By ANDREW CHUTER Published: 11 May 2011 09:44
LONDON - Britain's Ministry of Defence ordered a batch of Dual Mode Brimstone missiles for the Royal Air Force late last year but has placed no follow-on order since then, procurement minister Peter Luff said.
Responding to a parliamentary question, Luff said an order to convert 150 standard Brimstone missiles to the Dual Mode variant had been agreed in December - before the Libyan crisis developed.
The MoD is in discussion with supplier MBDA to ensure weapon stocks are available for operations in Afghanistan and Libya, he said.
MBDA has large stocks of the standard Brimstone missile left over from a development and production contract awarded for the anti-armor weapon in 1996. Luff said the conversion work to the dual mode configuration normally takes between six and nine months, and the modified weapons would be delivered in monthly batches at a cost of between 35,000 pounds ($57,700) and 45,000 pounds per missile.
The question comes in the wake of media speculation that NATO was running low on air-launched precision guided weapons for use against the forces of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi.
NATO has denied claims that the air forces involved in enforcing UN Resolution 1973 were running short of weapons.
Dual Mode Brimstone is a precision ground attack missile originally developed in response to an urgent operational requirement for RAF fighters deployed in Iraq.
Conversion of the basic anti-armor weapon involves modification to the existing millimetric wave seeker with the addition of a semi-active laser. The man-in-the-loop weapon is now being used against a range of vehicle and fixed targets.
Air Vice Marshal Baz North, the RAF's assistant chief of the air staff, said recently that the weapon's operational success in Afghanistan and Libya had attracted the interest of France and the U.S.
The weapon is operational on RAF Tornado GR4 strike aircraft deployed on operations over Afghanistan and Libya.
Defense News
0 comments:
Post a Comment