Bob Ainsworth (Minister of State (Armed Forces), Ministry of Defence; Coventry North East, Labour)

I am pleased to inform the House that the Ministry of Defence has concluded a teaming agreement with the industrial grouping known as Team CW⁽¹⁾ to take forward, to the next stage, the Government's intentions for the UK complex weapons sector. This agreement is underpinned by enabling contracts which we have placed with MBDA (UK) Ltd and Thales UK which, with the teaming agreement, will launch the assessment phase for the initiative as a whole and undertake specific concept and assessment work on six complex weapons programmes⁽²⁾.

The assessment phase will assess further our ability to enter into a partnering arrangement and, through the programme activity, test an innovative way of developing weapons to meet the UK's military requirements, including the use of modularity and families of weapons. The teaming agreement, which has been signed by all of the team CW partners, including the Ministry of Defence, links the two enabling contracts and formalises the governance arrangements for the duration of the assessment phase.

If successful, it is expected that the technologies developed to meet these initial military requirements will be adapted to meet the majority of our future weapons needs.

This approach has the potential to offer a greater level of capability to the front line while achieving value for money for the taxpayer and maintaining UK operational sovereignty over our complex weapons.

⁽¹⁾Team CW is led by MBDA (UK) Ltd, and includes Thales UK, QineteQ Ltd, and Roxel (UK Rocket Motors) Ltd. The Ministry of Defence is also a member of team CW.

⁽²⁾The projects are: Indirect Fire Precision Attack Loitering Munition (IFPA LM); Future Air to Surface Guided Weapon (FASGW); Storm Shadow Capability Enhancement Programme (SSCEP); Selected Precision Effects at Range (SPEAR), and Future Local Area Air Defence Systems (FLAADS).