MBDA's Marte ER anti-ship missile is in full-scale production. (MBDA)
The Marte Extended Range (ER) anti-ship missile is in full-scale production, an MBDA spokesperson told Janes at the DIMDEX exhibition, held in Doha, Qatar, in late March.
The N/G-H/C (naval/ground – helicopter) and F/J (fighter jet) variants will feature a high degree of commonality, the spokesperson added.
The Marte ER successfully completed its final test-firing with an inert warhead in November 2021 at an Italian test range in Sardinia. The high subsonic, fire-and-forget missile is an all-weather, fast reaction, long stand-off range weapon with multiple missile firing with simultaneous time on target (STOT) capability.
It has been designed for use with air (helicopter and fast jet) and surface (naval vessel and coastal) platforms. The Marte ER version has an extended range of 100 km compared with the 30 km range of the Marte Mk2/N. The sea skimming missile is propelled by two boosters and an additional turbojet engine (without boosters for F/J).
Marte ER has a length of 3.6 m and weighs less than 350 kg. The ER version duplicates the impact and proximity fuze, and a more than 70 kg warhead of the Mk2/N. It has an integrated active seeker (Ku-band) with the capability to be fed with up to 10 three dimensional waypoints enabling mid-course navigation. The missile can engage sea targets in addition to attacking fixed co-ordinate targets. The guidance is improved with an inertial navigation system (INS) and GPS.
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