A Light Missile for a Dense Threat Environment
Technical Briefing: Martlet and the Emerging Layer of Close Maritime Defence
Recent events in the Middle East have highlighted the growing importance of lightweight precision missiles in countering drone threats. The UK has already deployed Martlet systems on land in the eastern Mediterranean and Gulf regions as part of wider air-defence measures protecting British bases and infrastructure. Mounted on vehicle launchers and operated by British forces, the missile provides a relatively simple and precise way to intercept small unmanned aircraft without resorting to larger and more expensive air-defence systems.
The missile is also carried by the AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat, where its compact size, precision guidance, and low cost make it useful against small maritime threats like drones and fast attack craft. These features suggest Martlet could play a broader role across the future fleet.
At a time when navies are increasingly confronted by large numbers of inexpensive unmanned systems, weapons designed for high-performance aircraft and missiles are not always the most practical response. Martlet sits in a useful space between naval guns and traditional air-defence missiles, offering a precise interceptor that can be carried in meaningful numbers.
The Missile Itself
Martlet is produced by Thales UK at its long-established missile facility in Belfast, drawing on technology lineage that includes systems such as Starstreak.
Typical characteristics include:
Weight~13 kg
Range~6–8 km
Speed~Mach 1.5
Guidance: laser beam-riding
Warhead: blast-fragmentation
Instead of carrying its own radar or infrared seeker, Martlet follows a laser beam projected from the launch platform. The missile simply remains centred within that beam as it flies toward the target.
This guidance method has several advantages:
resistance to electronic countermeasures
Reduced missile complexity
comparatively low cost.
The launcher platform maintains line of sight during the engagement, which is usually straightforward for short-range intercepts against drones or small surface targets.
Why Small Missiles Matter at Sea
Traditional naval air defence evolved around the need to defeat:
high-speed aircraft
supersonic anti-ship missiles
large, high-value threats.
The resulting missile systems are highly capable but also expensive and carried in limited numbers.
Drone warfare changes the equation. Small unmanned systems can be produced cheaply and launched in large numbers. Defending against them, therefore, becomes a question of magazine depth and cost-effective interception.
Light missiles such as Martlet offer an intermediate option:
engagement beyond gun range
precision against small targets
relatively compact launch systems.
In effect, they allow ships to manage dense threat environments without immediately resorting to their most sophisticated missiles.
Surface Launch on Warships
Although best known as a helicopter weapon, Martlet was designed from the outset to support multiple launch platforms.
A shipboard configuration would typically include:
a compact multi-tube launcher
a stabilised electro-optical director
a laser designator integrated with the combat system.
The engagement sequence would follow a familiar pattern:
Ship sensors detect and classify a contact.
The electro-optical director tracks the target and projects a coded laser beam.
The missile rides the beam to the interception point.
Because the launcher is relatively small, it can be fitted to a wide variety of vessels without major structural changes.
A Practical Fit for Type 31
The Type 31 frigate provides a good example of how such a system could be integrated.
The ship already carries the TACTICOS, an open-architecture combat system designed to integrate new sensors and weapons relatively easily. Target tracking could be handled by the ship’s existing stabilised electro-optical director, such as the Mirador electro-optical fire control system, which already provides precision tracking capability for other weapons.
In practice, installing Martlet would largely involve adding a deck-mounted launcher and integrating it with the existing combat system interfaces. The optical director would designate the target with a coded laser beam, while TACTICOS manages engagement sequencing and situational awareness within the operations room.
Because the ship’s key sensors and command infrastructure are already in place, this integration could proceed without significant structural changes.
Extending the Defensive Perimeter
When used from helicopters, Martlet already allows ships to intercept targets several kilometres from the defended platform. Surface-launched missiles would add a further layer closer to the ship.
A notional defensive structure could look something like this:
Outer: Helicopter-launched Martlet
Middle: Ship-launched Martlet
Inner: Programmable naval guns
Terminal: Close-in weapon systems
Each layer addresses a different stage of the engagement while preserving high-end missiles for more demanding threats.
A Role for Autonomous Escorts
The missile may also find a natural place within future concepts for autonomous or optionally crewed escort vessels.
These platforms are often envisaged as distributed nodes within a task group, performing roles such as:
sensor pickets
magazine extensions
forward threat interception.
A small missile system, such as the Martlet, could allow these vessels to investigate and engage drone contacts without committing larger warships.
Because the missile relies on relatively simple guidance, targeting information could come from the escort’s own sensors or be provided by other platforms within the network.
Trials With Autonomous Platforms
Recent trials also suggest that Martlet may prove adaptable beyond traditional launch platforms. In a Royal Air Force–sponsored experiment, a UK-developed drone, JACKAL, successfully fired a Martlet during a rapid development trial. The JACKAL platform, developed by Flyby Technology, was modified in cooperation with Thales UK to carry and launch the missile.
The engineering work was completed in approximately six weeks, demonstrating how quickly the system could be integrated onto an unmanned platform. In the test sequence, the vertical take-off aircraft launched the missile against a nearby target, illustrating the potential for lightweight guided weapons to be deployed from remotely operated systems. While still experimental, such demonstrations hint at a future in which missiles like Martlet are not limited to helicopters or ships, but could also be carried by unmanned aircraft operating as forward defensive nodes.
From a Future Navy perspective, the significance of this trial lies less in the individual drone and more in what it suggests about the missile itself. Because Martlet relies on relatively simple beam-riding guidance rather than complex onboard seekers, it can be integrated onto a wide variety of platforms with modest engineering effort. The JACKAL drone experiment, therefore, hints at a wider possibility: lightweight missiles deployed across a distributed network of crewed ships, helicopters and autonomous systems. In such a model, smaller unmanned platforms could act as forward pickets or intercept nodes within a task group, engaging drones or small surface threats before they reach the main force. The missile itself becomes less a single platform weapon and more a shared defensive tool within a distributed maritime architecture.
A Practical Evolution
Martlet does not represent a radical technological shift. Instead, it reflects a practical adjustment to the challenges posed by modern unmanned systems.
Its strengths are straightforward:
compact launch systems
flexible platform integration
precision engagement against small targets.
These qualities enable the missile to operate from helicopters, land systems, and, potentially, additional naval platforms.
As the Royal Navy continues to think about how future fleets will operate in environments saturated with unmanned systems, weapons that can be distributed across ships, aircraft and autonomous escorts are likely to become increasingly relevant.