Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to procure a very-short range air defence system (VSHORAD) capability for the army.

The British Army does not use the NATO Very Short Range Air Defence (VSHORAD) definition for its Air Defence assets. However, the Army’s High Velocity Missile and Lightweight Multirole Missile can engage targets at very short range, providing a very short range air defence capability to Land Forces.

Through the Land Ground Based Air Defence programme, work is ongoing to replace our STORMER based and dismounted systems and the Army is considering further complementary very short and short range capabilities to defeat a range of aerial threats.