UK To Provide £162 Million Package Of Air Defence Missiles For Ukraine As Defence Secretary Meets International Partners
6th September 2024
UK to supply 650 Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMM) through £162 million contract to boost Ukraine's air defences.
The UK will supply 650 Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM) systems to Ukraine to boost the country's air defence capabilities, as part of the new government's commitment to Ukraine.
The air defence package will be announced by Defence Secretary John Healey MP today at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group (UDCG) meeting at US Air Force Base in Ramstein - his first as Defence Secretary. At the 24th meeting of the group, the Defence Secretary will set out the UK's ironclad commitment to Ukraine and urge allies to continue to supply Ukraine with vital equipment.
It comes following a bilateral meeting between John Healey and his Ukrainian counterpart Rustem Umerov in London earlier this week, where the pair discussed how the UK will continue to ramp-up support over the coming months. At that meeting, the Defence Secretary confirmed that £300 million worth of artillery ammunition will start to be delivered by the end of this year to support Ukraine's war effort.
In keeping with the new government’s commitment to speed up deliveries of aid, the first batch of LMM missiles announced today are also expected to be delivered by the end of this year.
Today’s package is part of the UK’s work to help step up UK and European defence production - with today’s £162 million order helping to energise the supply chain for the future. Built by Thales at their Belfast factory, the missiles are highly versatile and can be fired from a variety of platforms on land, sea, and air.
The package is primarily funded through the UK’s £3 billion a year financial package for Ukraine, and contributions from Norway through the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU) and follows the Prime Minister and Defence Secretary’s commitment to stand by Ukraine will continue for as long as it takes.
It comes after the Defence Secretary signed a new Defence Export Support Treaty with his counterpart Umerov in July, during President Zelesnkyy’s visit to Downing Street. The agreement will fire up both the UK’s and Ukraine’s defence industrial bases and increase military hardware and weaponry production. The treaty will enable Ukraine to draw on £3.5 billion of export finance to support its war effort.
Defence Secretary, John Healey MP said, "This new commitment will give an important boost to Ukraine’s air defences and demonstrates our new government’s commitment to stepping up support for Ukraine.
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.
With our international partners today, we will show that we are united for Ukraine. And we will discuss how best we can work together to improve support. Because the security of the UK and Europe starts in Ukraine.
Ahead of the meeting with international partners, the Defence Secretary visited the Joint Intelligence Coordination Centre (JICC) at the Ramstein Air Base. UK Armed Forces personnel deployed at the JICC work alongside allies to analyse intelligence.
Since Russia’s illegal invasion, the UK has provided hundreds of LMM missiles to Ukraine for air defence, destroying hundreds of Russian drones and other air threats.
Travelling at Mach 1.5 with a range of more than 6km, the LMM is highly versatile against a wide range of threats, including Armoured Personnel Carriers, fast in-shore attack craft and Unmanned drones.
This contract with Thales in the UK will further prime the world leading British defence industry to increase production rates, enabling future production to be ramped up.
Addressing allies at the UCDG, the Defence Secretary will reiterate the UK’s commitment to supporting Ukraine and ramping up the production and delivery of vital equipment.
A Thales spokesperson said, "As a strategic partner of UK Government, Thales is proud to be working with MoD to support defending democracy in Ukraine through the provision of our Lightweight Multi-role Missile, delivered from our Belfast site.
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 defence systems at pace. We are pleased that this contract is the first to be signed under Task Force Hirst, which has been established to deliver a deeper defence industrial partnership between the UK and Ukraine.
Earlier this week, the Government confirmed a milestone moment in international support for Ukraine, with eight countries from across the world having now joined the UK to provide more than £1 billion to the International Fund for Ukraine (IFU), in a significant show of unity from Ukraine’s allies.
The IFU was first launched by the UK and Denmark in 2022 to provide an efficient way for countries to pool resources to buy equipment and weapons to support Ukraine’s most urgent capability needs. The UK has donated £500 million to the Fund to date.
This is also the first contract approved under Task Force Hirst, a MOD initiative created to ramp up defence industrial capacity and capability, laying the foundation for larger sustained supply of missiles and other key capabilities to Ukraine and, in the longer term, enable industrial cooperation between our two countries.
18 July 2024
Prime Minister to host President Zelenskyy at Downing Street as UK spearheads crack down on Russia's 'shadow fleet'
President Zelenskyy will be hosted by the Prime Minister at an extraordinary meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow morning, as the UK spearheads a major initiative to crack down on Russia’s ‘shadow fleet’.
The Ukrainian leader, who will be the first official visitor to Downing Street during Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s tenure, is expected to meet and brief the new Cabinet about the situation on the battlefield in Ukraine, and the need to ramp up Europe’s defence industrial base to outpace the Russian threat. The last foreign leader to address the Cabinet in person was President Clinton in 1997.
