The UK government has supplied Ukraine with several hundred air defense missiles, completing the delivery five months ahead of schedule.
This transfer forms part of a £1.6 billion ($2.13 billion) agreement signed earlier this year for the procurement of over 5,000 air defense missiles produced by Thales at its Belfast facility.
Designated as Lightweight Multirole Missiles (LMMs), or Martlet, the systems have been actively employed by Ukrainian forces against Russian assets since the war began in 2022. The manufacturing effort has generated 200 new positions while sustaining approximately 700 existing jobs across the UK’s defense sector.
The laser-guided LMM features a range exceeding 6 km and reaches speeds of Mach 1.5 (1,852 km/h). It is deployable from land, sea, and air platforms, making it highly versatile against armored vehicles, installations, fast inshore craft, and unmanned aerial systems.
Since the conflict’s outset, the UK government reports that hundreds of these missiles have neutralized numerous Russian drones and aerial targets. Complementing this effort, London and Kyiv have launched the LYRA initiative, focused on co-developing next-generation air defense interceptor drones under Project OCTOPUS, which envisions mass production of thousands of such drones monthly for Ukraine.
