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British Navy’s Future Type 26 Frigates to Field MBDA STRATUS LO Cruise Missile for Advanced Strike.
The UK Government has confirmed that the Royal Navy’s new Type 26 City class frigates will embark MBDA’s STRATUS LO missile to meet the Future Offensive Surface Weapon requirement, following a written answer to Parliament by Defence Secretary Luke Pollard. This locks Britain into the tri-national STRATUS programme with France and Italy, shaping how the UK replaces Harpoon and Storm Shadow with a new generation of long-range, multi-role strike weapons.
On 1 December 2025, the UK Government formally confirmed that the Royal Navy’s future Type 26 frigates will embark the new STRATUS LO strike missile to meet the Future Offensive Surface Weapon (FoSUW) requirement, in a written answer to Parliament by Defence Secretary Luke Pollard. The decision anchors the United Kingdom in the trilateral STRATUS programme led by MBDA alongside France and Italy, aimed at replacing legacy Harpoon, Exocet and Storm Shadow/SCALP families with a new generation of long-range, multi-role missiles. In parallel, MBDA had unveiled the STRATUS family at DSEI 2025 in London, presenting updated designs for both the low-observable LO variant and the high-speed RS variant as the programme enters its development phase. This alignment between national procurement plans and industrial progress makes the Type 26 the central Royal Navy platform for adopting STRATUS.
Royal British Navy Type 26 City-class frigate HMS Glasgow, representing the class that has been selected by the UK Government as the principal surface combatant fleet to integrate MBDA’s STRATUS LO cruise missile under the Future Offensive Surface Weapon programme (Picture Source: Royal British Navy / BAE / Army Recognition Group)
The STRATUS family, formerly known as the Future Cruise/Anti-Ship Weapon (FC/ASW) or FMAN/FMC, is conceived as a dual-branch missile system sharing as many subsystems as possible to control costs and simplify integration. STRATUS LO (Low Observable) is the deep-strike and anti-ship arm of the programme: a subsonic cruise missile driven by a turbojet, with a highly refined airframe that minimises radar signature through blended shaping, compact lifting surfaces and extensive use of low-observability materials. Its design aims to deliver very long-range engagements, estimates typically range from beyond 500 km to potentially around 1,000 km, against both land infrastructure and high-value naval targets. The companion STRATUS RS (Rapid Strike) trades stealth shaping for speed, using a ramjet to achieve high supersonic performance and extreme manoeuvrability, optimised for suppression and destruction of enemy air defences. Both missiles are intended to be compatible with Mk41 vertical launch systems as well as a range of air platforms, reflecting MBDA’s intent to create a common family that can be deployed from frigates, destroyers and combat aircraft across the three partner nations.
The development trajectory of STRATUS reflects nearly a decade and a half of Franco-British cooperation on future long-range strike, to which Italy has now formally acceded. Initial conceptual work dates back to the Perseus concept unveiled in 2011, followed by the launch of the joint FC/ASW programme in 2017 under the Lancaster House defence treaties. Since then, MBDA has conducted extensive airframe optimisation, wind-tunnel testing of the ramjet propulsion for the RS variant, and iterative stealth refinements for the LO missile, resulting in the smaller wings and tail surfaces seen on the latest models. The rebranding to STRATUS at DSEI 2025 marked the programme’s transition into a full development phase, with several hundred engineers across the United Kingdom, France and Italy working on guidance, propulsion, warhead and seeker technologies, and early planning already underway for potential ground-launched derivatives that could complement future European land-based strike systems. While the UK Ministry of Defence initially suggested an in-service date around 2028, MBDA officials now regard the early 2030s as a more realistic timeframe for Royal Navy frontline deployment, with the first operational integration expected to coincide with the maturing of the Type 26 class.
