Overview
- The Ministry of Defence announced on Monday that it has signed two contracts with Thales worth a combined £36 million to buy hundreds more Lightweight Multirole Missiles, with deliveries starting within months and continuing through 2026.
- The MoD says the LMM has a proven combat record in the Middle East, crediting the weapon for more than 100 drone shoot-downs by RAF Regiment crews using Rapid Sentry launchers and from Wildcat helicopters.
- The orders were placed by the National Armaments Director Group after separate April and May purchases and form part of a deliberate effort to rebuild munitions stocks that were drawn down since 2022.
- Production at Thales’s Belfast facility supports roughly 700 skilled jobs and the MoD frames the purchase as an industrial partnership to get UK-made kit to forces more quickly.
- Defence Secretary John Healey also confirmed that an unnamed British soldier was killed in northern Iraq during a training accident, and the MoD says more than 1,000 personnel remain deployed across the region, underlining the need for improved force protection.