Welcome Sea Ceptor

As anticipated a few days ago, one nice news of Planning Round 2012 is that the Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM) has finally hit Main Gate, with a 5 years contract worth 483 million pounds being signed for the completition of work on the Future Local Area Air Defence - Maritime (FLAADS-M) system, the naval iteration of CAMM.

The Royal Navy name for the new missile system, that will replace Sea Wolf, is Sea Ceptor. The missile, a very interesting and innovative system, i have already widely described here.
MBDA's own description of the system says:

CAMM(M) provides a 360° air defence capability for naval forces out to ranges greater than 25km against the current and future air threat. Requiring no dedicated tracker/illuminator radars, CAMM can be cued by a ship’s standard target indication data to provide high levels of protection against multiple simultaneous targets in open ocean and littoral environments. It can also be used against surface targets. The weapon system, which incorporates a 2-way data-link to CAMM missiles in flight, is intended for vessels of corvette size or larger, for either new ships or as a retrofit.
CAMM(M) launch canisters are compatible with SYLVER and Mk41 family launch silos with CAMM utilising features such as folding missile fins to maximise launch canister packing density. The introduction of “soft launch” techniques reduces system mass and allows for more flexibility in terms of installation positions on a ship.

Land

CAMM(L) will provide future land forces with an easily transportable and rapidly deployable local area air defence system capable of operating as a stand alone unit or of being integrated within a future battlespace network. The small foot-print of a CAMM launch site and the low-signature of a CAMM launch increases survivability of air defence assets. CAMM(L) is capable of engaging Non Line of Sight (NLOS) targets if 3rd party targeting information is available; this feature is particularly attractive for engaging concealed Attack Helicopters and low-flying terrain-following cruise missiles.
CAMM(L) is logistically easy to manage with packs of CAMM(L) canisters slotting into launcher frames, so there is no need for man-handling of actual missiles onto launch rails.

Air

The CAMM missile is easily adaptable for air launch from Fast Jets. With modular seeker options and the latest datalink technology, CAMM(A) offers a next generation air-to-air capability. CAMM(A) benefits from MBDA’s experience on the world leading ASRAAM and Meteor air-to-air missile products.

The missile can be quad-packed into a MK41 or Sylver cell, so that, if we were to replace the short-range Aster 15 with CAMM on a Type 45, we could increase the missile load from 48 missiles to 96 without changing the number of missile cells [a standard mix on a Type 45 is thought to be 32 long-range Aster 30 and 16 Aster 15].
Maximum range is around 25 Km and the speed is expected to be superior to Mach 2.5, possibly reaching Mach 3, as the missile is derived from the Mach 3.5 ASRAAM. The latest articles on the press contain an interesting data, putting the "protected area" extension for Sea Ceptor at 800 square kilometers. This means a circular area with the launching ship in the middle and with a radius of roughly 16 km.
Data appearing on the press is, of course, not the best source to make conclusions from, but 16 km is probably a realistic engagement distance, especially against sea-skimming targets. Anti-ship missiles can be expected to be intercepted even closer: the Sea Viper trials saw the Aster 30 missile shooting down an Exocet at 9 km, after all. It is a serious enhancement over Sea Wolf, which is slower, has less range and is not fire and forget but is guided all along by heavy and bulky radar illuminators mounted on the Type 23s in number of two.

MBDA's beautiful interactive catalogue contains excellent data on the CAMM. Be sure to check all pages, and look at the video as well: it is possibly the most interesting thing of all as it shows how the Type 23 will be modified for using CAMM in replacement of Sea Wolf, something that should happen by 2016. The video shows the massive Sea Wolf radar systems and electronics being removed, and the missile silo modified to take 12 quadpacks of CAMM missiles, increasing the loadout of the frigate to 48 missiles.