The UK government has not yet placed orders for the planned purchase of 3,000 Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles (JAGM) intended for the British Army’s Apache helicopters, Defence Minister Maria Eagle confirmed in response to a parliamentary question from Conservative MP James Cartlidge.
Eagle, when asked if they had yet been ordered, stated: “No. Joint Air-to-Ground Missiles remains one of the top priorities for the Army as it is critical to providing the Apache with the means to fight on the modern battlefield. In Year Funding has been protected to ensure this procurement can proceed.”
The UK’s intention to procure 3,000 JAGM missiles was first reported on October 24, 2023, when the U.S. approved the sale under a deal worth an estimated $957 million. The sale, which also includes dummy missiles, technical assistance, integration support, and logistics, is aimed at equipping the UK’s Apache AH-64E fleet with advanced air-to-ground weaponry.
According to the U.S. sales notice:
“The proposed sale will improve the United Kingdom’s capability to meet current and future threats. The United Kingdom will use the enhanced capability to strengthen its homeland defence and deter regional threats. The United Kingdom will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment and services into its armed forces.”
The principal contractor for the programme is Lockheed Martin, with the U.S. State Department emphasising that the deal supports its foreign policy goals by bolstering the security of a key NATO ally.
While no formal orders have been placed since the recent general election, Eagle assured Parliament that funding has been safeguarded to ensure the procurement can proceed when authorised. The JAGM missiles, which offer cutting-edge precision guidance, are seen as essential for ensuring the Apache’s effectiveness.
The UK’s Apache fleet will also be equipped with Hellfire K1 and Hellfire Romeo missiles, complementing the capabilities provided by JAGM.
The absence of immediate orders underscores the continued procedural and budgetary hurdles in such large-scale defence procurements, but the protected funding highlights the priority given to this critical upgrade for the Army’s Apache helicopters.
So basically we are saying that all the frames that have been delivered and haven’t blown over in a gust of wind are no use offensively because we don’t have any missiles?
Or have I missed something.
This just gets worse and worse with the RFA and T23 woes.
These are pretty central to anti tank warefare at scale given we can likely suppress S300/400 quite quickly with other munitions.
Erm are you sure we have the munitions available to suppress them or are they also part of a proposed order that’s yet to realised.
Be nice to be given an idea as to why it’s taking this long, don’t tell me it’s more attempts to give retired high ups and retired civil servants a nice add on to their pensions as they metaphorically carry rocks to one location and then back to their original one rinse and repeat.
You are. Read the whole article.
We have thousands of Hellfire L and R in stock already. All are compatible with Apache E.
Rockets is another thing though as CRV-7 appears to have left service. We have an order in for c800 guided APKWS based on the inferior Hydra 70 rocket. Not sure about unguided Hydra 70 though…
Classic UK procurement. Fitted for but not with…
Ironically as I read your comment the ad below featured an Apache firing a Spike missile. Nice to know someone’s getting a service.
It has Hellfire, 70mm rockets and the 30mm gun
I am now wondering if we actually have the Hellfire and 70mm rockets in the weapons dumps?
I know we chose Hellfire to avoid an expensive integration fiasco and I can well understand why Army would go down that route as they just need some stuff that works.
The lack of urgency on this is quite incredible.
We have over 4,000 Hellfire in stock…
Government UK….” dedicated to protection of The Realm”.
A top priority, yet none ordered, nor any indication given as to when they’ll be ordered. Makes sense.
Said no one ever.
Maybe they’re waiting on the ER version which I think will have double the range up to 16km?
If so, it might he a sensible decision. Russian helicopters have been forced to operate from range and I can see this being a common tactic moving forward.
I assume existing stocks of hellfire missiles can be used in the interim.
Can JAGM be fired in Non Line of Sight and externally controlled ? US is getting Spike NLOS for their Apaches, last version have 50km range.
I know that IOC for JAGM was declared a couple of years ago and it entered initial low rate production. But isn’t the missile still in development to have greater range and improved sensors? Presumably, we will use Hellfire for the time being. Given its export potential, we really should have chosen Brimstone.
So we can’t afford to manage the RFA, scrap our assault ships, haven’t ordered enough F35B, haven’t got enough frigates, need a new batch of typhoon, haven’t got enough Poseidon MPA, only ordered 3 AWACS Wedgetails and now haven’t placed an overdue order to equip the precious small number of Apache attack helicopters for their primary mission. You’d think the war in Ukraine demonstrated beyond all doubt that having adequate numbers of smart munitions was vital otherwise you will be just like Russia and bombing with glide bombs and dumb iron bombs.
