An artist's rendering of a Eurofighter Typhoon launching a Lockheed Martin Mako hypersonic missile has been posted by the company as a teaser of a prospective capability that the UK might one day field. (Lockheed Martin)
Lockheed Martin has teased UK use of its Mako missile, posting an image of the hypersonic weapon being launched from a Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft.
The image posted on the official X (formerly Twitter) account of Lockheed Martin UK on 19 December illustrated a press release on the wider company's collaboration with NATO and European allies.
“Our hypersonic Mako missile may offer another opportunity to strengthen collaboration with European partners. The UK has made it a priority to develop a sovereign hypersonic strike capability, and under the AUKUS trilateral security partnership [of Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States], we are seeking opportunities to support this goal,” the press release said. “We seek a partnership in which to share intellectual property and develop sovereign and exportable missiles built in the UK by its skilled workforce. Mako is a great example of a programme that might be the focus of such a collaboration if the US approves.”
Revealed in July, the Mako has been in development for seven years as a hypersonic compact missile system able to strike time-sensitive targets that are protected by ground-based integrated air-defence systems. ‘Hypersonic' is defined differently by different countries and even by different companies within the same country but is typically accepted as being a vehicle that is able to travel within the Earth's atmosphere for sustained periods at speeds greater than Mach 5.
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