UK to lead huge deep strike missile effort against Russia

The UK will lead a European initiative committing around a dozen NATO allies to spend $50 billion, roughly £37 billion, on deep precision strike capabilities over the next ten years, Downing Street has announced, in a press release the government published in Russian alongside English.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer was to convene the partner nations at the NATO summit in Ankara to launch the initiative, which the government said will deliver the most advanced long-range weapons NATO will have at its disposal, with the ability to strike targets from no less than 300 kilometres away to, in some cases, beyond 2,000 kilometres, with pinpoint accuracy. Downing Street described the initiative as further evidence of allies stepping up to build a stronger, more European NATO, and said it will put deep precision strike at the centre of the alliance’s defence agenda next year, enabling European allies to share expertise, technology and industrial collaboration to advance capability rapidly.

Starmer said: “I am determined to ensure the safety of the UK and our Allies and to do that, we must step up to deliver a stronger, more European NATO. The UK is already working with partners to develop exquisite capability that will give our Armed Forces the ability to defend and deter thousands of kilometres from the front line, but this UK-led initiative will allow us to step up our cooperation, bringing European Allies together to ensure NATO remains safe and secure for years to come.” The government cited Ukraine’s use of long-range strikes against logistics hubs deep behind Russian lines as evidence of the game-changing battlefield impact such systems can have.

The announcement rolls together the UK’s existing deep strike commitments under a single European banner. Britain has already put £3 billion behind its own long-range fires programmes in the Defence Investment Plan, including £770 million over four years for a joint stealth and hypersonic weapons programme with Germany under the Trinity House agreement, initially focused on ground-launched capability with a range beyond 2,000 kilometres and expected in service in the 2030s, and £1.4 billion for Stratus, the trilateral successor to Storm Shadow being developed with France and Italy, which already sustains more than 1,300 jobs at MBDA in Stevenage and Bolton. The UK is separately joining the American and Australian Precision Strike Missile programme to give the Army a supersonic ballistic missile reaching up to 500 kilometres.

Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis said: “We are building the weapons of the future to keep the UK and NATO secure for decades to come, backed by billions of pounds and working with our closest European allies. Our new suite of deep precision strike weapons will give our forces the ability to strike targets hundreds of kilometres away with great accuracy, strengthening NATO and deterring our adversaries.” Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper said the capability sends “a clear message to President Putin; NATO is stronger, more European and ready to defend our citizens against the long-term threat posed by him and the Russian state.”

Downing Street said the Prime Minister would use the summit to underline the scale of the Russian threat, citing more than 700 NATO interceptions of Russian aircraft approaching allied airspace over the past two years and a 30 per cent surge in Russian military activity around UK waters, while stressing that the alliance does not seek confrontation with Russia but must be ready to defend every ally.