Following an agreement in May between the UK and US governments to share work on missile defence, BAE Systems and Lockheed Martin have signed a memorandum of understanding to collaborate on ballistic missile defence.
The companies will discuss sea-based missile defence, command and control, battle management, communications and sensors. Both are part of the Team Janus group, now producing a feasibility study on a NATO theatre missile defence system, with Astrium, EADS, MBDA and Northrop Grumman.
The UK would be involved in any US missile defence system through the presence in Yorkshire of the RAF Fylingdales early warning radar, but UK defence secretary Geoff Hoon told the House of Commons on 12 June that a new agreement would expand the UK involvement into "bilateral information exchanges on missile defence...a management structure to oversee co-operative work and prepare the way for fair opportunities for UK companies to participate in the US programme".
The deal is likely to give BAE, which signed a missile defence agreement with Boeing last year, easier access to the US missile defence budget. Neither the UK nor NATO has yet committed to any form of missile defence, and "there are no other specific opportunities" elsewhere in the world, BAE says.
Source: Flight International