UK announces Skyhammer interceptor missiles, launchers for UK Armed Forces, Gulf partners

Subject to contract, the substantial first tranche of missiles and launchers will be delivered to the UK Ministry of Defence in May, with more missiles and associated launchers set to be supplied within the first six months of the agreement.

Speaking at the London Defence Conference, Secretary of State for Defence John Healey MP announced the Ministry of Defence intends to buy the interceptor missiles, designed to counter Iranian Shahed-style attack drones, for the UK Armed Forces and Gulf partners.

“We are applying the approach for UK support to Ukraine and accelerating contracts with the most innovative British businesses to rapidly expand support to Gulf partners and equip our own forces with anti-drone tech,” Secretary Healey said.

“Our government backing for Cambridge Aerospace is a prime case of a veteran-founded UK defence start-up scaling at pace to deliver new interceptor missiles within weeks for our Armed Forced and Gulf partners, and good jobs and security here in the UK.”

Skyhammer missiles have a range of 30 kilometres and maximum speed of 700km/h.

“With aerial threats to the UK and our allies increasing by the day, it is critical that we can defend ourselves effectively,” Cambridge Aerospace chief executive officer Steven Barrett said.

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“Skyhammer was designed to do exactly that; bringing affordable mass to protect our skies. We welcome the government’s commitment to supporting UK air defence with scalable, sovereign solutions.”

Robert Dougherty

Robert is a senior journalist who has previously worked for Seven West Media in Western Australia, as well as Fairfax Media and Australian Community Media in New South Wales. He has produced national headlines, photography and videography of emergency services, business, community, defence and government news across Australia. Robert graduated with a Bachelor of Arts, Majoring in Public Relations and Journalism at Curtin University, attended student exchange program with Fudan University and holds Tier 1 General Advice certification for Kaplan Professional. Reach out via email at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or via LinkedIn.