Britain will strengthen Ukraine’s air defence with powerful LMM missiles: what are their characteristics

Britain will strengthen Ukraine’s air defence with powerful LMM missiles: what are their characteristics

The United Kingdom will strengthen Ukraine’s air defence with LMM (Lightweight Multirole Missile) interceptors. These missiles are manufactured by the defence company Thales and will be especially important for the Defence Forces to protect against long-range strike drones of the Russian occupiers.

According to the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, the supply of 5,000 LMMs is planned through a loan from the UK Export Finance (UKEF) agency. A corresponding statement regarding new aid was also made by the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Keir Starmer, at the Ukraine Security Summit in London.

The Ministry of Defence emphasized that, in addition to direct supply, the large-scale air defence enhancement project aims to localize production, transfer technologies, and support our defence industry, although details are not yet disclosed.

What is known about LMM missiles

According to Defence Express, the missiles produced by Thales at their plant in Belfast are highly versatile and can be launched from various platforms on land, sea, and air.

The Armed Forces of Ukraine already have LMM missiles in service, and last fall the United Kingdom announced the allocation of a large batch of these missiles, namely 650 units, the first of which our military was supposed to receive by the end of last year.

The Thales official website states that the missile weighs 13 kg, can destroy targets at a range of over 6 km, and has a speed of 1.5 Mach.

LMM missiles can be used with the Starstreak MANPADS or the Stormer short-range air defence systems (both of which are in service with the Defence Forces of Ukraine). It is also known that the United Kingdom will deliver RapidRanger launchers to Ukraine from the same company - Thales.

RapidRanger is a combat module with four launchers for different missiles. It can be installed on various wheeled or tracked vehicles, with the possibility of integrating day and thermal imaging cameras, target tracking systems, and a 360-degree observation sensor, which collectively ensures the autonomous operation of the system.

The module weighs less than 500 kg, and the target detection range is over 15 km.