Julian Moxon/PARIS
The definition contract for the anti-navire future (ANF) supersonic follow-on to the Exocet anti-ship missile is on schedule to be awarded at the end of this month, with the seeker element of the project to be opened to European competition, says weapons developer Aerospatiale.
The ANF missile is the successor to the cancelled anti-navire nouvelle generation that was to have entered full-scale development this year with Germany's Daimler-Benz Aerospace. While certain elements, such as the ramjet engine, will remain France's responsibility, Aerospatiale now sees the programme as one of the elements that could be included in a wider European missiles alliance, building on its aeronautics merger with Matra Hautes Technologies.
"The ANF will be launched with French money, but it is a way of opening a route to European collaboration," the company says.
The award of the year-long definition contract will see European industry invited to tender for the seeker. "We will extend invitations to tender from those countries that express an interest in purchasing the ANF," says Aerospatiale.
The UK and Italy, which partner France in the Horizon frigate project, are thought likely to be included. Those that join will then go into full-scale development of the ANF, although there is at present no defined timescale for this phase of the project.
The ANF's Vesta ramjet is now in full-scale development, Aerospatiale having won a Fr750 million ($125 million) multi-year order in October 1997. Design and development will continue to the end of 1999, with three test flights planned in 2001 and 2002.
The ANF will have a range exceeding 150km (95 miles) over a 4min flight time, travelling "between Mach 2.0 and Mach 3.0", says Aerospatiale. The warhead will be derived from a version which has already been partially developed in the previous ANS supersonic anti-ship missile programme, with mid-course guidance by inertial navigation and an active radar homing head for terminal guidance.
The missile will be able to be fired from existing Exocet MM38 or MM40 launchers.
Source: Flight International