The effector-agnostic modularity and flexibility inherent in Ancilia’s core design as a ship and fleet protection (SFP)-focused trainable decoy launcher means it could be developed to carry capabilities offering other outputs, said Nick Poplawski – SEA’s SFP lead – during a visit to the company’s Barnstaple facility, southwest UK.
Ancilia was launched in September 2023, at the DSEI exposition in London. SEA describes it as “a high-performance trainable decoy launcher system to protect surface platforms from increasingly advanced missile and torpedo threats”. The missile threat includes ballistic systems and others with hypersonic capabilities. Ancilia is also capable of countering other, contemporary anti-ship threats.
In March 2024, SEA was contracted by the UK to deliver Ancilia to the Royal Navy, providing fits for the navy’s in-service Type 45 destroyers and future Type 26 and Type 31 frigates under the navy’s Electronic Warfare Countermeasures Increment 1a (EWCM1a) requirement within its Maritime Electronic Warfare Programme (MEWP).
An Ancilia system consists of a pair of 12-barrel launchers, each fitted atop a Chess Dynamics’ trainable base and capable of firing all in-service Chemring decoy rounds. SEA’s initial development programme and contracts ensure Ancilia will interface to ‘engagement software’ provided by Elbit/Babcock and Terma, SEA told Naval News.
The flexible, modular, open architecture design of both the Ancilia launcher and the associated software means the system is ‘decoy-agnostic’, able to accommodate and operate any standard NATO 130 mm chaff round.
In return, Ancilia has a requirement to defeat any future incoming round. With some understanding of what such future rounds could be capable of, but recognising that some such developments could be unexpected, SEA is working with round manufacturers to ensure Ancilia continues to be as flexible as possible, Poplawski explained. Consequently, conversations with round providers have covered both decoy and non-decoy rounds. “Not everything that goes out of this in the future will be a chaff decoy,” Poplawski added.
“You can potentially put things into the water; things that stay in the air longer; persistent things,” Poplawski continued. “Ancilia could be a way of just getting objects into the right place at the right time.”
Underscoring the importance of Ancilia’s design flexibility here, Poplawski said SEA is focused on “how we can continue making the system as adaptable and modular as possible, firing things in the future that potentially aren’t decoys.”
SEA is assessing various options and plans for Ancilia’s near- and longer-term development.
Near-term focus includes software developments, for example enhancing integration with the engagement software providers and preparing Ancilia for integration into different combat management systems – all aimed at improving ease of integration, Poplawski explained.
SEA is also working with the sensor and software suppliers on options for developing the information and algorithm use around Ancilia to increase system situational awareness, for example improving awareness of threats inbound to the ship and what rounds are available in response.
In addition, SEA’s engagement with decoy manufacturers includes ensuring that next-generation rounds can ‘plug and play’, and assessing whether system effectiveness can be increased by multiplying the number of rounds that can be launched from Ancilia’s tubes. “We’re working with the round suppliers to see, with the next generation, whether we can get more fires out of a single barrel,” said Poplawski.
Whatever the nature of the incoming threat, one of Ancilia’s benefits is its tactical mobility: in particular, said Poplawski, the coverage it provides, plus the range and rate at which it moves.
Ancilia can raise upwards from 0° (horizontal) to 90° (vertical), and rotate +/- 160° from centreline (320° total). This means (notwithstanding the placement of other systems on crowded deck spaces) a pair of Ancilia launchers can provide full vessel coverage. Ancilia’s positioning and mobility enables operators potentially to get decoys into the right place much faster. The launchers can be moved from the centreline to 150° either side in three seconds: “When you think how quickly a Type 23 can turn, this is considerably faster,” said Poplawski. Moreover, even with the ship rolling and pitching, the elevation allows the system to tackle the target without needing to wait for the ship’s positioning to settle.
This ‘de-coupling’ from the ship’s positioning and the use of next-generation rounds are the two main enablers Ancilia offers, Poplawski added.
Overall, with a one-second rate of fire between rounds, “When you’re throwing up rounds, which typically won’t be 150° apart from each other, you can see how quickly you can get a pattern into the sky,” Poplawski concluded.
