It’s highly doubtful that the Lightweight Multirole Missile will make a real difference in Ukraine’s prospects for victory.
As The National Interest reported back on February 21, 2025, the United Kingdom has begun supplying the Gravehawk air defense system to Ukraine, and the Ukrainians were quite enthusiastic about this new gift. Their excitement is understandable; the highly cost-effective weapon system allows Ukraine to repurpose its existing stockpile of leftover missiles from the Cold War without requiring complex logistics or the production of new weaponry. Thus, the Gravehawk delivers proverbial “bang for the buck” (or “hellfire for the Hryvnia“ if you prefer).
In addition, we noted that Britain’s provision of the Gravehawk to Ukraine was just one part of the package: His Majesty’s Government committed to supplying Ukraine with a 4.5 billion GBP (equivalent to $5.68 billion) military aid package, which includes additional air-to-air missiles, tanks, and artillery, along with 10,000 drones and hundreds of thousands of rounds of ammunition.
We shall now report on additional developments in British-Ukrainian military ties.
Doubling Down On Air Defense
Fast forward to March 2, 2025, and, as reported by Jacob Burg ofThe Epoch Times, British prime minister Keir Starmer declared during a security summit in London that Europe must continue to provide funding for Ukraine to sustain its position during peace negotiations, while also committing to roughly $2 billion (2.58 billion GDP) in export financing to supply Ukraine with 5,000 air defense missiles. It’s not quite clear from Burg’s article if this 2.58 billion GBP figure is in addition to or part of the aforementioned 4.5 billion GBP February figure.
Starmer made a couple of additional statements at this same summit that will be music to U.S. resident Donald Trump’s ears:
Despite the infamous breakdown in talks at the White House between Trump, Vice President J.D. Vance, and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on February 28, the United States remains an important ally to Britain. (In other words, the “special relationship” remains intact; though far from a perfect analogy, one could conceivably draw parallels with the cordial relationship between Tony Blair and George Walker Bush back in the first decade of the twenty-first century).
Starmer also pledged to boost Britain’s military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2027; granted, this is only halfway toward the 5 percent goal espoused by Trump, but still a significant step in the right direction.
Enter the Lightweight Multirole Missile
Fast-forward again, this time to the current week, and my formerSimple Flying colleague, Christian Martin reports on another weapon system that will be a key component of Britain’s military supply package to Ukraine: the Thales Group’s Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM), which is an anti-drone missile. To wit:
“The order in question, worth£1.6 billion ($2.046 billion), will be serviced at the Thales factory in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and will cover the manufacture of5,000 units of the LMM. Given the size and urgency of the order, the Belfast factory set to produce these missiles will hire 200 additional staff members to ensure timely delivery … As its name denotes, the LMM is quite light. Weighing in at only 13 kilograms (28.6 pounds), its operational range is 6 kilometers (3.7 miles) and it has a maximum speed of Mach 1.5 … The LMM is sealed and stored in a canister, which can be quickly mounted on the desired sea, air, or land platform … The missile itself consists of a two-stage motor and a combined fragmentation and shaped-charge warhead. In addition, the LMM possess a highly accurate laser-guidance system, according toThales.”
As is the case with the aforementioned Gravehawk, it’s highly doubtful that the LMM will make a real difference in Ukraine’s prospects for victory. But both of these weapons systems—as with the U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets—will serve Ukraine until a time when a peace settlement is finally reached in this seemingly interminable war.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor forNational Security Journal (NSJ) and19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published inThe Daily Torch,The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, andSimple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of theNaval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at theOld Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
Image: Wikimedia Commons.