Diehl Defence and Lockheed Martin have agreed to jointly assess how the German-made IRIS-T missiles could be incorporated into Lockheed Martin’s Mk 41 Vertical Launching System, which is the most widely deployed VLS among Western naval forces.
According to a statement released by Diehl on Nov. 18, the two companies will also examine whether the IRIS-T can be integrated into the Aegis Weapon System, a naval combat system operated by nations such as the United States, Spain, and Norway.
At present, European navies that use the Mk 41 VLS—including Germany, the Netherlands, and Norway—depend primarily on U.S. systems like the SM-2 and the Evolved Sea Sparrow Missile for their air-defense needs. Adding IRIS-T as an option could improve Europe’s defense independence, an objective the European Union has increasingly emphasized.
Diehl Defence CEO Helmut Rauch noted that the collaboration with Lockheed Martin will allow “navies worldwide to take advantage of top-tier air-defense options for their surface combat ships.”
Lockheed Martin says the Mk 41 system is employed by 17 navies and installed on more than 200 vessels. Its core module features eight missile cells housed below deck, while its largest configuration can accommodate Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Germany and Norway already operate both the Mk 41 system at sea and the IRIS-T for ground-based air defense, and Denmark is set to join them with its planned acquisition of the IRIS-T SLM system.
The companies have formalized their cooperation through a memorandum of understanding, outlining the next phase of detailed studies on integrating the IRIS-T missile family into both Aegis and the Mk 41 VLS.
This development follows an agreement in October in which the firms began exploring collaboration on missile options for the Patriot ground-based air-defense system.
While Germany has also submitted a request this year to purchase Typhon launchers—a containerized, land-based variant of the Mk 41—a Diehl representative confirmed to Defense News that the Typhon system is not included in the scope of the new cooperation, which focuses strictly on naval applications.
In Europe, the primary competitor to Lockheed Martin’s Mk 41 VLS is the Sylver system developed by Naval Group. Used by France, Italy, and the United Kingdom, Sylver supports MBDA weapons such as the Aster series for air defense and the Naval Cruise Missile.
