LONDON \u2014 The British Ministry of Defence has tapped MBDA to demonstrate an electronic warfare version of the company\u2019s Spear missile.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The idea is to replace the warhead with a miniaturized payload, made by Leonardo, that can jam enemy air defenses or beckon them away from strike missiles following in their wake, the company said at the DSEI defense trade show in London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese state-of-the-art electronic jammers will confuse our adversaries and keep our pilots safer than ever in the air,\u201d Defence Procurement Minister Anne-Marie Trevelyan was quoted as saying in an MBDA statement. \u201cPaired with the devastating power of precision Brimstone and Meteor missiles, our world-class F-35 and Typhoon jets will continue to rule the skies in the years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MBDA plans to offer the new missile for swarm-like scenarios, meaning a number of them would be launched ahead of traditional strike weapons to confuse and overwhelm radar defenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The electronic warfare weapon is meant to \u201ccomplement\u201d the Spear miniature cruise missile variant, which is designed to \u201cprecisely engage long range, mobile, fleeting and re-locatable targets,\u201d the company said. Both variants share the same architecture and propulsion system, which provide enough juice for the jammer version to loiter above prospective targets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Small, expendable drones \u2014 or missiles, in this case \u2014 are a prominent requirement for two next-generation combat aircraft programs taking shape in Europe: the Tempest and the Future Combat Air System. The miniaturized, networked platforms are envisioned to accompany larger strike aircraft and provide support capabilities, like jamming or reconnaissance, from a distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
MBDA is the designated weapons maker for both the British-Swedish-Italian Tempest effort and the French-German-Spanish FCAS program.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The idea is to replace the warhead with a payload for jamming enemy air defenses or beckoning them away from strike missiles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":29145,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":12,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[106,12,29,32],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3298],"class_list":["post-10251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-brief","category-electronic-warfare","category-home","category-newsletters"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"3262DGYT25BZFN257JDDYFCJPA","arc_canonical_url":"\/digital-show-dailies\/dsei\/2019\/09\/12\/mbda-readies-new-missile-for-electronic-warfare\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n