DSEI 2025: MBDA’s new SPEAR GLIDE munition breaks cover
The high-mass saturation weapon, positioned as a low-cost variant in the SPEAR portfolio, could be indigenously produced by any future customer, according to MBDA.
E-2D Hawkeye on the flight line. (Photo: USN/Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Kenneth Abbate)
The USN has ordered analysis tools and performance analysis to support improvements to its E-2D Advanced Hawkeye airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft.
Work on a contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division will be performed by Toyon Research Corporation at four US locations for completion by July 2024.
‘Additionally, this order provides two E-2D Delta System Software Configuration (DSSC)-4 mission computer upgrade kits to support analysis of E-2D DSSC-4 in an operational environment, as well as develop system requirements to update the E-2D All-source Track and ID Fuser data fusion engine to accept data from tactical information web services,’ the DoD noted in a 3 May announcement.
This work feeds directly into efforts by the USN and industry to develop a method that would analyse different approaches of combining tracks from multiple disparate data sources, and identify the approach that results in the best overall track accuracy within the processing and time constraints available.
The USN in January 2022 received its final E-2D under the first multi-year procurement contract with Northrop Grumman.
The latest Advanced Hawkeye features the DSSC Build 3, which (according to Northrop Grumman) ‘provides an additional leap in operational effectiveness and technology’ with an aerial refuelling capability and a dwell-based tracker.
Shephard Defence Insight notes that the USN signed a $3.2 billion multi-year contract in 2019 to acquire 24 additional E-2D aircraft, with a production deadline of 2026.
Deliveries under this MYP 2 contract will begin in 2022.
The high-mass saturation weapon, positioned as a low-cost variant in the SPEAR portfolio, could be indigenously produced by any future customer, according to MBDA.
The updated stealth airframe model will be displayed for the first time at DSEI 2025 to showcase the maturity of the technologies and system ahead of its launch into the development phase, MBDA said.
The One-Way Effector Heavy (OWE(H)) was designed over seven months, with the company currently in discussions to field demonstrations of the product by Q4 2025.
With numerous nations, including the UK, committing a combined US$9.99 billion to acquiring the MQ-9B MALE UAV according to Shephard Defence Insight data, the capability now looks set to soar as UAV spending rises globally.
Launched at DSEI 2025 for the first time, the first-person-view uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) is available as 10-inch and 7-inch variant, ideal for surveillance or one-way strike missions.
As the home of British helicopters, Leonardo has worked with the UK Ministry of Defence for over a decade to advance technologies underpinning uncrewed rotorcraft. Today, in partnership with DE&S Future Capabilities Innovation and the Royal Navy, Leonardo is spearheading the next step in that journey: from remotely piloted technologies to fully autonomous systems.