For the Royal Navy, selecting the STRATUS LO missile for the Future Offensive Surface Underway Weapon (FoSUW) programme is directly aligned with the Type 26 frigate's design architecture. The eight Type 26 frigates, currently on order from BAE Systems, are each outfitted with 24 Mk 41 vertical launch system (VLS) cells, complemented by dedicated Sea Ceptor missile silos and a sizeable mission bay. Choosing a missile family inherently compatible with the Mk 41 system allows London to avoid expensive custom modifications while enabling interoperability, as the same missile can be deployed across other NATO vessels equipped with Mk 41. Operationally, STRATUS LO will provide the Type 26 with a true long-range precision strike capability, enabling a single frigate, whether escorting a carrier or operating independently in regions like the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, or Indo-Pacific, to threaten enemy warships and critical land targets from stand-off distances well beyond the reach of most adversary anti-ship missiles. Meanwhile, the RS variant, initially allocated to air platforms such as Rafale and Typhoon, offers the prospect of a layered strike strategy: Type 26-launched LO missiles perform deep strikes, while the fast, air-launched RS missiles engage radar and air-defense nodes, complicating enemy defensive efforts. This integration of STRATUS LO with the Type 26's Mk 41 VLS infrastructure exemplifies a cost-effective, flexible, and powerful enhancement of Royal Navy capabilities, supporting advanced maritime and joint strike scenarios. The separation of VLS cells and Sea Ceptor silos also maximizes the defensive and offensive potential within the vessel’s combat system.
Tactically, STRATUS LO represents a significant change in how Royal Navy surface combatants will be able to fight. Stealth-optimised shaping, low-altitude sea-skimming profiles and sophisticated guidance should make the missile harder to detect and track than legacy subsonic weapons such as Harpoon or even the French MdCN, particularly in cluttered coastal environments. A deep-strike weapon in this class allows a Type 26 to engage fixed land targets, naval task groups or high-value logistics nodes from outside the envelope of most shore-based anti-ship systems and many combat aircraft, especially when combined with off-board targeting from maritime patrol aircraft, uncrewed systems or allied assets. The compatibility with Mk41 also means that STRATUS LO can be loaded alongside other effectors such as area-defence surface-to-air missiles or anti-submarine rockets, enabling commanders to tailor the load-out to theatre requirements without structural changes to the ship. When considered as a family, the pairing of stealthy LO and high-speed RS missiles offers a flexible toolkit for saturating enemy defences with mixed profiles, forcing defenders to deal simultaneously with low-observable, terrain-following threats and fast, manoeuvring weapons aimed at their sensor backbone.
Strategically, the integration of STRATUS LO on the Type 26 frigate underscores the United Kingdom’s commitment to preserving sovereign long-range strike capabilities while firmly embedding itself within a broader European industrial and operational alliance. By aligning missile requirements with France and Italy around a shared missile family, the UK enhances interoperability among European partners and generates economies of scale for a procurement likely to involve thousands of rounds across all users. Unlike the MdCN missile, which is a capable but more specialized naval cruise missile dependent on French Sylver A70 launchers, STRATUS is designed from inception as a versatile, multi-platform, multi-mission system with extensive export and integration potential via the Mk41 launch system. This collaborative approach positions the European partners strongly compared to other major powers fielding diverse families of long-range conventional missiles, such as the US with its LRASM and JASSM-ER, and China and Russia with their broad anti-ship and land-attack arsenals.
Within the wider European strategic framework, STRATUS also complements initiatives like the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) programme, which focuses on land-based launchers; future ELSA architectures may incorporate STRATUS-derived sensors, warheads, or guidance technologies even if the missile itself is chiefly optimized for naval and air deployments. This synergy reflects a coherent European strategy to maintain advanced, interoperable deep-strike capabilities capable of countering evolving threats in high-intensity contested environments.
By confirming STRATUS LO for the Type 26’s FoSUW fit, the UK Government has effectively designated its future anti-submarine warfare frigate class as the main surface carrier for Europe’s next-generation cruise and anti-ship missile. As the first ships of the class move towards entry into service at the end of this decade and STRATUS transitions from development to qualification and series production, the Royal Navy, together with its French and Italian counterparts, is laying the groundwork for a common long-range strike architecture that will shape European naval operations into the 2050s and beyond. The decision underlines that deep, precise and survivable conventional strike from the sea is now regarded as a core element of deterrence and power projection, and that equipping Type 26 with STRATUS LO is central to delivering that effect.
Written by Teoman S. Nicanci – Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group
Teoman S. Nicanci holds degrees in Political Science, Comparative and International Politics, and International Relations and Diplomacy from leading Belgian universities, with research focused on Russian strategic behavior, defense technology, and modern warfare. He is a defense analyst at Army Recognition, specializing in the global defense industry, military armament, and emerging defense technologies.