MBDA has been awarded a contract to equip the Brazilian Navy’s new Tamandaré-class frigates with the Sea Ceptor air defence missile system.

Sea Ceptor is a smart weapon control system (WCS) that together with the fully-active Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) provides comprehensive self-defence and local area air defence (LAAD). This will enable Brazil’s Tamandaré-class frigates to protect themselves, consorts and fixed infrastructure against the full range of threat types at sea or in harbour, and in the most stressing operational scenarios.

Sea Ceptor is in operational service with the Royal Navy’s Type 23 frigates, and has been selected for the new Type 26 and Type 31 frigates. Brazil joins Chile, New Zealand and Canada in a growing list of international Sea Ceptor users. The CAMM missile has also been delivered to the British Army in the Ground-Based Air Defence (GBAD) role.

MBDA is the only European defence group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air).

With a significant presence in five European countries and within the USA, in 2020 MBDA achieved revenue of 3.6 billion euros with an order book of 16.6 billion euros. In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.

MBDA is jointly owned by Airbus (37.5%), BAE Systems (37.5%), and Leonardo (25%).