MBDA’s anti-ship missile achieves important milestone

15th December 2021 - 17:51 GMT | by The Shephard News Team

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The Marte ER features high-level performance, reliability and great effectiveness of temrinal guidance thanks to a new RF seeker. (Photo: MBDA)

MBDA’s newest anti-ship missile has successfully completed its final firing test and will now enter into operation.

MBDA has announced its Marte ER anti-ship missile successfully completed its final test firing at the end of November 2021.

The firing was a key milestone in the validation process of Marte ER. It provided extra confidence in the performance level and reliability of this new missile.

A telemetric production standard missile with all functional capabilities and production hardware embedded was used. The only exception was the use of an inert warhead instead of a live one.

The ground-based launching system used was also in its final hardware and software configuration.

Using its mission planning software, the missile carrier out a long-range sea-skimming flight. Target identification, selection and tracking were extremely fast and proportional guidance started soon after.

During its terminal phase, the missile successfully performed its anti-Close-in weapon systems manoeuvre, hitting the target just above the waterline at high transonic speed.

This confirmed the outstanding effectiveness of Marte ER’s terminal guidance with its new solid-state RF Seeker.

The firing was the last one in the development path of Marte ER, which will enter into operation early next year.

According to Shephard Defence Insight, the Marte ER is derived from the Italian Sea Killer missile. It is a helicopter-launched, horizon-range anti-ship weapon with four variants.