UK to procure six more Land Ceptor launchers for Sky Sabre air-defence systems

Sky Sabre conducting its first UK set of live firings at MoD Hebrides Range on 23 May during Exercise ‘Formidable Shield 25'. (MBDA)

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) will buy six more Land Ceptor launchers from MBDA for its Sky Sabre medium-range air-defence systems, it announced on 22 August.

The GBP118 million (USD158 million), three-year contract would ensure “doubling the number of deployable Sky Sabre systems operated by the armed forces”, said the MoD in a press release.

Minister of State for Defence Vernon Coaker said in a letter on 17 February, in response to a question in the House of Lords, that the MoD was planning on “increasing the number of SkySabre (Medium Range Ground Based Air Defence) launchers to [nine]”.

Separate to the MBDA contract, the MoD's Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) procurement arm is delivering 12 fire unit support vehicles for ammunition, eight vehicles for baggage, and eight threat evaluation and weapon assignment systems together with spares to support Land Ceptor and Sky Sabre systems.

System

Sky Sabre, also known as Enhanced Modular Air Defence Solutions (EMADS), is composed of a Rafael Surface-to-Air Missile Operation Centre (SAMOC) for command-and-control, a Saab Giraffe Agile Multi Beam (GAMB) 3D medium-range radar with a range of 120 km, and an MBDA Land Ceptor launcher and Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM). The system can simultaneously guide 24 CAMMs onto their targets, said the MoD.

MBDA's CAMM used by Sky Sabre has a 28 km maximum range. The system can also fire the CAMM-ER (extended range) with a 45 km maximum range. Both missile types have 10 kg high-explosive fragmentation warheads with laser proximity fuzes.