UK, France Ink Deal To Produce Helo Anti-Surface Missile

Britain and France have signed a deal with MBDA to demonstrate and produce a helicopter-mounted anti-surface missile.
The weapon, known in Britain as the Future Anti-Surface Guided Weapon (Heavy) or FASGW(H) for short, is the first major collaborative production deal to emerge from the Anglo-French defense treaty signed in 2010.
Contracts to develop a second missile type, the FASGW (Lite), and a deal with AgustaWestland to integrate both weapons on the new AW159 Wildcat helicopter destined for the Royal Navy, are expected in the second quarter of the year.
The two nations finally approved a deal to go ahead with the FASGW(H) program at the Anglo-French summit, which took place Jan 31.
Delays in French approval threatened to jeopardize the Anglo-French Defence Treaty before Paris signaled last year it would go ahead with the program.
FASGW(H) will be capable of destroying targets from fast inshore attack craft to large vessels, such as corvettes.
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