UK and Australia launch new partnership in Weapons Development

The UK’s Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and Australia’s Defence Science and Technology Group (DSTG) have will jointly develop next-generation sub-systems for low-cost weapons systems, bringing together cutting-edge technologies from both nations, according to a UK Ministry of Defence statement.

For both the UK and Australia this agreement will strengthen defence primes, small to medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) and academia in support of the UK’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S), the UK MoD’s Complex Weapons Pipeline and Australia’s Guided Weapons and Explosive Ordnance (GWEO) Enterprise.

The partnership will combine the UK’s Modular Weapons Testbed and Australia’s SHARKTOOTH program, which features innovative ‘plug-and-launch’ modular technology, aimed at accelerating the employment of advanced yet affordable weapons technologies. This integration represents a significant advancement in complex weapons development and will help accelerate and de-risk industry’s development of guided weapon sub-systems.

“This collaboration represents a step-change in how we develop and deploy complex weapons systems,” said an un-named spokesperson for Dstl. “By combining Australia’s modular approach with the UK’s missiles know-how, we’re creating more versatile and capable systems for our armed forces.”

Under this collaboration both nations will develop new approaches and new technologies enhancing future weapon systems capability, including low-cost seekers, additively manufactured engines, modular warheads and fuses, algorithms to improve guidance, navigation and control and other novel weapons technologies.

The partnership will deliver several key advantages, the statement says:

• reduced development costs and risks through shared expertise
• accelerated deployment of new capabilities
• enhanced interoperability between UK and Australian forces
• develop and demonstrate innovation ideas from both nations, helping to invest in sovereign defence ecosystems
• flexible, modular design allowing rapid adaptation to emerging threats

The collaboration enables both nations to access a wider pool of innovative ideas, co-operate on technology development and deliver faster against a broader range of operational use cases.

Each nation is developing a concept demonstrator to enable them to prove future technologies before they go into sovereign industrial and military capabilities.

SHARKTOOTH is Australia’s developmental weapon system, a small missile which will enable rapid integration of various components including sensors, warheads, guidance systems and propulsion units.