Starmer will unveil a 50 billion dollar NATO plan for long-range missiles.
The Deep Precision Strike (DPS) project, presented yesterday by Downing Street, will be discussed today at the NATO summit in Ankara, where the outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will gather a dozen leaders to discuss the new missile program.
Twelve countries, including the United Kingdom, will spend more than 50 billion dollars over the next 10 years on a new long-range missile intended to protect Europe, reports the Bbc. Presented as one of NATO’s most advanced weapons, it is designed to strike targets at nearly 300 km away with extreme precision, potentially up to 2000 km.
The project fits into a broader strengthening of the Alliance’s missile capabilities and complements programs already launched by London with Germany, Italy, and France. However, as with many military projects in the planning phase, the Deep Strike is not expected to be ready before 2030, the British outlet further specifies.
As Bloomberg emphasizes, this initiative to develop long-range missiles without the participation of the United States aims to strengthen European capabilities and reduce the gap with Russia in this sector.
All the details.
THE UNITED KINGDOM LAUNCHES THE EUROPEAN INITIATIVE FOR LONG-RANGE MISSILES
Thus, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, and other European nations will spend more than 50 billion dollars over the next 10 years to develop long-range precision weapons, thereby enhancing NATO’s defense capabilities according to the statement released by the London government yesterday.
According to the London statement, the investment is intended to provide NATO with weapons “capable of striking targets no less than 300 km away and, in some cases, beyond 2000 km, with extreme precision.”
A “MORE EUROPEAN NATO”
“This UK-led initiative will allow us to intensify our cooperation, bringing together European allies to ensure NATO remains secure for years to come,” Starmer declared.
The British government’s note also highlights that the initiative “will radically enhance NATO’s defense and deterrence capabilities and is further proof of the Allies’ commitment to ensuring a stronger and more European NATO.”
As Reuters points out, these systems will be developed without Washington’s involvement. The shortage of long-range missiles in Europe has long been a concern for NATO, following the massive use of conventional long-range missiles by Moscow during the large-scale invasion of Ukraine, Bloomberg recalls, emphasizing how this concern has increased since U.S. President Donald Trump canceled the planned deployment of BGM-109 Tomahawk missiles in Germany.
INVESTMENTS ALREADY LAUNCHED BY LONDON IN THE MISSILE SECTOR (IN COLLABORATION ALSO WITH ITALY AND FRANCE)
The British government has already allocated 300 billion pounds by 2030 in the Defense Investment Plan.
London – the statement continues – has already committed 3 billion pounds until 2030 to precision missile capabilities within its 298 billion pound Defence Investment Plan (DIP), reports Radiocor. This commitment includes the Deep Precision Strike program (770 million pounds over 4 years) with Germany to accelerate the development of ‘stealth’ and hypersonic missiles with a range exceeding 2000 km, which will enter service in the 2030s, and participation in the Stratus missile program with Italy and France (1.4 billion pounds over 4 years) developed by Mbda.
The collaboration between the United Kingdom, Italy, and France in the missile sector also includes the development of the next generation of the Storm Shadow missile, within the industrial cooperation among the three countries.
The initiative announced in Ankara thus adds to the multinational programs already underway, aiming to strengthen European capabilities in the long-range strike systems sector. Bloomberg also notes that it is unclear how this new initiative fits into the separate European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA), launched two years ago to develop such weapons for the continent. This has not yet led to any known purchase orders, as the missiles are still under development.
