The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded a £118 million contract to MBDA for the procurement of six Land Ceptor air defence launchers. According to the ministry, the deal is part of a broader strategy to strengthen national security while also securing up to 140 jobs across the UK.
Officials emphasized that the move addresses the increasing need to defend against modern aerial threats, particularly cruise missiles and drones, which have played a significant role in recent conflicts. The investment also aligns with the government’s Plan for Change, aimed at linking defence spending with domestic industrial growth.
The Land Ceptor, part of the Sky Sabre system, delivers a medium-range ground-based air defence capability. It is armed with MBDA’s Common Anti-Air Modular Missile (CAMM), which has a range of 28 km, and its extended variant CAMM-ER, capable of striking targets up to 45 km away. The missile employs a 10 kg fragmentation warhead, guided by an active radar seeker and triggered by a laser proximity fuze.
The system integrates Saab’s Giraffe Agile Multi Beam (GAMB) radar, offering a detection range of 120 km, along with a Rafael SAMOC command-and-control centre. Highly precise, it can simultaneously control up to 24 interceptors and has proven capable of striking targets as small as a tennis ball traveling at twice the speed of sound—a significant enhancement for NATO’s defensive posture.
