On February 12, UK, France, Germany, Italy, Poland and Sweden signed a new LoI
The Defence Ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the United Kingdom signed a letter of intent today on the sidelines of the Munich security conference. The new agreement formalize the commitment of the 6 nations to develop “mechanisms” for fielding long-range One-Way Effectors (effectively“suicide drones”) “ in order to harmonize and accelerate the development, procurement, of these capabilities across Europe.
Reportedly, the initiative is dubbed One Way Effector 500 Plus (OWE 500+) from its range ambition: over 500 km. The project falls under the wider ELSA (European Long Range Strike Approach) initiative.
German press, primarily the Hartpunkt defence publication, seem to have received more details about the initiative and report that the initial phase will “focus on rapidly assessing the feasibility” of the concept.
If approval follows, the aim is to distribute production across several countries to ensure resilience and the ability to produce at scale.
It is reported that the OWE 500+ is targeting very low cost (under 100,000 euro) as a key requirement. Payload is reportedly meant to be just 50 kg, with the munition able to loiter for unspecified amounts of time. It is claimed that the warhead could be a literal 155 mm shell to keep cost and complexity at a minimum.
It should be noted that products delivering these kind of performances, and indeed more impressive ones, are already in development, if not in production.
In December 2025 unnamed UK companies have started the flight trials of their Project BRAKESTOP offerings. BRAKESTOP is an OWE meant to fly for 600 km while delivering a payload of up to 300 kg, at speed of “at least” 600 km/hour.
The aim of BRAKESTOP is to enter production within the year for onward supply to Ukraine. On 12 December 2025, UK Minister for Defence Procurement Luke Pollard said that “multiple” contracts had been placed to develop prototype one-way effectors to meet Project BRAKESTOP's requirements, “for which the builds were highly advanced”. Later the same month, the first flight test was reported. Production contracts are expected to be placed sometime this year.
The original ambition had been to move even faster and start producing already in late 2025 but that proved impossible primarily for scarcity of appropriate propulsion systems. A specific parallel project, CALLISTO, was set up to get companies to design and produce more suitable engines.
The UK is hoping to quickly scale production to “at least” 20 per month.
Even if BRAKESTOP itself is not picked for the new OWE initiative, UK firms that have been at work targeting BRAKESTOP/CALLISTO might now be well placed to respond to the new multinational initiative.
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