UK to invest EUR 460M in missile development, including hypersonic missiles

The United Kingdom has announced that it will spend more than GBP 400 million (EUR 460 million) this year on the development of new long-range and hypersonic missiles in partnership with European allies.

This was reported by Sky News, according to Ukrinform.

It is noted that one of the projects, carried out jointly with France and Italy, aims to create a replacement for the Storm Shadow cruise missile – a weapons system that the United Kingdom supplied to Ukraine and which has been repeatedly used by Ukrainian forces to strike targets in Russia.

"The new missiles will be able to defeat high-value targets, destroy enemy ships and suppress enemy air defences," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement.

A second project involves cooperation between Britain and Germany to develop a new long-range weapons system with a range of more than 2,000 km.

Britain stated that the weapons under the second project will only enter service in the 2030s.

"We can see from the war in Ukraine the decisive impact of long-range precision weapons, so the UK is stepping up, investing more than GBP 400m for long-range and hypersonic weapons this year," said Defence Secretary John Healey, adding that the presented projects are intended to "keep the UK and NATO safe, boost deterrence, and build a new deal for European security."

As Ukrinform previously reported, the Anglo-German company Hypersonica successfully conducted the first flight test of a hypersonic missile prototype, marking an important step toward developing a European strike capability.

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