UK Ministry of Defense

A new government is pivoting its defense priorities and realigning relations with Europe.

With just three weeks left before the UK’s general election, Britain’s two main political parties have laid out their vision for defense in their manifestos.

Project Ealing is able to detect, track and engage UAS threats up to 1 km (half a mile) away, and work is ongoing to boost its range, the UK MOD says.

Ninety organizations have won a place on the UK’s Hypersonic Technologies & Capability Development Framework as part of efforts to develop native hypersonics.

A planned fleet of new medium rotorcraft for the UK armed services has been cut in size by a third, industry officials have revealed to lawmakers.

UK technologies that could enable autonomous collaborative platforms (ACP) to work with crewed combat aircraft have been demonstrated.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has pledged to raise UK defense spending to the equivalent of 2.5% of GDP.

Labour has now joined the Conservatives in pledging to raise defense spending to 2.5% of GDP, but woolly caveats and an impending election leave doubts.

The UK Defense Ministry is to accelerate the development of the DragonFire laser weapon system for installation and operation on British warships.

British lawmakers are challenging the government to increase defense spending, but the issue does not appear to be a public priority.

Ministers Anne-Marie Trevelyan and Tom Tugendhat say that while defense spending of rivals is rising rapidly, that of the UK has only risen by 28% recently.

The use of uncrewed systems by Ukraine is inspiring nations including the UK to make major investments in drone capabilities.

The UK is set to upgrade the Sea Viper air defense system that equips its Type 45 destroyers to enable improved capabilities against ballistic missiles.

The U.S. military says the Jan. 11 barrage of air strikes targeting Houthi forces inside Yemen has inhibited the group’s ability to conduct complex attacks.

Yemen’s Houthi movement could face military action after ignoring warnings from international governments over ongoing drone and missile attacks.

The UK Defense Ministry says Cawdor Barracks, formerly a U.K. Royal Air Force flight training base, has been named as the preferred DARC site.

The UK is to install a telescope on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus to improve British space domain awareness capabilities.

A notice issued by the Defense Ministry says the UK is ordering six Airbus H145 Jupiter helicopters along with three years of support services.

The UK has issued a new policy framework for its pursuit of a positioning, navigation and timing framework to guard against an outage during an emergency.

London has introduced new laws after former UK military pilots were found to have been providing training to China’s People’s Liberation Army Air Force.

Leonardo Helicopters has revealed a model of what it calls a “mature concept” of the 2-3-metric-ton rotary-wing UAS demonstrator, which the OEM hopes to fly in 2025.

A notice to industry released by the UK Defense Ministry says it wants to focus on developing laser weapons for both maritime and ground-based air defense.

The UK government has named Grant Shapps as Secretary of State for Defense after the departure of Ben Wallace.

New research shows evidence of Russia's indigenous manufacture of Iran’s Shahed one-way attack uncrewed air systems.

The UK Defense Ministry signs an RTX contract extension for 1,000 Landshield anti-jamming antennas.