At the Farnborough Air Show, MBDA cast some light on the state of the still nebulous Germany – UK Deep Precision Strike initiative and gave us the first ever look at the hypersonic Deep Precision Strike (H-DPS) glide vehicle concept in its current state (actually, it was First unveiled ai ILA Belin 2026).

According to MBDA, DPS, which has most recently been described by the UK government as a “family” of “stealth cruise and hypersonic missiles” is specifically pursuing 2 parallel paths: an advanced cruise missile on one side, and an hypersonic glide vehicle on the other. Both weapons are to be ground launched, at least initially, and have a range “in excess” of 2,000 km. The UK government previous official releases about the project insist that potential applications of DPS beyond ground launch only could follow.

We haven’t seen anything about the cruise missile strand yet, but a model of the hypersonic glide vehicle was on the MBDA stand at the show.

It must be remembered that we are still in the very early stages of the project and the shapes of the H-DPS might yet undergo vast changes. According to MBDA, a “Pre-Concept” phase concluded earlier this year, and with the UK firming up its financial commitment as part of the Defence Investment Plan, the project is now moving into an “accelerated Concept Phase” that is meant to lead towards full development work to begin next year. The UK Defence Investment Plan contains a commitment to invest £770 million into DPS over the next 4 financial years.

Days earlier, the important bilateral France – Germany summit had provided the most explicit indication of the French intent to join the DPS initiative in order to mature its own plans for a 2,500 km range ballistic missile tipped with an hypersonic glider.

The joint statement published by the Élysée on July 17 notes: “together with their British partners, France and Germany, will assess cooperation opportunities across all DPS work strands, with a particular emphasis on the ballistic boost of very long-range effectors (2500km). They recognize and will examine existing capabilities of the Franco German company Ariane Group."

Ariane Group is pursuing France’s ballistic missile ambition for some time and is pushing a 2-stage rocket for carrying the hypersonic glide vehicle. France’s intent here is obvious; what is less clear is how much Germany is in actual agreement, and how the UK might react to being effectively pushed out of the booster part of H-DPS altogether.

France had already indicated that the preferred way forward for its conventional ballistic missile plan was "collaboration" back in April while work was underway on the annual refresh of their Military Planning Law. Both the documents and the hearings of Chiefs of Staff and of the DGA had indicated that a tie up with Germany and the UK was the plan.

France has done substantial work on hypersonic gliders as well in the recent past, and recent experiences of cooperation attempts immediately raise concerns that Paris’s demands might once again involve turning the project into a substantially French system partially funded by others. And that might, once again, backfire.

Follow us on Telegram, Facebook and X.