UK joins NATO project to develop new deep precision strike missiles

The United Kingdom has joined five NATO allies in launching a multinational project to develop new ground-based deep precision strike capabilities, including new launchers and missiles, NATO has announced.

Ground-Based Precision Strike Capabilities Project

The Ground-Based Precision Strike Capabilities High Visibility Project was launched at the NATO Summit Defence Industry Forum in Ankara on Tuesday. It brings together Denmark, France, Italy, Norway, Turkey, and the UK to explore "the multinational development of novel deep precision strike capabilities, including new launchers and missiles," according to the alliance.

The announcement delivers on what British officials trailed at the launch of the Defence Investment Plan last week, when a senior defence official said the UK was putting proper money into its collaboration on deep precision strike and that more would be said at Ankara. The plan directs substantial early funding into long-range fires, with a senior defence official confirming the intent to bring a ballistic missile capability into the British Army over a range of around 500 miles as part of the recce strike concept. The official described the acceleration of front-line lethality in long-range precision strike as what NATO wants of the UK and what the United States wants Europe to deliver.

The new project sits alongside the UK’s existing membership of the European Long-Range Strike Approach, a separate multinational effort on land-based deep strike weapons launched in 2024.

Lessons from Ukraine

NATO framed the initiative within the lessons of Ukraine, stating that:

• The threat of long-range strikes is growing and evolving fast, requiring a more agile approach to developing and using such capabilities.
• Multinational projects allow allies to share development costs, accelerate timelines, achieve economies of scale, and field capabilities more quickly than acting alone.
• Developing advanced strike capability is complex and costly, with a lack of compatibility and interoperability a recurring constraint on production capacity.

Additional Strike Announcements

The strike announcements extended beyond the deep precision project.

Generic NATO 155mm Artillery Round

Nine allies—Canada, Czechia, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Norway, Slovakia, Sweden, and Turkey—agreed to develop a prototype generic NATO 155mm artillery round under the Generic NATO Indirect Fire Round project. The project is intended to:

• Set the parameters for a fully interchangeable and interoperable NATO 155mm munition.
• Streamline and accelerate production.
• Eliminate the constraints that affect allied artillery systems.

Shells nominally of the same 155mm calibre are not universally usable across allied guns because of differences between national designs. The war in Ukraine has exposed this problem as donated ammunition and artillery systems from across the alliance met in the field. A genuinely common round would allow any ally’s production to feed any ally’s guns.

Framework Contracts and National Investments

• NATO’s Support and Procurement Agency helped deliver several framework contracts for additional 155mm ammunition and loitering munitions.
• Turkey announced a major national investment in its ATMACA land-based long-range cruise missiles.