By Boris Solomiac, MBDA General Delegate India
New Delhi. 03 December 2021. With a strong reputation as a reliable partner that has supported the Indian Navy for over 50 years, European missile firm MBDA understands the importance of operational capability and sovereignty to the Indian Navy.
MBDA continues to deepen its relationship with Indian industry, as seen by the recent formation of a joint venture with long-standing partner Larsen & Toubro to deliver a series of important missile programmes under the Make in India category.
The highlight of these is that Larsen & Toubro MBDA Missile Systems Ltd (LTMMSL) is currently offering Sea Ceptor, the latest generation proven all-weather air defence system, for the Indian Navy’s Short Range Surface to Air Missile (SRSAM) requirement.
Armed with highly advanced new technologies but proven and in-service today, Sea Ceptor would provide Indian Navy ships with complete protection against all known and projected air targets including saturation attacks across 360° simultaneously. Sea Ceptor utilises the CAMM missile that features a next generation all-weather fully active radio frequency-seeker, two-way datalink and soft- vertical launch system to provide a step-change in performance compared with previous generation systems.
Sea Ceptor protects both the ship armed with the system and enables that ship to also protect other vessels, including high value units such as aircraft carriers. The weapon system has the capability to intercept and thereby neutralise the full range of current and future threats, including combat aircraft and the new generation of sea skimming supersonic anti-ship missiles cruising. With Sea Ceptor having no minimum engagement altitude – it also able to engage surface targets such as fast attack craft – the system provides an impenetrable barrier to all threats.
MBDA also has a strong pedigree as a provider of the latest and most capable aircraft weaponry, having provided a number of different strike and air-to-air weapon systems that have provided excellent front-line capability to the Indian Naval Air Arm over the years such as the Magic II air-to-air missiles on Sea Harrier, or the Sea Eagle anti-ship missile that armed a number of Indian Naval Air Arm aircraft.
MBDA produces a number of weapon systems that are already in the inventory of the Indian Armed Forces that could be invaluable to current or future carrier based combat aircraft of the Indian Navy. This includes air-to-air weapons such as the famous Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile, the MICA and ASRAAM close combat air-to-air missile, or the Mistral ATAM air-to-air missile system for helicopters. For anti-ship and strike roles there is also the AM39 version of the Exocet missile that can arm a wide array of maritime aircraft, from naval fighter aircraft to maritime patrol aircraft and naval helicopters.
