This article is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Apr 09, 2026. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
A Meteor is loaded onto a Typhoon.
LONDON–The UK and France plan to launch a study on the development of a successor to the Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile.
The two countries have signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) for a 12-month joint study to examine concepts for a future weapon.
Teams from both countries will assess future threats and examine what potential technologies could be incorporated into the missile as well as establish a road map for its development, the UK defense materiel agency, Defense Equipment and Support, announced on April 1.
The resulting weapon will likely equip the future combat aircraft being developed through the separate programs underway in the two countries—the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) between the UK, Italy and Japan and the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) that France is currently working on with Germany and Spain—although industrial disputes have put the latter project on rocky ground. Defense officials on both sides of the English Channel have previously spoken of the need for a joint family of weapons that could equip these future platforms.
The Meteor successor study is one of the first projects to progress from the renewed Lancaster House defense agreement signed by the two countries last July, as the UK aims to enhance its defense relationship with European partners post-Brexit, and with France after the AUKUS accord between Australia, the UK and the U.S.
Government ministers have hailed the agreement as a “revived Entente Industrielle.” Luke Pollard, the UK’s minister for defense readiness and industry, said the study marks “exactly the kind of close collaboration needed to deter our adversaries in this new era of threat.”
Meteor is currently in service on the Eurofighter Typhoon, the Dassault Rafale and the Saab Gripen, and is also the subject of a study on a potential midlife update that would improve its lethality.
The weapon has also been widely exported and is currently awaiting integration on the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
As well as the study on the new weapon, the two countries are establishing a joint Complex Weapons Portfolio Office to coordinate this and other missile programs. This will ensure closer alignment between national defense priorities and open opportunities for cooperation with other countries.
France and the UK are already working on a successor to the Scalp/Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missile through the Stratus program with Italy. This project is currently awaiting transition to a development phase, MBDA CEO Eric Beranger told journalists last week.
Related Content