The meeting comes after the launch of a ‘Call to Action’ to disrupt the Russian fleet - which is enabling Russia to evade international sanctions - at the European Political Community summit today.
Spearheaded by the UK, 44 European countries plus the European Union have agreed to work together to tackle the use of illegitimate vessels, which also pose significant security and environmental threats to European waterways.
The shadow fleet is made up of around 600 vessels and represents approximately 10% of the global "wet cargo" fleet. It carries approximately 1.7 million barrels of oil per day, generating significant funds to fuel Russia’s war machine.
Some of the ships are also alleged to double as Russian listening stations, while others are believed to be transporting weaponry to Russia.
The Prime Minister is expected to tell President Zelenskyy tomorrow that the UK will go further in the coming months to place a greater stranglehold on Putin’s war machine.
The two leaders are also expected to agree a Defence Export Support Treaty, which will be signed by defence ministers, to fire up both the UK’s and Ukraine’s defence industrial bases and increase military hardware and weaponry production.
The treaty will enable Ukraine to draw on £3.5 billion of export finance, to support its armed forces. It will also allow Ukrainian and UK defence companies to invest in further military capabilities and continue to rapidly innovate on new and novel military hardware.
The boost follows the opening of a major UK repair and overhaul facility in Ukraine to help sustain the war effort. BAE Systems opened the facility to allow Ukraine to return overhauled land vehicles back to the front line quicker.
The export finance is in addition to the £3 billion a year of UK support, announced by the Prime Minister at NATO, to support Ukraine’s defence for as long as it takes.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:
Ukraine is, and always will be, at the heart of this government’s agenda and so it is only fitting that President Zelenskyy will make a historic address to my Cabinet.
Russia’s incremental gains on the battlefield are nothing compared with the collective international support for Ukraine, or the strength of ties between our people.
And alongside our European partners, we have sent a clear message to those enabling Putin’s attempts to evade sanctions: we will not allow Russia’s shadow fleet, and the dirty money it generates, to flow freely through European waters and put our security at risk.
The UK has also sanctioned a host of oil tankers today, which transport Russian oil. Among the new ships targeted are the ROCKY RUNNER (IMO 9288899), which sought to escape previous UK action by changing its operator.
This follows after UK action last month that halted tankers collectively responsible for transporting approximately 13 million barrels of Russian crude and oil products since January 2023, worth approximately $930 million.
The ‘shadow fleet’, also known as the ‘dark fleet’, poses serious maritime security and environmental risks. The vessels are often old and unsafe, and engage in dangerous and deceptive shipping practices, such as turning off location tracking systems, which flouts international maritime standards, and increases the likelihood of catastrophic incidents.
EPC states govern some of the world’s busiest and most important waterways, and dozens of incidents are known to have already taken place, such as onboard fires, engine failures, oil spills and collisions, and many of the vessels lack the appropriate insurance.
The UK has already taken robust action to restrict Russian revenues, including implementing the most severe package of sanctions ever imposed on a major economy - sanctioning more than 2,000 individuals and entities since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including 29 banks with global assets worth £1 trillion, more than 131 oligarchs with a combined net worth of more than £147 billion at the time of the invasion, and more than £20 billion worth of UK-Russia bilateral trade.
Action to disrupt and deter the shadow fleet comes after the UK contributed £40 million to NATO’s Comprehensive Assistance Package for Ukraine last week, ensuring Ukraine can access vital assistance for counter drone protection, demining of recaptured land and the medical rehabilitation of its injured military personnel. That followed the UK-administered International Fund for Ukraine placing new orders, worth £300 million, for 120,000 rounds of 152mm Soviet-era ammunition to bolster Ukraine’s defences against Russia.
The leaders are also expected to discuss the conclusion of UK – Ukraine negotiations to provide £181 million of support to Energoatom for the supply of nuclear fuel from Urenco.
Notes to Editors
List of ship specifications:
ROCKY RUNNER (IMO 9288899)
DYNAMIK TRADER (IMO 9286657)
FIGHTER TWO (IMO 9296391)
SCF AMUR (IMO 9333436)
SCF PECHORA (IMO 9333424)
ZALIV AMURSKIY (IMO 9354313)
NS LOTUS (IMO 9339337)
NS COMMANDER (IMO 9306794)
ADYGEYA (IMO 9292204)
KOROLEV PROSPECT (IMO 9826902)
PRIMORSKY PROSPECT (IMO 9511533)
Note on ship specification:
Ships specified under the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019 are prohibited from entering a port in the UK, may be given a movement or a port entry direction, can be detained, and will be refused permission to register on the UK Ship Register or have its existing registration terminated. In addition, the Oil Price Cap exception is not applicable to services in relation to specified ships, or to the supply or delivery of Russian oil or oil products in specified ships. The Office for Financial Sanctions Implementation has published guidance on the Russian Oil Services ban. Limited exceptions apply and licences may be granted for specified ships, as set out in Part 7 of the Russia (Sanctions) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.
