All about Mbda’s Camm-er missiles for the Army and Air Force
The director of Occar and the CEO of Mbda Italia have signed the contract for the production of Camm-Er missile systems for our country's Air Force and Army. Here are the details
The Camm-Er surface-to-air missile systems for the Italian Defense are arriving.
Yesterday Matteo Bisceglia, director of Occar-Ea, and the managing director of Mbda Italia, Lorenzo Mariani, signed the contract for the production of Camm-Er (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile – Extended Range) systems on behalf of Italy. This was announced in a statement by Occar (Joint Organization for Armament Cooperation).
The initials took place in the presence of the Deputy National Armaments Director and Deputy Secretary General of Defence, Vice Admiral Pier Federico Bisconti, at the Occar headquarters in Paris.
The Camm-Er project will therefore allow the acquisition of a short-range air defense capability (SHORAD) for Italy through the acquisition of a missile system in two variants. In other words, MAADS (Modular Advance Anti-Air Systems) for the Air Force and Grifo for the Italian Army, both systems sharing the use of the Mbda Camm-Er missile.
All the details.
THE FEATURES OF THE MISSILE
The Camm-Er is considered particularly effective for countering classic aerial threats such as Air Breathing Threats (ABTs) – such as ramjets or turbojets that require the introduction of air for fuel combustion – anti-radiation missiles, UAS and others.
“Even the almost double range of the missile compared to its predecessor (more than 45 km compared to the 25 km of the Aspide) is seen as an advantage that allows to identify and eliminate threats from the sky at a greater distance, with a double benefit in terms of reaction times and downing of the target furthest from its objective where friendly military or civilian personnel are likely to be found", reads the IAI paper entitled "Close Air Defence: operational and technological developments".
THE CAMM-ER PROGRAM
In 2017, the then Gentiloni government launched a multi-year military modernization program for the purchase of Camm-Er missiles, with an expenditure forecast of 545 million euros by 2031.
This is a multi-year program resulting from the collaboration between the company MBDA Italia and MBDA UK, aimed at modernizing and renewing the short-medium range air defense capability, through the development and approval of the Camm-Er ammunition missile and its integration into certain Air Force and Army systems.
Mbda is a company owned by Bae Systems (37.5%), Airbus Group (37.5%) and Leonardo-Finmeccanica (25%) and makes use of the Joint Advanced Ammunition Center (Cima) of the La Spezia-Aulla Navy and the Mbda production center in Fusaro.
The goal is to replace the systems in service based on the Aspide missile, out of service since 2021, which have been in operation for about forty years, with more up-to-date air defense systems.
THE HURRYING OF THE COUNT I GOVERNMENT
The implementation of the Camm-Er program had been seriously endangered during the Conte I government with the M5S component pressing for its downsizing and the League intending to proceed, up to its inclusion in the multi-year programmatic document (Dpp) 2019-2021 c published by the Ministry of Defense and published in July 2019.
Furthermore, among the operational programs of the Dpp 2022, there is a first phase dedicated to the modernization towards the Medium Advanced Air Defense System (Maads) for the Air Force based on the Camm-Er missile, aimed at partially filling the gap left by the obsolescence of the sword system.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SIGNING THE CONTRACT
Finally, "the signing of this production contract constitutes a fundamental "pillar" of a series of complex and demanding contractual activities completed in less than a year by OCCAR-EA, which also saw the integration of the Project Management Section of CAMM-ER in the existing FSAF-PAAMS Program Division. During his speech, the Director acknowledged the high level of engagement undertaken by a number of stakeholders, including the Italian government, OCCAR-EA (Central Office and FSAF-PAAMS PD) and MBDA” Occar underlined in the Note.
The goal is further cooperation and development of the European Defense Industry.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/innovazione/tutto-sui-missili-camm-er-di-mbda-per-esercito-e-aeronautica/ on Wed, 30 Nov 2022 06:54:10 +0000.