The Brazilian Navy selected the MBDA Sea Ceptor anti-air missile system to provide local area air defense in the next generation Tamandaré-class corvettes, the company said on Friday.
Sea Ceptor provides all-weather, night and day, 360-degree local area air defense coverage against multiple simultaneous targets. This includes anti-ship missiles, helicopters, and combat jets.
It can combat surface targets as well as air threats. Sea Ceptor also offsets potential saturating attacks with an advanced active radar seeker, MBDA said in a statement.
The company noted that the Sea Ceptor’s soft launch technology eliminates the need for a launcher efflux management system, reducing mass and onboard footprint characteristics. “This allows greater flexibility for the customer in choosing the weapon’s installation position, a particularly important feature for smaller vessels. It also allows for easy installation as a retrofit on older ships,” the statement said.
The U.K. Ministry of Defence awarded MBDA a contract in September 2013 for the Sea Ceptor to provide next generation Air Defense capability. It is set to replace the Seawolf system on the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates starting in 2015. The Sea Ceptor is then to be transferred to new UK Royal Navy ships as they enter service.
Brazil is the third navy to choose Sea Ceptor after the U.K. Royal Navy and Royal New Zealand Navy.
MBDA is jointly held by BAE Systems and the AIRBUS Group (formerly EADS), each holding 37.5 percent, and Finmeccanica holding 25 percent.