Raytheon, acting through its Missiles Systems business, and Chemring have agreed to develop a naval capability to defend against surface targets, for use on ships ranging in size from small patrol boats to large combatants.

A briefing was being held Tuesday at the International Defense Exhibition and Conference, IDEX 2013, to discuss the development.

“This initiative combines Chemring's innovative multi-mission launcher, CENTURION(®), with a variety of Raytheon's combat-tested missiles to provide a sea-based, inside-the-horizon defensive system,” said Rick Nelson, Vice President of Raytheon Missile Systems' Naval and Area Mission Defense product line.

“Our Raytheon-Chemring team will combine a multifunction decoy and missile launcher with world-class missiles and existing ship systems to provide a new mission capability to meet our customers' specific self-defense needs,” he added.

Currently in the integration engineering phase, live-fire testing of the new mission defense system is scheduled for mid-2013. Testing is expected to include at least two different missiles in order to establish a multi-mission capacity against maneuvering surface threats such as fast inshore attack craft.

The solution to counter fast inshore attack craft consists of a variety of Raytheon missiles with ranges matched to the intended target. The missiles will be fired from the Chemring CENTURION launcher, with initial target detection, tracking and identification provided by the ship's sensors.

“Our shared goal is to generate a low-cost, effective and versatile solution to increase naval platform protection. Thanks to a layered-defense approach capitalizing on the versatility of the CENTURION launcher and Raytheon's missiles, users will have a multi-mission capability using a single-launch platform,” said Mark Papworth, Chief Executive of Chemring Group.