BAE Systems and MBDA secured additional funding to complete the integration of SPEAR and Meteor missiles on the UK and Italian F-35 fleets.

This builds on the successful integration work that commenced in 2019 by BAE Systems, Lockheed Martin and MBDA to upgrade the UK F-35 weapon systems.

The award will see industry teams complete integration activities for the SPEAR precision surface attack weapon onto the UK F-35s, with the next-generation missile enhancing the UK’s future combat air capability through its network-enabled, high load-out, multi-effect capabilities with extended stand-off range. This will further enhance the UK Lightning Force’s capability to defeat challenging targets such as mobile long-range air defence systems at over-the-horizon ranges in all weathers and in highly contested environments.

The funding will also see the remainder of the integration of MBDA’s Meteor beyond visual range air-to-air missile completed on both the F-35A and F-35B jets for the UK and Italian armed forces. Meteor’s networking and range capability is ideally suited to the F-35’s sensor suite to provide unrivalled capabilities in the battlespace.

A team of engineers from BAE Systems, MBDA and Lockheed Martin will now commence the testing, simulation and integration activities in the UK and US, to achieve initial operating capability of both weapons.