Sting Ray upgrade contract
September 14, 2024
UK Defence Equipment & Support has awarded BAE Systems a contract worth more than £60m for the upgrade of the UK manufactured Sting Ray torpedo. The torpedo uses the two word name because a children’s TV programme already owns the copyright on the name ‘Stingray’.
The contract is for the assessment phase of the Sting Ray Mid Life Upgrade (SRMLU) which will see the weapon being upgraded from Sting Ray Mod 1 to Mod 2 standards.
The four-year assessment phase will cover the design and development of the Mod 2 upgrade, the production of prototype weapons, and an in-water trial. The upgrade will improve the performance of the Sting Ray lightweight torpedo against emerging threats.
Cdre Steve Bolton, Senior Responsible Owner for the SRMLU programme, said: “This is great news for the Royal Navy and other Sting Ray Lightweight torpedo users. We are taking what is already a very good Anti-Submarine Warfare weapon and turning it into the best in class.”
The Sting Ray is currently in service with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. The RAF announced that it had chosen the Sting Ray as its future torpedo capability in November 2023. The weapon will be used on the Boeing P-8 Poseidon Maritime Patrol Aircraft alongside the US-supplied Mk 54 weapon.
Sting Ray was designed to counter fast, deep-diving titanium double hulled Soviet submarines in blue water engagements as well as quiet, conventional submarines operating in shallow coastal waters. Sting Ray has been described as the world’s premier lightweight, autonomous underwater weapon.
The Sting Ray Mod 1 has been in service since 2001, and was developed from the predecessor Mod 0 torpedo which originally entered service in 1983. Sting Ray Mod 1 enjoys enhanced performance, underpinned by new acoustic and tactical software, building on extensive operational experience with the Mod 0 variant. Sting Ray Mod 1 is nearly twice as fast as the US Mk 54 torpedo (with which it shares the same NATO-standard 324-mm diameter), with a longer endurance and a superior homing section, as well as a highly accurate navigation system. This allows Sting Ray to detect, classify, and attack targets autonomously. Sting Ray is fitted with a directed-energy shaped charge warhead and an electric propulsion system with a pump jet propulsor and a magnesium/silver-chloride seawater battery.
The Mk 54 now in use is something of a hybrid, combining the 1960s tech homing head of the Mk 50 with the back end of a Mk 46 Otto fuel driven torpedo – said to be a “very poor propulsion unit for a modern torpedo,” resulting in a weapon that is slow and that has a limited range.
The planned Mod 2 upgrade will support many high skill jobs and promises to drive investment into the UK SME and high-tech sectors. More than 80 highly skilled engineering jobs will be supported at BAE Systems’ Maritime Services business in Portsmouth, as well as 20 specialist manufacturing jobs at BAE Systems’ site in Hillend in Fife.
Cdre Richard Harris, Deputy Director Weapons Operating Centre at DE&S, said: “The Stingray Mid Life Upgrade Programme will enhance the UK’s lightweight torpedo, significantly improving the Anti-Submarine Warfare capabilities delivered by the Royal Navy and Royal Air Force. This programme is an essential part of the daily mission that protects the nuclear deterrent and our undersea cables. I am grateful for the skills and expertise in the UK’s under water industries that provide the cutting edge technology that our armed forces need.”
Scott Jamieson, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Maritime Services business, said: “The Sting Ray torpedo remains at the heart of anti-submarine warfare. It’s a huge sign of confidence for the Company to be entering the next phase of development and be able to demonstrate its additional capabilities. This contract is vitally important to the UK’s strategic underwater defence plans and an important step in the advancement of our capability for decades to come.”
