PARIS — Diehl Defence and Lockheed Martin will explore integration of the German company’s IRIS-T missiles into the American company’s Mk41 VLS, the most widely used vertical launch system in Western navies.
The two firms will also look at the possibility of integrating IRIS-T in the Aegis Weapon System, Diehl said in a Nov. 18 statement. The integrated naval-weapons system is used by countries including the United States, Spain and Norway.
European operators of the Mk41 VLS such as Germany, the Netherlands and Norway currently rely on U.S. missiles such as the SM-2 and Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile for naval air defense. Integrating IRIS-T could strengthen the continent’s autonomy in defense, something the European Union has been pushing for.
With Diehl and Lockheed Martin teaming up, “navies around the globe can benefit from the optimum for air defense systems on their surface combat vessels,” Diehl Defence CEO Helmut Rauch said in the statement.
The Mk41 system is used by 17 navies and has been deployed on more than 200 ships, according to Lockheed Martin. The basic module consists of eight cells pre-loaded with missiles and fitted below decks, with the largest strike variant able to equip the Tomahawk cruise missile.
Countries that operate both the Mk41 VLS in their navies and the IRIS-T system for ground-based air defense include Germany and Norway, with Denmark in the process of becoming a user of both through the purchase of an IRIS-T SLM system.
Diehl and Lockheed Martin signed a memorandum of understanding, with the next step to explore in detail the possibility of integrating the IRIS-T family of missiles in the Aegis system and the Mk41 VLS, they said.
The companies in October agreed to explore cooperation on missiles for the Patriot ground-based air-defense system.
Germany this year requested to buy a number of Typhon strike-missile launchers from the United States, a containerized, land-based version of the Mk41 VLS. A Diehl spokesman told Defense News the Typhon use case was not part of the new agreement, only naval applications.
The main European alternative to Lockheed Martin’s Mk41 VLS is Naval Group’s Sylver VLS, which is used by France, Italy and the United Kingdom and launches MBDA missiles including Aster for air defense, as well as the Naval Cruise Missile.
Editor’s note: This story was updated after publication with a statement from Diehl according to which only naval launch applications are being considered in the IRIS-T and MK41 integration scenario.
Rudy Ruitenberg is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. He started his career at Bloomberg News and has experience reporting on technology, commodity markets and politics.
