MBDA’s Sea Venom anti-ship missile has been declared ready for frontline use with the Royal Navy’s (RN’s) Leonardo Helicopters Wildcat rotorcraft.

Announced on 2 October, the initial operating capability milestone follows work conducted during the RN’s Carrier Strike Group 25 deployment, also referred to as Operation Highmast.

Four Sea Venom-equipped Wildcats are among the air assets involved in the service’s ongoing exercise deployment to the Asia-Pacific region. They have operated from the 65,000t aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless, and the Royal Norwegian Navy frigate HNoMS Roald Amundsen.

Each Wildcat can field up to four Sea Venoms beneath its weapon-carrying wing, with the RN noting that the high-subsonic-speed weapon “carries enough destructive power to target larger warships like corvettes and patrol ships”.

The 2.5m (8ft 2in)-long, infrared seeker-equipped missile has a launch weight of 120kg (265lb), including a 30kg warhead.

“The integration of Sea Venom into a ship’s Wildcat Flight at sea represents a significant enhancement to the Royal Navy’s lethality via its ability to strike targets at range,” says Commander Andrew Henderson, commander of the Wildcat Maritime Force.

MBDA cites a range performance of over 10.8nm (20km) for the sea-skimming design, which it says can also be used to strike “land-based threats and infrastructure”.

The Sea Venom was developed under a joint requirement for the RN and French navy, with the latter naming the weapon ANL. A first qualification test-firing of the system was performed from a helicopter in February 2020.