General Atomics and MBDA have committed to integrating the SPEAR precision strike weapon onto the MQ-9B remotely piloted aircraft and the Gambit 6 collaborative combat aircraft, the companies have announced at the Farnborough International Airshow, extending a partnership built through arming the RAF’s Protector.
The memorandum of understanding was signed at the show by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems President David R. Alexander and MBDA UK Managing Director Chris Allam, with the companies to work together to ensure both aircraft can carry and use the SPEAR weapons. “We’ve built an excellent business relationship with MBDA as part of the integration of the Brimstone missile onto the UK’s Protector,” Alexander said, as quoted in the press release. “So, working with MBDA to enable SPEAR on our broader MQ-9B line, and our Gambit CCA, feels like a very natural extension of our partnership.”
“The consolidation of MBDA’s relationship with GA-ASI is a testament to the strength of our long history of cooperation, most recently with Brimstone and Protector,” Allam said, as quoted in the release. “Remotely piloted aircraft and autonomous/collaborative platforms, such as MQ-9B and Gambit, are revolutionizing modern air combat. Integrating the innovative capability of SPEAR multiplies the effect these platforms provide into decisive operational advantage.”
SPEAR is MBDA’s miniature cruise missile, described in the release as a next-generation air-launched surface attack weapon providing a low collateral damage precision effect with a high load-out for persistence, reaching beyond the horizon so the launch aircraft remains safely away from hostile air defences while retaining engagement capability across a broad threat set.
Developed as SPEAR 3 for internal carriage in the UK’s F-35s, where eight can be carried in the weapon bays, the network-enabled missile pairs a turbojet with a multi-mode seeker to hit moving and relocatable targets at ranges far beyond the Brimstone it complements, and putting it on uncrewed platforms would spread a stand-off strike weapon bought for fifth-generation fighters across aircraft that can be risked more freely.
Good, hope they progress quickly with this. Aside from anything else, it gives an operational launch platform to MBDA to finalise whatever development issues they may have with Spear itself. That part of its development has been hampered by delays in the F-35 programme I believe, plus the RAF’s incomprehensible decision not to integrate it into the Typhoon fleet…
Handy, but not really in MQ-9s useful range brackets as it isn’t really suited to flying below the horizon.
Will be good for Persian gulf boat-smashing or maybe volleying against a Russian corvette?