Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department plans to fund research and development for the purposes of protecting the UK against current and future ballistic and hypersonic missile threats.

The Ministry of Defence (MOD) continues to fund research and development (R&D) to protect the UK from a variety of threats. Missile defence R&D is delivered by the UK Missile Defence Centre (MDC) which is a government-industry partnership led by the MOD. The MDC funds research to underpin capability development and sustain critical capabilities, integrating relevant research and technologies from across MOD's Science & Technology portfolio. The research programme covers existing and future ballistic threats as well as evolving hypersonic threats.

The MOD works closely with NATO and International Partners across a range of related R&D areas. The UK is committed to co-operation with the United States and Australia on counter-hypersonics through the AUKUS partnership.