Kuwait has bought an air defence system built in Britain under a £370 million contract that will create a hundred jobs in the United Kingdom, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The contract with MARSS Systems Limited, an EOS company, covers skilled engineering and manufacturing roles, and the work will expand the company’s British offices with production based in Bristol.
MARSS will provide and integrate the system for Kuwait, bringing together jammers, radars and interceptors with its NiDAR platform, an AI-enabled command and control centre, to improve the country’s ability to detect, deter and defeat airborne threats.
The deal forms part of Taskforce Sabre, the British effort that brings government and industry together to help Gulf states secure systems and weapons quickly, and it follows Iranian missile and drone attacks in the region.
Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard said: “This deal is a clear demonstration of the UK delivering on its promise to support our regional partners.
“By backing Kuwait with world-leading British technology, we’re not just strengthening a vital ally’s defences against real and growing threats. We’re creating skilled jobs here at home and proving that UK industry can deliver when it matters most.”
Johannes Pinl, chief executive of MARSS, said: “Countering drones and aerial threats is not about any single system, it is about an intelligent, layered architecture that detects, decides and defeats within seconds, and MARSS has built exactly that.
“Through 2027, MARSS will integrate the sensors and effectors that protect Kuwait’s people, critical infrastructure and national assets, backed by British engineering and new skilled jobs here in the UK.”
Britain has already supported Kuwait with Rapid Sentry, a ground-based air defence missile system, and the Royal Air Force’s ORCUS counter-drone system is operating in the country, helping personnel detect drones early and act on what they find.
The Ministry of Defence describes the latest contract as building on that existing support and cementing Britain’s role as a defence partner to Kuwait and the wider Gulf region.
The UK is building integrated air defence systems for Poland and Kuwait but not the UK. 🤔
You can see how far the allocated £750 million for all the UK will go when just tiny Kuwait is spending £370 million on this MARSS system.
Merlin magic protects the skies of Britain…
Merlin, a good name change for ORCUS perhaps. 😀
That’s what the Saudi’s thought until the Houthis started hitting Riyadh Airport…..
Don’t worry we will be learning a lot of lessons.
Those lessons can then be ported back to the UK to be lost under the weight of change from the Good Ideas Club Committee……
Don’t worry Papiermâché Dome will do the job just fine or is it Bricktannia shield these days.
Labour parasites more interested in protecting other countries airspace than protecting ours.
The sooner a general election is held the better.
There is a lot of ground to be made up after 14 years of poor investment and poor decisions.
We haven’t taken defence funding seriously for decades. When i served in the 90’s it was a disgrace and no government since has invested any more than they thought was the minimum they could get away with.
More like 26 years. Labour, coalition & Conservative governments, all starved UK defence, over that time.
Indeed
Righttrash retards always whining, as you will again when you lose the next election, crybaby snowflakes 🤡🐷🤣
Oh, thank goodness you posted that. For a moment there, I thought the collective IQ of the internet was at risk of slipping into single digits, but Pleiades and Villain together saved us.
The sheer, staggering depth of intellectualism on display here is frankly blinding.
Rejoice!
Because nothing screams “intellectual peak” quite like the use of “crybaby” and “snowflake” or replacing the entire English vocabulary with a tiny cartoon face.
I fear that you, too, may be contributing to the point they were making…
Thank you – Rejoice indeed.
Who is going to lose the next general election exactly?
Enlighten me little one.
Hmmm yeah because a split Parliament with no party majority but most likely still Labour the biggest Party as things stand, is going to resolve all our woes isn’t it. Or maybe the Tories as biggest Party with hardly a Minister anyone has heard of promising money to the rich to try to bolster the empty ranks of paid up members, or worst of all god forbid a Reform Party that will be busy dividing profits between themselves, crypto exploiters and Trump’s sons and hangers on while claiming he is doing it for King and Country. Putin will be rubbing his hands. Can’t wait.
As an aside an overwhelming amount of MAGA supporting Russian bots have strangely stopped operating after Ukraine’s recent attacks on Russian data centres. Coincidence I’m sure, how’s Farage’s doing I wonder.
The MARSS site is certainly buzzword compliant but it is hard to see what you get and the product section is empty. What part of it makes it a UK success story?
Well it is a British headquartered and operated company. But I agree about its website.
The first round of cuts were by the John major government just after the cold war finished which was named front line first 🙄 How on earth can you make cuts without affecting the front line 🙄 Then came Blair, Brown, and Cameron’s government which made us defenceless over night with Aircraft squadrons gone. Navy Escorts and our Carrier capability gone and many Army Regiments despised for good .All three services lost Thousands of manpower and equipment .Can’t see us ever getting theses numbers back sadly.
Listening to Wes O’donnel and he came across the L29 albatross as a persistent drone killer.
Rather than sacking off the Red Arrows, give them a secondary mission in time of war – actually peacetime today; give them drone intercept and make the investment to enable them to protect British airspace against some threats.
Might want to sell some pf these to Saudi Arabia asap too. Their airport took some hits and had civilian casualties the other day. I thought SkySabre had been deployed to the Gulf but not sure where to. If that system performs well maybe that might lead to some sales.