The CAMM (Common Anti-Air Modular Missile), is the next generation air surface-to-air missiles designed for land, sea and air environments developed by MBDA for the United Kingdom. CAMM shares some common features and components with the ASRAAM air-to-air missile, but with updated electronics and an active radar homing seeker. The Common Anti-Air Modular Missile is intended to replace the Sea Wolf missile on Type 23 frigates of the Royal Navy from 2017, the Rapier missile in British Army service from 2018 and is contributing to the updating of MBDA’s ASRAAM in service with the Royal Air Force. The UK’s current inservice Rapier ground based air defence system is planned to be replaced by the CAMM based system.
CAMM has a minimum operational range of less than 1 km and a maximum range greater than 25 km, although some reports that trials have a shown a capability of up to 60 km. These ranges are significantly greater than the 1–10 km range of Sea Wolf and other systems CAMM will replace.[22] CAMM is 99 kilograms (218 lb) in weight, 3.2 metres (10 ft) in length, 166 millimetres (6.5 in) diameter and reaches generous supersonic speeds of Mach 3 (or 1,020 meters per second).CAMM is a point defence and local area defence missile designed to respond to sophisticated missile attacks and has the capability to defend against saturation attacks of supersonic anti-ship cruise missiles, aircraft and other high-performance targets.
It does this via multiple channels of fire, providing 360-degree simultaneous coverage and high degrees of manoeuvrability. MBDA state that CAMM has a “high rate of fire against multiple simultaneous targets”, providing capabilities comparable to the Aster 15 missile. Design characteristics allow for low cost by modularity and minimising electromechanical complexity through implementing most functionality in software. Additionally, the command and control software reuses over 75% of that developed for the PAAMS system. The soft launch technology provides a true 360° air defence capability and a weapon system that can be easily concealed and quickly deployed without the need for dedicated search radars.
On the land domain, CAMM is known as Sky Sabre by the British Army. This application has over three-times the range of its predecessor, Rapier and is able to intercept the most challenging targets in all-weather conditions. For international customers in the land domain, MBDA markets the Enhanced Modular Air Defence Solutions (EMADS). This is a rapidly deployable point and area defence system designed to protect mobile and static high value assets. It provides all-weather protection against a spectrum of conventional and challenging air targets, including low level terrain and high altitude threats. Each EMADS launcher is scalable and can carry multiple CAMM or CAMM-ER missiles as well as being highly mobile with excellent off-road capability. The system provides EMADS with pre-launch targeting information based on track data from a suitable radar sensor.
