UK to invest over €460m in next-generation strike missile programmes

John Healey, Britain’s Secretary of State for Defence, encouraged allies to work together on developing new weapons systems as the UK unveiled a plan to invest more than £400 million (€460 million) this year in long-range and hypersonic missile programmes developed in partnership with other nations.

Healey said in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference with several media outlets that allies should cooperate to develop new weapons systems.

On Thursday, the UK announced that it will dedicate £400 million this financial year to various related projects, including the Stratus joint missile programme with France and Italy.

Stratus stealth and high-speed missile variants are being developed as a next-generation replacement for the current Storm Shadow missile. The Ministry of Defence says that they will be able to defeat high-value targets, destroy enemy ships, and suppress enemy air defences.

The rest of the money will go to Britain’s new long-range weapon programme with Germany. The Deep Precision Strike system will have a range of over 2,000 km and be among the most advanced systems ever designed by the UK, coming into service in the 2030s, the ministry says.

"We need to combine the special technical and industrial capabilities of our two nations to help lead that work, and it's better if we do it together, and it's important that we do them together as European nations," Healey told a select group of journalists on the Deep Precision Strike programme, according to Euronews.

"The greatest strength of NATO is its unity and its ability to deter and that's what a 32-strong NATO now does. A NATO that is committed to increasing and doing the increase in defence spending as well as the development of new technologies," he added.

This comes as the UK has significantly increased spending on defence, committing the largest spending since the Cold War – hitting 2.6% of GDP from 2027.

In the original announcement, Healey said that the UK has seen the “decisive impact of long-range precision weapons” from the war in Ukraine, so the country is now stepping up to develop weapons with Germany, France, and Italy that will keep the UK and NATO safe.