SENER and the European group MBDA, a world leader in missiles and missile systems, have signed an agreement for the participation of SENER in the multinational program of the air-to-air missile Meteor as design authority and supplier to MBDA of the FAS (Fin Actuation Sub-system).

The General Manager of SENER’s Aerospace Strategic Business Unit, Rafael Quintana, signed the agreement with MBDA’s Group Procurement Director, Simon Williams, accompanied by MBDA’s Chief Executive Officer, Antoine Bouvier, and SENER’s Vice-President, Andrés Sendagorta, the 21st of July 2010 at MBDA’s booth during the Farnborough International Air Show.

Meteor is a next-generation, fast and highly manoeuvrable Beyond Visual Range (BVR) air-to-air missile that incorporates enhanced technologies in its design. Among them, its new ramjet propulsion system stands out, which gives Meteor its high speed performance and the energy to defeat fast, manoeuvring targets at long range.

The FAS is a critical subsystem that moves, in a controlled manner, the fins of the missile to obtain its desired trajectory. This sub-system includes complex engineering solutions to comply with the stringent requirements imposed by the missile specification.

The agreements between MBDA – Meteor Prime Contractor – and SENER state that, after a progressive transference from MBDA, SENER will become the design authority of the subsystem and will work with MBDA-UK to complete the development of the FAS, including the manufacture of prototypes and pre-series units, as well as of performing the system’s qualification and certification. After the development, SENER will produce all the series units during the program production stage.

In order to transfer the project in an optimum way, and mitigate the risks that are inherent to the tight schedule required for the development of Meteor, a technical team from SENER has been working several months at MBDA’s facilities at Stevenage (UK). Also, during the past months SENER has been performing, at its own risk, engineering and development activities of the FAS in close collaboration with MBDA-UK.

Currently, SENER along with MBDA-UK has completed the design of the qualification configuration and has proceeded to launch the manufacture of the first pre-series prototypes. In the coming months, the FAS subsystem will be subjected to an exhaustive qualification test campaign that will allow the completion of the FAS certification.

In parallel, SENER is arranging all the necessary elements for the manufacturing line that will be used for the mass production of the FAS during the coming years.

European centre of excellence

This new agreement confirms the positioning of SENER as a centre of excellence in missiles systems. SENER is a private Spanish company which for the last 40 years has supplied equipment, integrated systems and engineering services to the international defense and aerospace markets, areas in which its core business is the engineering and production of mechatronics and guidance, navigation and control systems, as well as ISR systems.

With more than 25 years as a European centre of excellence in design, development, production, integration, tests and logistics support of actuation and control systems for the aerospace industry, SENER develops and produces solutions for fin control, locking and deployment, seekers and vector control for missiles and other guided systems, and participates in several major European programs for clients such as the Spanish Ministry of Defense, the Spanish Navy, the Spanish Air Force, the Civil Guard, MBDA-UK, ZEISS, DIEHL BGT Defence, TAURUS Systems GmbH, Kongsberg Defence & Aerospace, and OTO Melara, among others.

SENER’s capacity for managing multidisciplinary projects enables it to lead or collaborate in defense programs involving integrated systems. For example, SENER has supported the Spanish Air Force during the integration of the IRIS-T on the EF18, and is the Prime Contractor for the TAURUS KEPD 350, supplying a number of missiles, special ground support and mission equipment and supporting the integration of the missile in the EF18.