UK without anti-ship missiles for a decade

Robert Beckhusen for War is Boring:

In 2010, Britain’s sailing branch opted not to replace the Harpoon, and one year ago it was revealed the missiles were set to retire at the end of 2018. In September 2017, IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly announced that the U.K. Ministry of Defense has delayed the retirement until 2020.

That buys the Royal Navy some time — but not much. Fundamentally, the situation hasn’t changed. The Harpoon is already obsolete and terribly outranged, which is why the United States is preparing the new 200-mile-range LRASM to replace it. But no new missile is expected for the Royal Navy until possibly 2030 when the Perseus missile by European developer MBDA is complete.

The Perseus missile is promising but the thing is that it won’t actually exist for another 15 years or so. The UK must find some anti-ship missiles somewhere to fill in the gap, because having none is just ridiculous.