Naval Weapons 
The MdCN cruise missile is now in production at MBDA's Selles-Saint-Denis plant. Source: MBDA
European missile house MBDA has commenced low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the French Navy's new Missile de Croisière Naval (MdCN) cruise missile at its Selles-Saint-Denis plant in central France.
Delivery of the first production lot is expected early in 2015. Manufacture rates will ramp up in the coming months, with full series production to be achieved during 2015.
The MdCN, given the product name Naval Cruise Missile (NCM) by MBDA, was developed under a full-scale development contract awarded by the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) in December 2006. It has been developed to provide the French Navy with a sovereign deep strike capability against fixed high-value targets.
MdCN will equip the French Navy's Aquitaine-class FREMM multi-mission frigates from 2015, and the new Barracuda nuclear-powered attack submarines from 2018.
MBDA previously identified the MdCN as SCALP Naval, reflecting the programme's antecedents in the Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée - Emploi Général (SCALP-EG)/Storm Shadow air-launched conventional stand-off missile. However, the SCALP Naval name has now been formally dropped by the company.
Adopting the same guidance system as SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow - combining inertial guidance, terrain matching, and GPS with an imaging infrared (IR) seeker, so as to achieve metric accuracies in the terminal phase - the MdCN also capitalises on the existing SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow targeting and mission-planning infrastructure. However, the air vehicle itself is totally new (to allow for discharge from standard 533 mm torpedo tubes) and features a new cylindrical airframe with three flip-out rear fins, and pop-out wings mounted within the fuselage.
The dimensional constraints of the airframe also required changes to the propulsion system, with the smaller Microturbo TR50 turbojet introduced in place of the TR60-30 unit fitted to SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow. While MBDA will not discuss specific range performance, the DGA acknowledges the ability of the MdCN to strike at targets "several hundred kilometres" away.
A first all-up-round firing test of the MdCN was performed from the DGA test centre at Biscarrosse in May 2010. This was carried out from a SYLVER A70 vertical launcher (as fitted in the Aquitaine class).
A second development test, performed in June 2011, included the first submerged launch (replicating discharge from a submarine torpedo tube). The third, undertaken at Biscarrosse in July 2012, was the first launch of a fully-functioning MdCN missile from a SYLVER A70, and fully-validated infrared (IR) guidance mode operation during the terminal phase.
In October 2012 a fourth test was conducted from the DGA's Levant missile test centre in the Var region of southern France. It involved the launch of an MdCN missile from an underwater platform representative of a submerged submarine.
Surface launch qualification firings were completed in July 2013 and April 2014 at Biscarrosse. According to MBDA, a qualification firing in the submarine-launch MdCN configuration followed in June 2014.
The DGA originally planned to procure 250 MdCN all-up-rounds. However, budget pressures caused the inventory goal to be pruned back. Initially it dropped to 200 weapons, and then to 150 as a result of cuts made in the 2014-19 Loi de Programmation Militaire.
The MdCN cruise missile is now in production at MBDA's Selles-Saint-Denis plant. Source: MBDAEuropean missile house MBDA has commenced low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the French Navy's new Missile de Croisière Naval (MdCN) cruise missile at its Selles-Saint-Denis plant in central France.
Delivery of the first production lot is expected early in 2015. Manufacture rates will ramp up in the coming months, with full series production to be achieved during 2015.
The MdCN, given the product name Naval Cruise Missile (NCM) by MBDA, was developed under a full-scale development contract awarded by the Direction Générale de l'Armement (DGA) in December 2006. It has been developed to provide the French Navy with a sovereign deep strike capability against fixed high-value targets.
MdCN will equip the French Navy's Aquitaine-class FREMM multi-mission frigates from 2015, and the new Barracuda nuclear-powered attack submarines from 2018.
MBDA previously identified the MdCN as SCALP Naval, reflecting the programme's antecedents in the Système de Croisière Autonome à Longue Portée - Emploi Général (SCALP-EG)/Storm Shadow air-launched conventional stand-off missile. However, the SCALP Naval name has now been formally dropped by the company.
Adopting the same guidance system as SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow - combining inertial guidance, terrain matching, and GPS with an imaging infrared (IR) seeker, so as to achieve metric accuracies in the terminal phase - the MdCN also capitalises on the existing SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow targeting and mission-planning infrastructure. However, the air vehicle itself is totally new (to allow for discharge from standard 533 mm torpedo tubes) and features a new cylindrical airframe with three flip-out rear fins, and pop-out wings mounted within the fuselage.
The dimensional constraints of the airframe also required changes to the propulsion system, with the smaller Microturbo TR50 turbojet introduced in place of the TR60-30 unit fitted to SCALP-EG/Storm Shadow. While MBDA will not discuss specific range performance, the DGA acknowledges the ability of the MdCN to strike at targets "several hundred kilometres" away.
A first all-up-round firing test of the MdCN was performed from the DGA test centre at Biscarrosse in May 2010. This was carried out from a SYLVER A70 vertical launcher (as fitted in the Aquitaine class).
A second development test, performed in June 2011, included the first submerged launch (replicating discharge from a submarine torpedo tube). The third, undertaken at Biscarrosse in July 2012, was the first launch of a fully-functioning MdCN missile from a SYLVER A70, and fully-validated infrared (IR) guidance mode operation during the terminal phase.
In October 2012 a fourth test was conducted from the DGA's Levant missile test centre in the Var region of southern France. It involved the launch of an MdCN missile from an underwater platform representative of a submerged submarine.
Surface launch qualification firings were completed in July 2013 and April 2014 at Biscarrosse. According to MBDA, a qualification firing in the submarine-launch MdCN configuration followed in June 2014.
The DGA originally planned to procure 250 MdCN all-up-rounds. However, budget pressures caused the inventory goal to be pruned back. Initially it dropped to 200 weapons, and then to 150 as a result of cuts made in the 2014-19 Loi de Programmation Militaire.
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