Despite all this due to a lack of funding we seem to have enough money to give Syria £50 million.
Why? It’s not like the country was ever our allies and is a key trading partner, we’ve spent the last 10+ years bombing the country to try to suppress fundamentalist Islamist terrorist groups, who now using a new different name control the country.
You really couldn’t make it up
Mr Bell
We usually agree. However, the irony in your post screams to be called out. Russian dumb bombs work, very effectively and it was sykes-picot (sp?) who created the Syrian mess with further help from Thatcher/Blair/Bush/Brown/Cameron (for actually doing sfa)/May/Johnson/Truss/Rish!/ and finally Starmer.
The quicker Syria is stabilised the faster we can return refugees to their beloved Country. Just a thought.
Mark Sykes (of Sykes-Picot fame) also designed the flag which is used today by Palestinians. He had quite an influence on the area !
Let’s see if the £50 million does enable tens of thousands of Syrians to return to their country
Don’t despair Mr Bell! You’ve got to hope that on a day to day basis the vast majority of things are getting done and hopefully well done and a lot is going on behind the scenes. The consequences of no action, lack of action or wrong action should pretty apparent by now. As my old maths teacher use to say, “no time for playing silly buggers”.
And we don’t have glide bombs…
I thought Paveway was a glide bomb?
They are playing for bets, or, to you and I – I have no idea.
Are they waiting for the good will of a Trumpism?
They are waiting for Godot. They’ve called for a SDR. Even though they know that most things can’t wait, if they can use that (or anything else) as a reason not to do something, they won’t do it.
Just integrate brimstone and be done with it!
Maybe too difficult, costly to do? Sensible suggestion for sharing inventories. Prompts the question if Brimstone is/will be integrated onto the F35B? And why not ashms onto the Typhoon or why Storm Shadow wasn’t given some ashm ability?
Personally I think anti-ship missiles should be integrated onto all F-3Bs, Typhoons and P8 Poseidons.
It’s insanity that we have so few platforms to fire anti-ship missiles. I know the doctrine is that submarines would be the primary anti-ship weapon, but we only have a small handful of them. I’d rather arm up everything we can to be able to kill enemy ships.
We have Typhoons on QRA, ready to take off within 5 minutes. Why not enable them to be equipped with anti-ship missiles to enable a fast destruction of Russian ships, should they turn hostile?
Currently we have zero air launched anti ship missiles
No orders yet for RCH 155mm or Warrior replacement or much else really just a lot hot air. And a fantasy wish list.
Is it too late to integrate Brimstone? Or will Boeing mess us around the same way that Lockheed has with Meteor on the F-35?
For once, I’m glad that we haven’t actually progressed on something. Equivalent range to Hellfire (20+ years old), no insensitive warhead, expensive at the unit rate agreed. The ER version should resolve some of that, but we’ve not signed on to it as far as I’m aware.
We already have an integration cost from Boeing for Brimstone (~£170M if I recall), and the AH-64E software is complete and airframes are available (plus there have already been successful test firings) so there aren’t the integration frustrations that we have with F-35. I’d be willing to bet we could convince MBDA to split the integration cost as a business development opportunity. I can understand the army is risk averse at present, but I just don’t see the risk in integrating a missile that is well-known to the customer, has been in-service for some time, and has already successfully completed test fires.
Also, in a similar situation, has anyone heard anything about JLTV? Not seeing any announcements about them being built, last I heard the cost had ballooned. Maybe to the point where Foxhound is competitive? I see no point in spending more on a US product over a domestic product that has a production line.
Unfortunately Brimstone was never certified on Apache, outside the JAGM and Hellfire only Spike NLOS was tested and will be used by US army as it brings new capabilities to the the table, Brimstone is quite similar to JAGM, Lockheed Martin has no insensitive to integrate it
What the government need to do is stop this purchase and get Brimstone 3 integrated instead. It’s not rocket science. OK – it IS rocket science, but you get the point.
It’s 170 million, we’re broke
It was £70m.
But here’s the thing….Brimstone 3 is half the price of JAGM….and has an insensive warhead and rocket motor, which JAGM doesn’t…
We would literally save far more than £70m on the first order….plus all of the money would remain in UK/Europe (Brimstone 3 is ITAR free). Plus it would then allow other Apache E and Brimstone users (Poland and Saudi) to use it…
Financially, economically it was a complete no brainer…