MBDA on target with VL MICA
Richard Scott
European missile house MBDA (Stand 2000) is set to secure the first sale of its VL (Vertical Launch) MICA naval point defence missile system to a regional navy. Although the company has declined to identify the customer, IDEX Show Daily understands that the Royal Navy of Oman has selected the VL MICA system to equip its three new Project Khareef ocean patrol vessels.
The ships, ordered from VT Shipbuilding in January, will each be equipped with two six-cell launchers forward of the bridge. VL MICA uses the existing MICA air-to-air missile, available with either active radar or imaging infrared (IIR) seekers, fired in a lock-on-after-launch mode to provide protection out to a maximum range of 20km. Because the system uses vertical launch, and does not require dedicated target trackers, it offers a true 360° engagement capability against multiple simultaneous targets.
According to MBDA, the missile is able to execute manoeuvres of up to 50g at up to a 7km range and up to 30g at 10km. The active radar variant uses the same Thales AD4A pulse Doppler seeker as the Aster missile family, while the IIR version uses a dualwaveband imaging seeker. A narrow-pattern active Doppler proximity fuze has been designed to cover four independent angular sectors and to optimise detonation of the 12kg pre-fragmented highexplosive warhead. MBDA began marketing VL MICA in 2000 for both shipborne and land-based applications.
It has since undertaken a number of firing demonstrations, the most recent being in April last year when an IIR seeker missile was launched from a naval launcher at the Centre d’Essais de Lancement des Missiles facility in southwest France and engaged a target drone at a range of 10km. The naval launcher, which also serves as a storage and shipping container, is distinguished by an integral gas exhaust management system that vents out the missile efflux. MBDA confirms that the naval version of VL MICA “has been selected to equip the new corvettes on order by an export customer”, adding: “Several other navies as well as shipyards have expressed their interest in this air defence system.”
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