The Ministry of Defence has announced a £118 million purchase of six Land Ceptor missile launchers, a move that will double the British Army’s deployable Sky Sabre air defence systems.
The contract with manufacturer MBDA is expected to support up to 140 jobs across the UK, particularly at the company’s Bolton facility, which already employs 1,300 people and announced 700 new roles earlier this year.
According to the Ministry of Defence, the new equipment will “bolster national security and defence” while also contributing to economic growth under the government’s Plan for Change.
Armed Forces Minister Luke Pollard MP said the acquisition was part of a wider effort to implement the Strategic Defence Review. “Doubling our deployable Sky Sabre capability will strengthen the UK’s air defences, protect UK forces abroad, and deter our adversaries,” he said. “Through this investment we are supporting over 100 jobs across the UK, with more to come. We are implementing the government’s Plan for Change with defence as an engine to drive growth, boosting our industrial capacity and national prosperity.”
The Sky Sabre system is designed to intercept fast jets, drones, and cruise missiles. It can guide up to 24 missiles simultaneously to strike separate targets, and officials say it is so accurate it can hit a tennis ball-sized object moving at twice the speed of sound.
The Army recently tested the system at the QinetiQ range in the Outer Hebrides during NATO’s Exercise Formidable Shield, marking the first live firing of Sky Sabre in the UK. The system has also been deployed in Poland under Operation Stifftail to bolster NATO’s eastern defences.
Chris Allam, Managing Director of MBDA UK, welcomed the deal, describing Land Ceptor as “an excellent example of the innovative capability that this partnership has produced and delivered to the British Army.” He added: “Building these weapon systems has been a key part of our growth at our Bolton site and this contract helps us to sustain this expansion going forward.”
Lieutenant Colonel James Boutle, commanding officer of 16th Regiment Royal Artillery, which operates the system, said Sky Sabre marked “a step change in the UK’s ground-based air defence capability.” He added: “It provides a powerful shield against modern airborne threats, from fast jets to precision-guided weapons and drones. As part of this, we work hand-in-hand with industry partners such as MBDA here in the UK to continuously optimise the system to ensure it remains on the cutting edge – a collaboration that guarantees we stay ahead of adversary technology.”
The government said the three-year contract is part of its wider £1 billion commitment to strengthening homeland air and missile defence.
This is six iLauncher vehicles, right?
There’s no way six fire groups costs that little.
A very sensible purchase either way.
According to Janes that’s for 6 launchers.
But there’s also a separate contract been awarded for:
• 12 fire unit support vehicles for ammunition
• 8 vehicles for baggage, and
• 8 threat evaluation and weapon assignment systems
• plus spares to support Land Ceptor and Sky Sabre systems.
Almost £20 million each seems really expensive for what is essentially an MLRS system. I’d like to see the contract and what else is included, those quoted prices are rarely just the unit cost of the equipment.
Hopefully this is a sign of more things to come as part of the SDR process. Doubling the number of sky-sabre systems is very welcome especially when combined in the near future with CAMM MR which is going to give the system a significantly better performance closer to Aster and more of a theatre air defence capability but at a much reduced cost.
Hopefully we can now buy something else that can provide ABM defence. I think Arrow 3 now has to be off the table given Israel’s threats to sanction Germany.
Aster 30 NT is probably not up to the task so THAAD or SM3 is probably the only choice.
It will only take one unfriendly incursion to speed up UK air defence, which is currently inadequate for the task. This new system appears to rectify the situation, but time is of the essence.
Hope that’s put a small smile on your face this morning, Danielle
Confusion.
We’ve discussed this many times over the years.
There is confusion over how many launchers and what constitutes “a system” as reports say we purchased onlyb6 systems.
I had a system as comprising several launchers, plus FC vehicles and radar.
Further, the 4 batteries of 16RA are reportedly spilt into 2 Fire Groups each, and each FG has both launchers, radar, FC Vehicle.
If buying just 6 Launchers doubles the capability, that makes little sense unless the FG report was wrong and this was more wafer thin than thought.
Could just be a bit of MoD spin to make the purchase sound larger than it is?
The Sky Sabre system is modular. So you can network a number of “systems” together to create a wider SAM umbrella. So long as the truck launchers have a working data-link they can be many miles away from the command unit. But I agree the context is not all that clear. Are they talking about creating a new complete system, i.e. 4 to 6 launch vehicles, command centre and radar unit, or are they expanding the number of launch vehicles within an existing group?
To defend the UK logistics hubs in Odesa 😉
I would have been happy if they order 20 X times this number.
We have 3 large naval bases to protect, 7 major RAF sites, 8 Nuclear power stations, 5 major army hubs which all deserve an operating AA battery of this quality, never mind any other number of other sites like GCHQ and London with it’s clusters of key sites, like MI5 and parliament.
It would be a game changer if they did this, with not every site needing a full 6 X vehicle battery but london I guess needing multiple batteries.
Exactly Iain, six only sounds ridiculously small! If just CAMM wheres CAMM-MR at? Why just for the Army? What about some mobile Vshorad like Germany, who are ordering 500+ of the Boxer Skyranger with 30mm and Stinger, that could be adapted to tske Starstreak/LMM? Being mobile it could easily be used across ports, bases and Army.
So where will these actually be deployed and when?
Seems like far to few to actually be a credible defence, significantly more stress needed – or are they just defending London
As far as I can work it out, I think it means we will now have 2 Sky Sabre batteries, each with 6 SAM launchers. Right or wrong?
Sky Sabre is replacing Rapier, which was withdrawn two or three years ago. There were IIRC 4 Rapier batteries of 6 launchers. If so, it means we now have half a short-range air defence regiment.
It is a painfully slow and pitifully small replacement process. I understand that first call on the artillery budget was upgrading and increasing the number of GMLRS. With that about done, Sky Sabre is the next carriage on the train, so don’t understand why MOD is only announcing 6 launchers rather than 12, 18 or 24. Are we really so strapped for cash?
Somebody tell Danielle that they’ve finally started ordering things!
In all seriousness, I wonder if this precludes an investment in greater capability for the Sky Sabre system in the autumn. CAMM-ER has long been speculated.
I think it’s great that we’ve ordered these, I just hope it’s part of a bigger improvement to our defences. As far as I’m aware we still have no balistic missile protection in the UK (other than parking up a type 45 next to any target)
A nudge in the right direction, but a sprint is needed.