The UK Ministry of Defence has announced its intention to acquire a new long-range weapon system.
“The User requires a cost-effective, long range (>500km) One Way Effector (OWE) heavy, capable of being safely ground launched from a mobile platform in a high threat tactical environment, navigating to and accurately striking a user-programmed target,” the tender notice states.
Systems must be “operable in harsh physical environments, day and night, of low multispectral signature, resilient in a complex electromagnetic environment, including within a GNSS denied and degraded environment, and resistant against targeted electronic warfare attack and spoofing”.
The notice adds that, subject to potential future contract, manufacturing should be scalable “to meet operational requirements at a minimum of 20 units per month, with the ability to further increase.”
The programme, known as Project Brakestop, will provide up to GBP5M in funding for the rapid development of systems. The aim is to deliver a solution within the timeline of a demonstration firing in Q2 2025 and, subject to contract, potential serial production from Q3 2025, producing a minimum of around 20 platforms per month.
An industry day will be held in London on October 8. A complete solution is being sought, however the MoD invites suppliers that can offer part of the solution (such as the airframe or launcher system for example) to participate in the industry day.
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Image: UK MoD Crown Copyright 2024, photo by Corporal Rebecca Brown, RLC
