The UK is to rebuild its sovereign hypersonic target capability after a gap of more than a decade, with a £20 million contract awarded to Lockheed Martin UK and its small business partners, Defence Minister Luke Pollard has announced.
Speaking at the AGF Defence Summit at the Farnborough International Airshow, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry said the award forms part of a commitment to spend more on novel technologies and fill inherited capability gaps. “Today we’re awarding a £20 million pound contract to Lockheed Martin UK and their collaboration with SMEs to rebuild Britain’s sovereign hypersonic target capability, filling a gap of more than a decade,” he said, as quoted in the transcript of the speech. “This investment in advanced capabilities will need to test and strengthen our air defences. It will support our small businesses and around 60 skilled jobs in Bedfordshire and inject £2 million pounds into the supply chain including into multiple UK SMEs that will benefit.”
Hypersonic targets are the test articles against which air defence radars, interceptors and crews are proven, flying the speed and manoeuvre profiles of the threat weapons now proliferating, and the absence of a sovereign capability has meant reliance on allies for a class of test asset in heavy demand as every Western nation races to harden its defences against hypersonic and high-speed ballistic threats. The Bedfordshire jobs point to Lockheed Martin UK’s Ampthill site, and the Minister said the award signals “that defence is returning to some of the more demanding frontiers of aerospace,” as quoted in the transcript.
The contract is part of a wider innovation push Pollard set out in the speech, including the new ring-fenced annual defence innovation budget of £400 million and a target to spend at least 10 per cent of the annual equipment budget on novel technologies, policies he said are placing UK aerospace at the leading edge of autonomous combat air power. Across the Defence Investment Plan, he confirmed £5 billion is being invested in drones and other advanced uncrewed systems, an increase of £1 billion on previous plans.
The Minister, speaking the morning after the reshuffle that brought Wes Streeting to the Ministry of Defence, opened with the candour of a man awaiting news of his own position, joking that he had left his phone on loud at the back of the room in case the Prime Minister rang, and he trailed further announcements to come, telling delegates there was “good news coming on GCAP later today” and that the new Defence Secretary would have “an exciting announcement” on the timeline for the Storm Fighter uncrewed combat aircraft programme tomorrow.
The air and space portfolio he described spans the £31 billion four-year investment confirmed in the plan, Typhoon sustainment into the 2040s, the ground being laid for the F-35As compatible with NATO’s nuclear mission, and the jet trainer recapitalisation that will ultimately deliver new aircraft for the Red Arrows.
Rebuild? What hypersonic target did the UK use before?
I was going to ask the same before I distracted by other subject matter, were they merely referring to a US capability that we exploited on their ranges on occasion?
I recall DERA/DRA/QinetiQ using Jindiviik and Banshee Drones, back in the day from Llanbedr and now Aberporth.
Other targets were actual RAF and FAA Hawks simulating ASM for the RN, and FR Aviation Dassault Falcons for EW simulations.
I don’t recall any hypersonic assets the MoD owned, so I’m very curious to find out just what I missed all these years that was hypersonic, or what porkies HMG are saying now.
Ok. Just looked on X, one finds answers to all sorts there.
Gabs on UKAFC has mentioned hypersonic and ballistic testing capability at the MoD site in the Hebrides. A Northrop Grumman GQM 163A Coyote target, in “close co operation with the US.”
So did we actually own any? Hardly rebuilding sovereign hypersonic target capability if we didn’t have any in the first place?
Indeed there you go, got the ‘US cooperation’ bit right just the range they used wrong. They do love to exaggerate or obscure things don’t they, this one was truly self defeating as it was so obviously questionable. Just tell it as it is, no one really expected us to historically have had actual hypersonic targets ourselves. As you say some nuanced ownership arrangement might have taken place but either way misleading for no real purpose.
Hmg telling porkys never !
We have used in the past the Israeli Black Sparrow. Which is an air launched ballistic missile, that was originally designed to represent SCUD, but its scope has been expanded to mimic Iranian missiles. Black Sparrow can reach speeds up to Mach 10.
Sorry, it was used on T45 trials, testing Aster.
GCAP I presume is the official announcement of the new Canadian observer status. Anything else too I wonder?
StormFighter. That’s interesting the timescale already seems optimistic unless it’s further along than we knew what more can be presented. still surprised this isn’t a known collaborative effort or is it actually one in disguise, or even a anglicised development of an existing programme? Will we find out more? I’m on tenterhooks. 🤓
When will these ministers stop boring us with endless development of this or that weapon or capability. Most of it won’t come to fruition. They waste millions on these things and little ends up adding to our defence. This game politicians and the MOD play is a great a threat to the security of this country, equal to that of Vlad.
Sovereign capability awarded to an American company?
Saying ‘hypersonic’ adds tonnes of profit. Don’t believe the hype. Anything actually proven where hypersonic missiles actually hit a moving target?
Good question, the Chinese boast of hypersonic anti ship missiles. Unless they have made breakthroughs we aren’t publicly aware of mind they would have to slow down in the final phases to have any real chance of targeting a moving target. That’s generally what Russian hypersonic missiles tend to do even prior to hitting (or missing) rather unmoving land targets it seems.
Great but we have nothing to shoot them down with, we are improving detection and tracking but not the means to engage them, not bad 2 out 3 right, what an utter farce
However on behalf of the MOD I have recommended a new Committee be set up for this very purpose and even invented a name for the mythical platform to come out of it. I think Stormshooter fits in rather well to this new MOD flashy missile branding. Will do the job I think until the Brandy and Cigars run out, allowing it thereafter, having milked all the available public perception, to quietly fade away like all the others.