Développé conjointement avec le Royaume-Uni, le missile antinavire léger (ANL) aéroporté, appelé Sea Venom chez les Britanniques, ne verra peut-être jamais le jour dans la marine française, a appris Mer et Marine.
Fruit de l’accord de coopération militaire franco-britannique de Lancaster House, signé en 2010, le programme du nouveau missile antinavire léger (ANL/Sea Venom) bat de l’aile en France. Le ministère des Armées a, en effet, apparemment renoncé à intégrer cette arme sur l’hélicoptère Guépard Marine (version navale du H160M),
Sea Venom is an Anglo-French lightweight anti-ship missile developed by MBDA to equip the French Navy and the Royal Navy.[2] The missile is known as Anti-Navire Léger (ANL) in France and Sea Venom (formerly « Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy) ») in the United Kingdom. While initial operating capability had been expected with the Royal Navy in 2022, in 2023 it was reported that, due to « on-going integration challenges », the Royal Navy’s Wildcat helicopters would only achieve full operating capability with the missile in 2026.[3][4][5][6][7] The first test launch, from an AS365 Dauphin helicopter of the French DGA defence procurement agency, was successfully conducted on 21 June 2017.[8][9]
