A rendering of an Orchestrike ground attack.
STEVENAGE, England—MBDA has advanced its development of technologies that could enable missiles to collaborate on striking their targets.
A year since sharing the principles of its Orchestrike system at the Paris Air Show in 2023, MBDA has begun refining artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms and developing data link technologies that could enable missiles in a strike package to work together. This would either reallocate priority targets should a weapon be lost or shot down or reroute the weapons to avoid enemy air defenses and to synchronize their time on target. The technology represents a significant step forward from simply retargeting a weapon in flight.
The company has also declared that the first weapon in its product line that will benefit from Orchestrike technologies will be the Spear 3 family of mini cruise missiles and effectors currently in development, although the company says the technology could be applied to a broader range of strike weapons in its portfolio.
“Orchestrike enhances the understanding of the dynamic environment the weapons are flying in,” Greg Nunn, MBDA’s head of business development, tells journalists ahead of Farnborough Airshow.
“By sharing information between the weapons and between the weapons and the launch platform, we can enhance survivability and the overall effect of the weapon salvo,” Nunn says.
At Farnborough, MBDA will be showing potential customers the system’s advances in weapon-to-weapon communication using a simulation combined with real data link hardware. The weapon’s mission planning system scores potential targets based on priority.
When combined with Orchestrike, if those missiles destined for the highest-priority target are lost en route, missiles heading for lower-priority targets will be reallocated to the highest-priority target. The system will not seek out new targets for weapons and will only ever operate within the boundaries of operator input, MBDA states.
Such technology could change the dynamics of air operations. Increasing the likelihood of hitting priority targets could mean that the air campaign may require fewer weapons or sorties to complete its missions, potentially changing the economics of air operations.
MBDA also argues that the technology increases aircraft and weapon survivability, particularly once the rerouting around air defenses is factored in.
Development of Orchestrike has been funded internally by MBDA and through £3.5 million ($4.5 million) from the UK Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) Cooperative Strike Weapons Technology Demonstrator (CSWTD) project contracted in summer 2021.
The turbojet-powered Spear 3 was the obvious candidate to be the first weapon to make use of Orchestrike. Spear 3 was originally developed as a network-enabled weapon, allowing the launch aircraft to re-task the missile inflight if required. The advanced data links already onboard Spear 3 would support some of the initial Orchestrike capabilities using the hardware already destined for the missile, Nunn says, adding that future spiral developments of the weapon would provide more functionality.
MBDA’s decision to make Spear 3 the first Orchestrike-enabled weapon in its portfolio comes as the company gears up for the first guided firing of the missile from a Eurofighter Typhoon later this year. This will be the first step in securing weapons system certificate design for the missile, which paves the way for the weapon to be integrated onto the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
Progress on Spear 3’s development has been paced by the F-35 program, particularly the delays associated with the development of the Tech Refresh 3 upgrade that enables several new weapons to be integrated. One F-35 will be able to carry up to eight Spear 3s internally in its weapon bays.
There is also interest in integrating Spear 3 onto both the Eurofighter and the Saab Gripen. Saab is a collaborative partner on the development of the electronic warfare payload-equipped Spear EW, which is designed to decoy, jam and spoof ground-based air defense systems when launched as a salvo with other Spear 3 missiles.
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