RAPIER Replacement Offers British Army Capability Upgrade

MBDA’s LAND CEPTOR, which uses the Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM), has achieved its first successful intercept during an end-to-end system demonstration at the Vidsel Test Range in Sweden, the company announced on 28 May. The trial encompassed a full engagement sequence, including launcher deployment; munition loading; receipt of air tracks from a Saab GIRAFFE-AMB radar; air track processing by LAND CEPTOR’s onboard C2 system; and execution of a full engagement chain, with two-way data exchange with the missile during its mid-course phase, and successful interception and destruction of a target using the missile’s seeker in the terminal phase

In British Army service, LAND CEPTOR will replace the venerable RAPIER system and offer the service a step-change in capability – more than three times the range and competence against a far more challenging target set. It will also provide a common stockpile with the Royal Navy, whose SEA CEPTOR system uses the same missile. Following the trials, LAND CEPTOR will now enter production and undergo system-of-system integration and test as part of the Army’s SKY SABRE air defence architecture.

LAND CEPTOR with CAMM is the latest generation of air defence system, providing coverage from 1-25+km, A next-generation solid-state active radar seeker, two-way data-link, low-signature rocket motor and A 360° soft-vertical launch system. These combine to enable the missile to rapidly intercept the most challenging and dangerous of threats, including saturation attacks from precision guided munitions and manoeuvring high-speed missiles emerging late from low altitude and from multiple directions simultaneously.