The UK has joined France, Germany, Italy and Poland in launching a new multinational initiative to develop low-cost air defence weapons aimed at countering drone and missile threats across Europe, the Ministry of Defence has announced.
Unveiled at the European Group of Five (E5) meeting in Krakow on 20 February 2026, the ‘Low-Cost Effectors & Autonomous Platforms’ initiative, known as LEAP, will focus on developing advanced but affordable surface-to-air systems. The first project under the scheme is expected to be delivered by 2027.
According to the MOD, LEAP will prioritise rapid development and adaptability, drawing lessons from battlefield innovation in Ukraine. The programme will seek proposals from both major defence manufacturers and small and medium-sized enterprises.
Its initial focus will be on a new lightweight surface-to-air weapon designed to counter drones and missile threats, with an emphasis on reducing development timelines compared to traditional acquisition cycles.
Defence Minister Luke Pollard said: “European security is at a pivotal moment. The UK and our E5 partners are stepping up – investing together in the next generation of air defence and autonomous systems to strengthen NATO’s shield and keep our people safe.”
He added: “From innovation in our defence industries to our ironclad commitment to Ukraine, we’re showing that European nations are ready to deter, defend and if necessary, fight, together. I’m proud of UK leadership on European security – building partnerships, developing capability and standing with Ukraine to protect our shared security.”
The announcement comes as the UK expands cooperation with European allies on long-range precision and hypersonic weapons, with government spending on such projects exceeding £400 million this financial year, according to the MOD. The E5 grouping, comprising Europe’s five largest defence spenders, is intended to reinforce NATO’s deterrence posture, strengthen industrial resilience and coordinate support for Ukraine amid ongoing Russian aggression.
The E5 is an interesting group it’s only just over a year old and has met 7 times..the fact it’s focus is the largest and most powerful European nations and not just the EU is interesting.. and hopefully shows that the UK can exist as an independent power within a new European geostrategic post NATO reality.
I’d thought this had been sorted. Asraam bolted to a truck. Are we going to see something actually new! Can’t wait.
at £200k ea I wouldn’t call ASRAAM low cost especially when compared to the cost of a drone,
They are talking about interceptors cheaper than the drones themselves. Shahed type drones are less than 10k each. ASRAAM way to expensive
Putting numbers into perspective, the UK is looking to provide Ukraine with 100,000 drones a year – 85,000 so far between April and October 2025 – but Ukraine uses about 3.3 MILLION drones a year! To be a viable defence strategy we need to be able to produce these things in ridiculous numbers. To be fair, a lot of the UK drones have been higher cost/value types rather than bargain basement.
Excellent, we can sell them the CA Skyhammer (which has already had extensive test flying, they fire a prototype weekly apparently) and Starhammer (which is in the prototype and early test flight stages) as short range air defence systems which are extremely cheap.
Why do we need the other countries’ contributions when we are perfectly capable of this ourselves? Unified supply chains are not necessarily a good thing.
What do you know about Cambridge Aerospace? Their website has nothing on it, just their name on it. There seems to be very little information.
A good article to read is
calibredefencecouk/dsei-uk-2025-cambridge-aerospace-to-present-air-defence-solutions/
or
edrmagazineeu/dsei-2025-cambridge-aerospace-skyhammer-and-starhammer-fast-developed-answers-to-drone-and-missile-threats
They were founded in autumn of 2024 by a Cambridge aerospace professor (hence the name) and Grant Shapps and went around covertly securing $100m of investment. That allowed them to develop Skyhammer which is a 30km range, high subsonic interceptor with an active radar seeker and reported £30-40k cost. They then started early development of Skyhammer, which is variously quoted as 20km or 10km range, supersonic missile very similar to Tamir and higher cost for more difficult targets using the same seeker.
At DSEI 2025 they went public, presumably to secure more investment. Because they have so much funding they can afford to turn over their production line and continuously produce prototypes even without orders, which allows them to iterate lots and also means they could ramp up production if they were suddenly required to.
That’s all from digging through articles or video interviews.
Thanks for that. Ever since hearing about them at DSEI, there has been little to no information about them.
Surely looking to the past and a gun firing an explosive fragmentation shell is the cheapest option against drones, especially the costs of keeping it operational over extended periods and deploying in significant numbers? It screams to me as a problem where we can keep the solution simple instead of over complicating things.
Nets.
Butterfly Nets, that’s what you need, with girt long andles.
🤣