Fire Shadow

Fire Shadow is a missile designed by MBDA for the British Army. It is designed to loiter above a battlefield for up to 6 hours before attacking stationary or mobile targets.

Design
Fire Shadow weighs less than 200kg and is relatively low-cost. It is surface-launched, and has a range of approximately 100km; it can fly to a target area and then loiter for approximately six hours before precision attack on a specific target. Test launches have been performed from a trailer on land.

A Royal Navy brochure in January 2009 pointed out that Fire Shadow is "compatible with the space envelope" of the SYLVER vertical launch system of the Type 45 destroyer, but this option has not been mentioned since the SDSR of 2010. Instead MBDA have pursued Maritime Fire Shadow as a private venture, with no customers as yet. Their marketing materials at DSEi in September 2011 showed what appeared to be a similar launcher to that used on land, lashed to the helicopter deck of a frigate or helicopter carrier.

Deployment
The first complete test-firing (a test of flight, navigation, and control systems) was on 21 November 2010, at Vidsel in Sweden, followed by a second on 13 May 2011. Operator training started in 2011, with the first deliveries of production systems in March 2012. It was planned that 39th Regiment Royal Artillery would be the first unit to receive the system, and would deploy it in Afghanistan in 2012. MBDA have reported "discussions with a number of customers to try and secure wider interest in the programme".