The UK and France have signed a major deal with a multinational European arms manufacturer to upgrade long-range missiles used by their air forces.
Harriett Baldwin, the British minister for military purchases, announced the £146 million deal on Wednesday, after a series of meetings with Laurent Collet-Billon, her visiting French counterpart.
Under the contract, MBDA — formed by a merger of French Aérospatiale-Matra Missiles, Italian Alenia Marconi Systems and British Matra BAe Dynamics—will refurbish the UK’s Storm Shadow and France’s SCALP missiles.
Used by the Royal Air Force, or RAF, the Storm Shadow is MBDA’s low-observable, air-launched cruise missile, which has a range of approximately 560 kilometers (300 nautical miles). SCALP is the French air force’s version of the missile.
The £790,000 missile can be carried by British Tornado jets, as well as France’s Dassault Mirage 2000 and Dassault Rafale. It was last used against…