SPEAR CAP 3 seems to offer some part of the Harpoon capability even if it is smaller and more limited. Don't know about any navalaisation planes though, I would assume their is a Harpoon replacement in the USN of some description.
Meh, is there necessarily the need for us to navalise a missile system when there's already plenty of viable alternatives on the market? LRASM or even the likes of Exocet or NSM which - if the idea of sustaining quad packs of Harpoon is viable - seems plausible.
IIRC our Harpoons are relatively old Block 1C models.
With the BMD role on the horizon I bet the RN and government wish they had ordered more hulls. Eight or ten Type 45 would have been good, with BMD 12 could have been justified, then a nice flow into the Type 26 build.
Kinda strikes me as possibly something which could have fallen under the same philosophy as CASD, try keep one destroyer on a BMD patrol 24/7 as it could be argued that the reason why CASD is the best method for SSBN operations cross over to BMD.
That and 6 hulls isn't enough to do the job *and* regular AAW work
Sustaining the weapon system is relatively cheap.
Given how ambitious Perseus is, 2030+ may be a realistic window for replacement.
2030 is the idealised date, however given how long it took to twist their arm about finally putting up the money for FASGW(H) It could be a bit of an ache trying to get them to (if the need was there for the UK) move it forward in timeframe, especially as they've got Exocet.
Do you think Perseus has a chance of actually being developed? I thought that for the moment it was purely conceptual and likely to stay that way... if I had to put money on an RN Harpoon replacement I would have said either LRASM or SCALP Naval/MdCN, given it has moving target capability (though I understand SCALP would be significantly more expensive than Harpoon). The Perseus program has more momentum than I realised, I take it?
It's not purely conceptual, but still mainly is, if that makes sense. Right now it's nothing more than a concept, but it's a concept which has been developed in consultation with the Royal Navy and the French Navy to meet their future requirements. So it's not just the company saying "X will do Y", it's MBDA working a concept using feedback on what the UK and France want in an AShM in the future.
However that's then and this is now. If we were to chuck Harpoon for whatever reason then we may as well do LRASM. In an ideal world i'd like enough Harpoon sets to give every Type 45 one, but I assume the premise is to move the mounts around in port to the ships that could use them, which makes sense.
With respect to momentum, I might be giving it more than it has, but that's because I freakin' love the concept and what it could do for UK forces. An air launched/surface launched/submarine launched land attack cruise missile and anti-ship missile with a 200kg warhead + 2 x 50kg warheads which can be deployed at the last moment in lateral bays or be retained inside the missile itself, Mach 3.
But would need the same development for the naval version that MdCN got from SCALP (300km range to 1000+)
The idea of one weapon for those roles across all the platforms sounds awesome, we get a sub launched AShM back too.
