30 January 2020

UK releases Mobile Fires Platform key user requirements

by Samuel Cranny-Evans

The UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) equipment procurement agency issued a new document on 27 January refining key user requirements for the country’s Mobile Fires Platform (MFP) programme, following an initial request for information (RFI) from the defence industry.

The revised document, which was published on the MFP Early Engagement Portal that is run by DE&S, has a deadline for responses of 17 February. The document is to lead to a Command Acquisition Support Plan (CASP) between DE&S and the customer, which are to formally agree the outputs that DE&S will deliver.

For artillery effects, the threshold requirement, meaning the minimum that the system must achieve, is the ability to set the fuze of a projectile and fire a standard suite of 155 mm ammunition using a modular charge system. The objective, however, is for the system that can fire an Armour Seeking Area Effects Munition (ASAEM), as well as rocket-assisted projectiles. The ASEAM would be provided by “cannon fired area effects munitions” as well as sensor fused munitions.

A battery of Mstas firing in unison. Such massed fires are perhaps one of the reasons for the extensive and precise MFP requirements. (Russian MoD)

The document assumes that the next generation of 155 mm ammunition will be a 52 calibre suite, as opposed to the UK’s existing 39 calibre range. The Tactical Guided Munition (Indirect) (TGM[I]) and High Explosive Base Bleed (HEBB) munitions will be provided separately by the Close Support Fires Programme, it said.