UK rushes new long-range strike weapons for Ukraine

Three British-designed long-range strike systems have been flight tested just months after the competition that produced them was launched, with follow-on contracts now awarded to take the designs into production for Ukraine, the Ministry of Defence stated.

Project Brakestop was launched by the MoD’s Taskforce Kindred in November 2024 and challenged UK industry to develop a low-cost, ground-launched strike weapon capable of hitting targets more than 500km away while carrying a 225kg warhead.

The requirements set for competitors also included a speed of more than 600km/h, a target unit cost of around £400,000 excluding the warhead, and the ability to produce at least 20 weapons a month within months of a production order being placed. According to the MoD, 27 bids were received when the competition opened, with detailed technical assessments and Dragon’s Den style pitches held in February 2025. Six British companies were initially awarded contracts worth around £5 million each to design and build prototype weapons for testing within just seven months.

By December 2025 the field had narrowed to three suppliers progressing to flight testing. MBDA UK, a long-standing strategic partner of the UK whose existing product line includes the Storm Shadow cruise missile, sits alongside two smaller firms entering or expanding their footprint in the defence sector. MGI Engineering, a UK small or medium-sized enterprise with more than 25 years of work in Formula 1, secured what the MoD said was its first defence contract through Brakestop. Rotron Aerospace, also a UK SME, has a longer track record with the MoD including work on the Dismounted Soldier Close Combat and Defence programme. Each of the three systems was tested at the MoD Hebrides Range, the specialist trials site managed by QinetiQ under the Long-Term Partnering Agreement.

Follow-on contracts worth around £15 million each have now been awarded to allow the suppliers to refine their designs and produce 15 improved effectors each, alongside launchers and support vehicles. Further testing will take place in the UK in the coming months, the MoD said, with additional trials to follow overseas, including in Ukraine.

Minister for the Armed Forces Louise Sandher-Jones described the pace of delivery as evidence of what can be achieved when government and industry pull together. “The UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine, and we will continue to provide the support it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” she said, as quoted in the MoD’s release.

She added: “Project Brakestop shows what happens when we combine that commitment with the talent and ingenuity of British industry. In less than a year, UK companies have taken an ambitious concept from the drawing board to flight testing, delivering a new generation of capability at remarkable speed. This is a clear demonstration that Britain has the industrial strength, innovation and determination to meet the challenges of modern warfare and support our allies.”

The 225kg warhead that the Brakestop systems are designed to carry has already been developed and tested by a separate UK company, according to the MoD, which described the work as proving the destructive power of the eventual weapon.

The 500km-plus range bracket places Brakestop firmly into the deep-strike category, well beyond the reach of typical battlefield artillery and broadly comparable in reach to a number of cruise missiles and long-range loitering munitions now in operational use in Ukraine.

Project Brakestop has been delivered by a combined MoD team including the National Armaments organisation covering Material and Dstl, 744 Naval Air Squadron, the Air and Space Warfare Centre Air Wing, 11 Explosive Ordnance Disposal Regiment and Taskforce Kindred, working alongside QinetiQ. Taskforce Kindred itself was established to identify and field novel capabilities at speed, with a particular focus on systems that can be moved from concept to operational use on timescales measured in months rather than years.