Royal Navy: Cutting-edge Ancilia missile launcher due to be fitted to Type 26, 31 and 45 warships on display

The Ancilia decoy missile launcher system valued was on display to military personnel. Two of these weapons modules are due to be installed on all six Type 45 destroyers to eliminate drones and other aircraft.

They are also due to be fitted to the eight Type 26 City-class sub-hunters, and five Type 31 Inspiration-class general purpose warships. More than two dozen serving personnel, civil servants, scientists and engineers gathered in Devon to see the weapons system.

Developed by Barnstaple-based firm SEA (Systems Engineering and Assessment), the new decoy launcher will replace the existing Seagnat system. Ancilia is a small, lightweight and capable of firing multiple countermeasures - with the ability to swivel rapidly and adjust so missile can be fired at different angles.

Neil Clelland, the Senior Principal Anti-Ship Missile Scientist with Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) - the government’s military laboratories under the MoD - said: “It was impressive to witness SEA’s pre-production Ancilia trainable launcher put through its paces in front of all the stakeholders. It demonstrated the real engineering progress made so early in the design phase.

“Ancilia provides a paradigm shift in the Royal Navy’s capability to deploy electronic warfare countermeasures to meet the threat with new more flexible tactics. Importantly the new countermeasures interface will enable the exploitation of intelligent countermeasures which are currently being researched to meet the evolving threat.”

The Royal Navy said the new system will be integrated alongside the Maritime Electronic Warfare Systems Integrated Capability (MEWSIC), and will “be the backbone of future electromagnetic operations”. Electromagnetic Warfare is used to identify enemy forces, equipment and movement. It is key to jamming weaponry in combat, defeating enemy firepower or draw threat away from the ship.

The current Seagnat system comprises six 130mm mortars which fire decoys relevant to the threat: flares to deny heat-seeking missiles, chaff – a cloud of tiny strips of foil – to confuse radar-guided threats; and active rounds which descend by parachute and either try to trick an incoming missile into thinking it’s the ship… or jam the missile’s radar.