a family of urban combat missiles, the 1kg Sniper and 5kg Enforcer, capable of being operated in a network-centric environment and enabling the delivery of a heavy punch at the lower levels of a force structure.