Andrew Chuter

“The repair facility that has been secured is scalable to provide a similar capability for U.K. and other nations’ systems,” said a British official.

The UK is one of a number of warplane customers facing delivery disruptions caused by Lockheed Martin’s problems with an upgrade dubbed TR-3.

BAE Systems and ASC, Canberra’s builder and maintainer of conventional submarines, will work together under a collaborative arrangement in Australia.

Fourteen CH-47-ER Chinooks, destined principally for use by British special forces, will be delivered to the Royal Air Force under the terms of the deal.

The Public Accounts Committee’s review comes two days after the government opted not to allocate extra funding for the military.

The amount of money involved may be small, but the outcome of the research and development work by the two companies could be key.

“In a world where our adversaries are threatening to outcompete us . . . we have no choice but to reform acquisition,” a top UK official said.

Britain is shipping 200 MBDA-built Brimstone missiles to Ukraine, Grant Shapps said in a speech to Parliament.

Defense Secretary Grant Shapps has confirmed a report that he witnessed the nuclear-capable missile misfire from the submarine that launched it.

The group, led by Latvia and Britain, will coordinate training, testing and procurement of the miniature drone type, which can carry explosives on target.

The support program will see Thales use data technology, including AI and virtual reality, to provide more proactive and predictive maintenance.

The acquisition follows a two-year partnership between the companies to develop the all-electric quadcopter T-650.

The trial with the direct-energy weapon is considered a significant milestone toward the deployment of the system, possibly within five years.

“It [the MoD] is still holding substantial amounts of inventory that is unserviceable, overstocked or beyond the service date of its related platform.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said London would stand by its support commitment to Ukraine, as some allies are facing political headwinds at home.

European companies have begun setting up local support plants for repairing and maintaining weapon donations closer to the front lines.

The effort will be steered from an HQ in Britain, with a Japanese leader for the government apparatus and an Italian executive for the industry side.

The companies are proposing the Archer 8x8 wheeled artillery system for the Ministry of Defence’s envisioned Mobile Fires Platform.

For now, the British Ministry of Defence said it is ploughing ahead with the two communication-satellite segments of the program.

A ground-based telescope in Cyprus will allow detection of satellites and other objects from LEO to GEO and Cislunar orbits.