The MOD has now publicly announced the award of a 60.1 million pounds contract to BAE Systems for the Assessment Phase of the STINGRAY lightweight torpedo Mid-Life Upgrade. Contract award decision had been taken earlier in the summer but the General Election prevented communications about it.

The STINGRAY (or Sting Ray) torpedo has been in service since 1983 and remains in use, in its Mod 1 guide, on Type 23 frigates, MERLIN and WILDCAT helicopters. The Mod 1, which is also employed by Norway, is an advanced weapon, already much evolved from the previous generation: it entered service in 2001 and introduced a completely new sonar system compared to the earlier Mod 0, a new tactical and navigation system and a new sea water battery system. From 2013, the Mod 1 has been further modified to enhance safety by fitting an Insensitive Munition-compliant Warhead.

Despite those improvements, Mod 1 has a notional Out of Service Date of around 2030, so the Royal Navy already several years ago had begun looking for a long-term solution, with a pre-concept phase of studies in 2019. A new Lightweight Torpedo was then announced as part of investments in the 2021 Defence Command Paper. The decision to go with a further STINGRAY evolution follows the success of the Mid Life Upgrade for the SPEARFISH heavyweight torpedo and the decision to fund STINGRAY integration on P-8 POSEIDON, which was initially acquired with a stock of American MK54 torpedoes to speed up entry into service.

Over the next four years BAE Systems will work on the design of the new torpedo at its sites in Portsmouth and Fife, before conducting in-water trials. The STINGRAY contract will directly sustain around 100 jobs, and more in the supply chain. One feature of the new torpedo is 'added deployment options'.

Already during the exercise-experiment REPMUS in Portugal last year, BAE had demonstrated the launch of a STINGRAY Mod 2 mockup from the T-600 electric-powered heavy lift drone created alongside Malloy Aeronautics (which was then acquired by BAE Systems Falcon Works).

Another 'method of delivery' being looked at has been indirectly revealed by a RFI published back in June by the Royal Navy. The Senior Service is looking for a Future Long Range Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Weapon (LRAW) to be fired vertically from MK41 cells on surface warships. The RFI specifically calls for proposal for a quick-reaction, all-weather solution able to carry a “UK lightweight torpedo” on top of a target, with a range that must “comfortably overmatch those of current and forecast threat Heavy Weight Torpedoes”.

The RFI specifies that only the booster / vector is wanted, and the torpedo should be excluded as it will be “a UK solution”, thus creating a british alternative to the ASROC and similar systems. The RFI notes that a first opportunity to show proposals will be “at the Sea Air Space Conference (6-9 Apr 2025) in Virginia, USA.

While there are not yet publicly disclosed plans in this sense, it would not be surprising to see the RAF and Royal Navy also look at a wingkit solution to give STINGRAY Mod 2 an equivalent capability to the US High Altitude Anti-Submarine Warfare Weapon Capability (HAAWC) that will enable the dropping of MK54s from P-8 POSEIDON cruising at medium/high altitude.

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