Place of origin United Kingdom
France Manufacturer MBDA Length 2.5 m (8.2 ft) | Used by Royal Navy
French Navy Weight 110 kg (240 lb) | |
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Type Light Anti-ship missile | ||
Sea Venom is an Anglo-French lightweight anti-ship missile developed by MBDA to equip the Royal Navy and the French Navy. The missile is known as Sea Venom (formerly Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy)) in the United Kingdom and Anti-Navire Léger (ANL) in France. It is expected to enter service with the Royal Navy in late 2020.
Design
Sea Venom is designed as a successor to the Royal Navy's Sea Skua and French Navy's AS 15 TT missiles. When in service, Sea Venom will equip Wildcat helicopters in the Royal Navy and Panther and NH90 helicopters in the French Navy. Due to shared characteristics with its predecessors, MBDA claims Sea Venom will be able to readily integrate onto platforms already carrying Sea Skua and AS 15 TT.
Much like its predecessors, Sea Venom is designed to attack surface targets, such as fast in-shore attack craft (FIACS) ranging in size of between 50-500 tonnes, as well as larger surface targets of up to corvette size. With its 30 kg warhead, the missile is also capable of inflicting significant damage to larger vessels through precision aim point selection, and can also attack static land-based targets. Whilst its precise range is currently unknown, MBDA has stated that the missile has a "long" stand-off range enabling it to be launched from beyond the reach of most modern air defence systems. The missile is capable of several attack modes including sea skimming and "pop up/top attack." Sea Venom uses an IR Seeker with the option of man in the loop guidance via data-link; the high speed two-way data-link transmits the images "seen" by the seeker back to the operator, enabling them to remain in control of the missile throughout its flight in addition to having an autonomous engagement capability.