United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has signed a contract worth over £400M with MBDA for the Weapon Development Phase of the SPEAR a...
United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence (MOD) has signed a contract worth over £400M with MBDA for the Weapon Development Phase of the SPEAR air to surface, precision strike missile.
Spear 3 is from the same family of weapons as Brimstone, currently being used by the Royal Air Force to combat Daesh in Syria and Iraq, but it packs a bigger punch and has a significantly increased range.
The SPEAR missile is being developed to meet the UK’s Selective Precision Effects At Range Capability 3 (SPEAR 3) requirement and will arm UK’s F-35 aircraft, with the option to equip the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.
The contract, with MBDA, will enable four years of critical design and development work which will tailor the weapon for use within the internal weapons bay of F-35B, the world’s most advanced combat aircraft.
It is being designed specifically for F-35B Lightning II operations launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s two £3 billion aircraft carriers.
SPEAR will precisely engage long range, mobile, fleeting and re-locatable targets in all weathers, day or night, in the presence of countermeasures, obscurants and camouflage, whilst ensuring a safe stand-off range between the aircrew and threat air defences.
Weighing less than 100 kg, the missile has a length of 1.8 m and diameter of 180 mm. The all weather capable missile is powered by a turbojet engine giving a range of more than 60 miles. It was successfully test fired from an MOD Typhoon in March at a range in West Wales.
The contract will run through to completion during 2020 and will employ 350 highly skilled missile engineering jobs across MBDA’s sites in Stevenage, Bristol and Lostock.
The £411 million contract award follows an initial £150 million assessment phase and, if successful, it is expected that Spear 3 will enter service in the mid-2020s.
Spear 3 is from the same family of weapons as Brimstone, currently being used by the Royal Air Force to combat Daesh in Syria and Iraq, but it packs a bigger punch and has a significantly increased range.
The SPEAR missile is being developed to meet the UK’s Selective Precision Effects At Range Capability 3 (SPEAR 3) requirement and will arm UK’s F-35 aircraft, with the option to equip the Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft.
The contract, with MBDA, will enable four years of critical design and development work which will tailor the weapon for use within the internal weapons bay of F-35B, the world’s most advanced combat aircraft.
It is being designed specifically for F-35B Lightning II operations launched from HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales, the Royal Navy’s two £3 billion aircraft carriers.
SPEAR will precisely engage long range, mobile, fleeting and re-locatable targets in all weathers, day or night, in the presence of countermeasures, obscurants and camouflage, whilst ensuring a safe stand-off range between the aircrew and threat air defences.
Weighing less than 100 kg, the missile has a length of 1.8 m and diameter of 180 mm. The all weather capable missile is powered by a turbojet engine giving a range of more than 60 miles. It was successfully test fired from an MOD Typhoon in March at a range in West Wales.
The contract will run through to completion during 2020 and will employ 350 highly skilled missile engineering jobs across MBDA’s sites in Stevenage, Bristol and Lostock.
The £411 million contract award follows an initial £150 million assessment phase and, if successful, it is expected that Spear 3 will enter service in the mid-2020s.
