Chris Pocock has been covering the defense beat for AIN for over 30&nbsp;years. He is a British citizen and a graduate of the University of Cambridge. Chris worked in the air cargo business for ten years before becoming a full-time writer in 1983. He subsequently edited two air cargo journals before becoming AIN’s Defense Editor. He retired from that position in 2018, but still contributes to the publication. Chris has written extensively on aerial reconnaissance, including four books on the history of the U-2 spyplane. He also lectures on this and other topics related to intelligence-gathering in the Cold War.

Defense Correspondent

Chris Pocock

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced that the “world-leading” Sea Ceptor missile system that will protect the Royal Navy’s new QEII-class aircraft carriers has officially entered service. It will be carried initially by Navy Type 23 frigates that will escort the carriers and later by the Royal Navy's forthcoming eight Type 26 combat warships. Three Type 23s have been fitted and have carried out successful firings. The MoD said that it has cost “around £850 million” (more than $1.1 billion) to develop and manufacture the system.

 


The Sea Ceptor system includes detection radars and the necessary command and control, but the key element is a <a href="https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/defense/2017-04-27/mbda-gears-production-new-air-defense-missile">compact, point defense missile made by MBDA</a> that is designed to protect warships from proliferating airborne threats, notably supersonic sea-skimming missiles. But Royal Navy officers have said that it can also intercept fast-attack surface vessels.

 


MBDA still refers to this compact interceptor as the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM), since it can be housed by a variety of launchers, including land-based ones. It is ejected from these by a&nbsp;gas-generated piston before its rocket motor ignites. In Royal Navy service, the missile is launched from one of the Type 23’s eight-cell Mk41 Vertical Launch System canisters.

 


Last month, MBDA announced that the CAMM had been qualified for launch from a smaller, three-cell version of this launcher. Up to four CAMMs can be stored and fired from a single cell. The missile can therefore be integrated with various ships and their radar/C2I systems. Five other navies have bought the CAMM, and the British Army will replace its Rapier SAMs with CAMMs, in a system named Land Ceptor.

 

 

 


The MoD said that the Sea Ceptor system had been tested at the Hebrides range off the coast of Scotland against a range of complex scenarios, including engaging multiple targets at once. Sea Ceptor is replacing the decades-old Seawolf missile system.

UK Deploys 'World-Leading' Ship Defense System

The key to the Royal Navy’s Sea Ceptor includes a new missile made by MBDA.

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