MBDA Advances Spear Missile Into Production

FARNBOROUGH, England—MBDA is launching low-rate production of the Spear 3 mini cruise missile after a series of successful flight trials.

The all-weather, network-enabled, 100-kg (220-lb.) missile has been designed to meet the UK’s need for a small weapon that can be launched from the Lockheed Martin F-35B Joint Strike Fighter. But MBDA is also tracking growing interest from undisclosed nations to integrate the weapon onto European fourth-generation fighters. To accommodate launch from these aircraft, MBDA also is investing in the development of a pylon adaptor that can carry three Spear 3s on a single pylon, which will be made available next year.

“Spear is coming to maturity,” Jon McCullagh, business development executive for the Spear 3 at MBDA, told journalists on the second day of the Farnborough Airshow.

McCullagh said the weapon was becoming increasingly relevant in peer warfare as a tool for the suppression and destruction of enemy air defense mission. “For that mission you need all-weather capability—a highly discriminating seeker so that you can precisely engage in a timely manner,” McCullagh added. He also said that the networked nature of the weapon allowed it to be quickly retargeted by data link.

Work is also continuing on the development of other members of the Spear 3 family. Spear Glide is an unpowered variant that McCullagh said is a low-cost utility weapon. Although Spear Glide shares the same airframe with Spear 3, MBDA has performed a “full redesign of the internals” to use common, off-the-shelf components that make it “much easier and cheaper to manufacturer.” It lacks the millimetric seeker of the standard Spear 3, but retains the semi-active laser- and image-based navigation. It also has a larger warhead, as it no longer carries an engine or fuel. The price point for Spear Glide, McCullagh said, is comparable with other glide weapons.

Work is also ongoing for Spear EW, a stand-in jammer that would act as a jamming decoy against ground-based threats using a Leonardo-developed Digital Radio Frequency Memory payload.

The next steps for Spear 3’s development are to secure a certificate of design for the weapon and then support the integration and certification process for the F-35.

The integration program is run by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and the UK Defense Ministry. McCullagh said all the hardware is ready in terms of the missile being equipped with telemetry. 

Lockheed Martin revealed that it had undertaken the first flights with Spear 3 for environmental data gathering. McCullagh said there would be several more of those flights to be followed by releases of inert and then live weapons. Integration of the weapon forms part of the Tech Refresh 3 hardware and Blk. 4 software upgrade for the aircraft.

The pace of integration on the F-35 has prompted the UK to look at temporary alternative weapons to give the aircraft a standoff capability until the Spear 3 is ready, with plans for a purchase of RTX’s Stormbreaker Small Diameter Bomb planned.

Spear 3 has been designed “to take advantage of all of the F-35 capabilities,” McCullagh said, but would also work with platforms such as the Eurofighter Typhoon and the Saab Gripen, although no customers have yet funded integration of the weapon on those platforms. All the guided firings performed so far—the exact number of which has not been disclosed—have all been performed by the Eurofighter. MBDA hopes to use that internally developed launcher for the remaining future guided firings from the Eurofighter, helping the company to “produce the evidence to show that we have an operational launcher that can be used on Typhoon.”

During the show MBDA signed a memorandum of understanding with General Atomics to examine the potential integration of the Spear 3 onto the Protector uncrewed air system and also onto its Gambit family of collaborative combat aircraft, potentially making that platform more attractive to European customers.

Chris Allam, MBDA UK’s managing director, said the addition of Spear onto the platforms would “multiply the effect the platforms provide.”