£3.5 Million Two-Year Investigation
The UK MoD’s Defence Science & Technology Laboratory (Dstl) has been awarded £3.5 million (€4.1 million) to develop more innovative and intelligent missile systems.
Known as the Co-operative Strike Weapons Technology Demonstrator (CSWTD), the project will explore how inter-missile communication can enable weapons systems to work together, improving the performance of current systems. The project aims to increase the flexibility of missiles, ensuring they can react to changing threats as they emerge, and improving responsiveness. It will change the way missiles operate, together with an upgrade to the software system that allows this co-operative behaviour.
The investment in CSWTD will deliver the foundations for future co-operative missiles, including hardware and software, and also provide a number of systems studies to understand how co-operative missiles could be used in real operational scenarios. Work began on the programme in April, and is expected to last just over two years. Dstl scientists are currently assessing different tactics and scenarios, in close collaboration with industry partner MBDA.