Boris Johnson has committed £6.6 billion for novel military research
The development of new technologies such as hypersonic missiles and laser weapons is to be given a boost from the Ministry of Defence (MoD) with extra money, the Government has announced.
The Integrated Review of foreign, defence, security and development policy, launched by the Prime Minister on Tuesday, has committed £6.6 billion for novel military research.
The MoD will invest a significant amount of the extra money it won from the Treasury last year in “higher-risk research”.
Adversaries such as Russia have invested in new air weapons programmes with the potential to outmatch existing ballistic missile defences, including hypersonic glide vehicles that are thought to be capable of flying at over 15,000mph.
The MoD said research into “space, directed energy weapons, and advanced high-speed missiles [will] deliver an enduring military edge”.
Defence chiefs in Britain and the US have been concerned in recent years by the development of new military kits in Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
The race to develop such weapons is partly a result of reports from Russia of successful flights of the Mach 8 Tsirkon hypersonic anti-ship cruise missile, test fired last October, and the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle, thought to be able to carry nuclear warheads at 20 times the speed of sound.
The Chinese DF-17 Hypersonic Glide Vehicle is said to be able to fly at Mach 10. However, there is no way to verify these claims.
The US Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon, due for testing in April, is expected to reach about Mach 6.
The MoD will invest in new missile technology in a bid not only to develop such weapons, but also to understand better how best to defend against them.
Mach 1 is the speed of sound at sea level, roughly 767mph. High-Mach, or hypersonic, refers to speeds roughly between Mach 5 and Mach 10.
Speed in Mach
Above about Mach 5 the chemical properties of the metals making up the air vehicle are affected by heat caused by friction with the air molecules, making development of such systems very difficult.
The space shuttle reached speeds around Mach 5 on re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere but needed special ceramic materials to withstand the extreme temperatures generated.
The MoD will outline plans for the future shape of Britain’s military next Monday in a Defence Command Paper.
Last year’s science and technology strategy said the MoD would “prioritise higher-risk research to support the modernisation of our armed forces”.
A Government source close to the production of the paper told The Telegraph the push for greater risk in research was a bid to make the armed forces “the most effective and innovative in the world”.
The MoD will aim to use artificial intelligence and “digital twinning” to speed up the time from research to actually having kit in service.
Military research and development should emulate the US Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance Programme, the Government source said. The programme sought to implement the so-called Roper Rule – after the USAF’s service acquisition chief Will Roper – that said procurement of new equipment even to the complexity of fighter jets, should take no more than five years.
By comparison, the F-35 stealth fighter, just entering service, has been in development for about 20 years.
The Integrated Review promised a network of MoD innovation hubs within UK technology clusters to improve the “pull through” of the new research money into novel equipment.
The Government will produce a defence and security industrial strategy in a bid to create “a more certain environment for industry that enables investment to support innovation and convert it into deployable national security capabilities and future commercial opportunities”.
The MoD will also publish an AI Strategy and invest in a new centre to accelerate adoption of new capabilities.
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