The UK will supply a total of 650 short-range air defense missiles to Ukraine, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced on Friday.
Thales UK will supply the Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM) to Ukraine as part of a 162-million-pound ($212 million) contract.
The first batch is expected to be delivered by the end of this year.
“This new commitment will give an important boost to Ukraine’s air defenses and demonstrates our new government’s commitment to stepping up support for Ukraine,” British Defence Secretary John Healey MP said.
“In recent days we have seen the tragic cost of Russia’s indiscriminate strikes on Poltava and Lviv. These new UK-made missiles will support Ukraine to defend its people, infrastructure, and territory from Putin’s brutal attacks.”
Artillery Ammunition for Ukraine
The contract is primarily funded through the UK’s three-billion-pound ($3.92 billion) annual financial aid package for Ukraine and from Norway’s contributions through the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU).
It comes following a bilateral meeting between Healey and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in London last week.
The meeting also provided a 300-million-pound ($392 million) package of artillery ammunition for Ukraine, procured through the IFU.
The ammunition delivery is also expected to start by the end of this year.
Lightweight Multirole Missile
The versatile guided missile is built by Thales at its Belfast facility, featuring a range of over 6 kilometers (3.72 miles) and a speed of Mach 1.5 (1,152 miles/1,852 kilometers per hour).
It can be fired from a variety of platforms on land, sea, and air at a broad set of targets, such as installations, armored personnel carriers, fast in-shore attack craft, and drones.
Hundreds of LMM missiles have been delivered to Ukraine since the start of the war, “destroying hundreds of Russian drones and other air threats,” according to London.
UK Orders LMM Missiles
To replenish its stocks, the UK Ministry of Defence placed an order of 176 million pounds ($227 million) in July for the missiles.
“Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, UK MoD and Thales have worked in close collaboration to support the Ukrainian effort by delivering key air defense systems at pace,” a Thales spokesperson said.
“We are pleased that this contract is the first to be signed under Task Force Hirst, which has been established to deliver a deeper defense industrial partnership between the UK and Ukraine.”