U.K. Spending £1bn On Driving Forward Hypersonic Missile Project, Minister Confirms

The U.K. is pushing ahead fast with £1bn plans to develop its own hypersonic missile system, according to a Government minister.

In Parliament, Lord Coaker Minister of State in the Ministry of Defence, said the U.K. was aiming "to facilitate a spiralled approach to technology development through to a sovereign capability."

Lord Coaker was responding to a written question tabled by Tory peer Lord Kempsell asking for progress on the development of a domestically manufactured hypersonic missile. The minister said the U.K. was "demonstrating its leadership" in the field via its active participation in the AUKUS Pillar 2 — the aspect of the tripartite alliance with Australia and the U.S. focusing on advanced capabilities.

Lord Coaker's reply noted: "Building on previous research and development, the MOD has established a Programme Team - Team Hypersonics (UK) - to cohere Ministry of Defence, industry and academia around the development of a sovereign hypersonic capability.

"Team Hypersonics (UK) has established the Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework (HTCDF). This bespoke £1 billion Commercial Agile Route to Market is the mechanism to facilitate a spiralled approach to technology development through to a sovereign capability. 90 suppliers including defence primes, small & medium enterprises and academic institutions are now signed up.

"With these enablers in place, the testing of critical sovereign-designed and manufactured missile sub-system technologies continues, including a novel hypersonic propulsion system. Several invitations to tender [ITTs} have already been released to spirally develop a range of technologies. These and future ITTs will allow the development of technical demonstrators and onwards into a capability."

The previously-stated aim of the programme is to have the missile ready for operational deployment by 2030. Hypersonic projectiles travel at speeds in excess of five times the speed of sound (Mach 5), potentially enabling them to evade countermeasures.