Hundreds of UK-built air defence missiles have been delivered to Ukraine five months ahead of schedule, according to the Ministry of Defence.
The news came as Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard led a major UK trade delegation to Kyiv aimed at strengthening industrial partnerships and support for Ukraine’s defence sector.
The missiles, produced by Thales in Belfast, form part of the UK’s gifting programme and are used by Ukrainian forces to defend against Russian missile and drone attacks.
Their early delivery is part of a wider £1.6 billion agreement between Thales and Ukrainian partners, which will see the Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) integrated more deeply into Ukraine’s air defence network. According to the company, ongoing manufacturing in Northern Ireland is directly creating 200 new jobs and sustaining a further 700 across the supply chain.
“The UK is stepping up our ironclad commitment to help Ukraine defend itself against Russia’s illegal invasion,” Pollard was quoted as saying in the release. “Driving industrial partnerships is essential so that we can learn from their expertise and together build the industrial base we need to defend the UK, deter our adversaries and support Ukraine.”
The minister’s visit coincided with Ukraine’s International Defence Industry Conference, which drew hundreds of businesses from NATO and allied nations. The event showcased expanding industrial cooperation, with over 30 joint ventures already established between UK and Ukrainian firms. Kevin Craven, CEO of ADS, said the trade mission underscored the need to “increase production capacity, develop innovative new capabilities, and build a resilient industrial ecosystem.”
The partnership has already prompted Ukraine’s largest drone producer, UKRSpec Systems, to announce a £200 million investment in new facilities in the UK, expected to create 500 high-skilled jobs. The collaboration builds on Programme LYRA, a technology-sharing initiative that includes the joint development of interceptor drones under Project OCTOPUS. These systems, according to the government, are designed to provide Ukraine with a low-cost counter to Russian one-way attack drones.
The trade mission forms part of the UK–Ukraine 100 Year Partnership, under which UK Defence Exports has launched a new guide for small and medium-sized firms on how to collaborate with Ukraine’s defence sector.
This is good news in terms of building up industrial capacity . The US DoD has recently announced a $35 billion multi year contract for advanced munitions with a request to industry for delivery before end 2027. Why such a close time frame? China. It is now though highly likely there will be a high intensity conflict begun by China against the US and it’s allies in the western Pacific region as a prelude to Taiwan invasion.
Pity our beloved government can’t seem to get it’s head around the concept of an urgent need to rearm.
Morning Mr Bell, good to see you again. Re your rearming comment, if they can be 5 months early on these for Ukraine why can’t they be 5 months early on some defence stuff for the UK? Where’s the LMM-Starstreak for Shorad/GBAD? Any ER versions? Maybe CA will get a gig with its Skyhammer/Starhammer. Where’s Ancilia, Dragonfire, more NSM, mk41s for T31s, even a few more T31s for more presence?
“China. It is now though highly likely there will be a high intensity conflict begun by China against the US” This is thought by the current US regime and its Department of War who might choose a conflict to detract from their own internal issues that will be in full effect by 2027. This should frighten anyone who thinks Hegseth and co are fit to lead even a Boy Scouts outfit.
They still need more. Hearing on the news that the Kyiv energy infrastructure has been heavily targeted. Really disgusting behaviour. Keep on sending 🇬🇧 and less publicising of it all. 🇺🇦 needs every single missile! Hope Ukraine is able to withstand further Russian gains in its territory and can somehow push them all back onto their side of the fence and lock the gate!
We’ve ordered a total of 5,650 for Ukraine as far I know from public announcements. The “hundreds” mentioned above I suspect is just one of the initial batches.
The UK has ordered at least one batch of 1,000 missiles for UK forces. Not sure if any follow on orders have been placed.
The £350m deal with India will be for thousands of missiles (no specific number was given as far as I could tell). One of the recent deals implied a cost per missile of £250k, but that sounds high as the total likely includes integration and training costs. Unit cost is surely significantly lower for this short-range low-tech missile.
Hopefully the UK places a significant order soon before the queue/backlog gets too long.
The latest estimate of orc gains in the last 1000 days is approx 1%of Ukrainian land with horrendous casualties and Ukraine is pushing back in the North,they have also started to target orc power stations as well although technically this is a war crime but it doesn’t seem to bother pootin so what’s good for one etc!
We need to produce (flood the market with) Vodka, launch millions of “Shots” at the front lines and Job’s a goodun.
Hic.
Well done to everyone at Thales in Belfast.
Slava Ukraini
Yet anything we need for our own forces runs well behind schedule! It’s a conspiracy! A conspiracy I tell you 🤣
LMM seems to have hit a sweet spot in the defence against Shahed drones.
Agreed, seems to have a really wide target set- which is great. Cheap enough to engage even smaller drones than Shaheds (not quite down to FPVs, but still), and performance enough to hit all the way up to helicopters, plus surface targets.
We’ll be doing ourselves a disservice if we’re not sorting out RWS mounts for these that can go on anything from Mastiff, to Patria, to Boxer, to (dare I say it) and Ajax variant, to our RN surface combatants.
All well and good, but UK priorities seem to be arming others and not ourselves. I know our stocks of everything are low. Lets hope Vlad is just teasing Nato.