Experimental systems, each carrying a 250kg warhead, could potentially reach Russian capital from Kyiv
Tom Cotterill
Tom Cotterill is The Telegraph’s acting defence editor. He has previously written for The Daily Mail and MailOnline. A former award-winning Defence Correspondent for a daily paper in Portsmouth, Tom has been a reporter since 2011. He can be contacted on tom.cotterill@telegraph.co.uk or on X @TomCotterillX
Published 20 June 2026
Britain has tested new long-range weapons that could soon be delivered to Ukraine to allow Kyiv to strike Moscow.
New systems that can attack targets more than 300 miles away have been tested at a range in the Hebrides, with further trials taking place in the UK over the coming months.
The experimental platforms, each carrying a 250kg warhead, could potentially reach Moscow, which came under intense Ukrainian drone bombardment earlier this week.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) challenged firms to build long-range strike weapons that can fly at more than 370mph, cost about £400,000 each and can be built at a pace of 20 a month.
Some 27 bids from industry were made with Dragon’s Den-style pitches held last February, before six UK companies were awarded contracts worth around £5m each to design prototypes for testing in just seven months.
By last December, only three suppliers remained: MBDA UK, which makes the Storm Shadow stealth missile, MGI Engineering, a UK small or medium-sized enterprise (SME) with a background in Formula 1 technology, and Rotron Aerospace, another UK SME with a history of working with the MoD.
The new long-range weapons would ‘complement’ others, such as the Storm Shadow missile (pictured) Credit: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
It is understood that the Hebrides launches saw all systems fire despite some minor technical hiccups, which were to be expected as part of the “fail fast” approach to the project, and which firms will now work to iron out before further trials.
The second phase of so-called Project Brakestop is now under way, with companies awarded follow-on contracts worth around £15m for further development. British officials hope to deliver the first of the new systems to Kyiv within a year.
Louise Sandher-Jones, the new Armed Forces minister, said the weapons would “complement” others, such as Storm Shadow missiles, which allow Ukraine to strike deep into Russia but carry a higher cost.
“The UK stands shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine, and we will continue to provide the support it needs to defend itself against Russian aggression,” she added.
“Project Brakestop shows what happens when we combine that commitment with the talent and ingenuity of British industry. In less than a year, UK companies have taken an ambitious concept from the drawing board to flight testing, delivering a new generation of capability at remarkable speed.”
Western officials say Kyiv’s battlefield performance has improved significantly in recent months, with Ukrainian drones pinning down Russian troops on the front line.
Smoke billows behind an Orthodox church following a Ukrainian drone attack in Moscow on Thursday Credit: EPA/Shutterstock
Ukrainian forces launched nearly 200 drones at Moscow on Thursday, about 310 miles from the Ukraine-Russia border. It was the third consecutive day of attacks, which saw more than 1,000 drones fired at Russia in total.
Russia pledged to retaliate, with Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, warning Kyiv that “massive group strikes” would now be carried out “on a regular basis” against Ukraine.
Between late Thursday and early Friday, the Kremlin launched 90 drones at Ukraine, according to the Ukrainian air force, reportedly killing three people, including an eight-year-old girl.
A separate Russian attack on Ukraine’s southern Odesa region killed one person, while strikes on the eastern city of Kramatorsk killed one other, according to authorities.
G7 leaders promised Ukraine more air defence capabilities earlier this week, without specifying what type of weapons. Britain pledged to deliver 150,000 drones this year.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2026/06/20/britain-tests-long-range-missiles-ukraine-bomb-moscow/
Comment from :
Rumbly Tummy
Anything that brings about the downfall of war criminals in Moscow is welcome.
LA Minate
Looks as though the MoD is putting its A Team onto procurement after realising that it’s plain crazy to stage a year’s tendering, run ceaseless rounds of comments and modifications, and invite other ‘helpful’ input from unqualified suits when the enemy is at the gate. A year is still too long but it’s a start. When they’ve sorted this out, can they move on to Ajax?
Baldus Maximus
Save some for us, we may need them.
A. Wanker comments :
Ivor Stuart
Thanks for telling the Russians that a Nato country is now involved in bombing Russia. You can’t blame Levrov for readying the UK as a target.
Matthew Co
Reply to Ivor Stuart
And they didn’t notice when.storm shadows were blowing up their military HQs in Crimea?
DAVID FLOOD
Fabulous. How very British. It should be a design requirement that they have a bawdy message on them to Putin……
Star comment :
Code Monkey
Ukraine will be a valuable NATO and 5 Eyes defence partner in the post Trump world.
The West is going west
Lots of Russian supporters out in force here today, attacking the UK for helping Ukraine. They are showing their true colours by supporting a murderous tyrant who has ordered the invasion of another country and continues to target civilians. Russia must be defeated and Britain must do all it can to help.
Roman Lipka
Defence of Great Britain starts on the Ukrainian frontline.
If Ukraine falls where do you think the soldiers and the technology goes? To russia.
Ukrainian army will have an option : fight for the russian motherland or we will rape and kill your wives and children. If they don’t want this option then they will turn towards the baltics and Poland then Germany and france.
Patrick Schrabauer
If Putin refuses to stop his forever wars, then Russia has to be stopped at the latest country it tries to invade and occupy, not the next one, and not the one after that.
He is not interested in peace. He is afraid of it.
Permanent conflict, grey zone warfare, and controlled chaos are his political operating system. Waiting until he stops by Britain before taking this seriously would be exactly the kind of hesitation Putin relies on.
Carpe Jugulum
The UK had several companies with the expertise to develop, build and test this missile within months. Russia doesn’t have a single one that could do the same. Not one.
There is a fundamental problem with Putin’s utterly corrupt kleptocracy, thugs are richly rewarded and the talent leaves. Russia no longer has the talent pool dedicated to weapons development that Ukraine and the UK have. Take a look at Putin’s ‘wonder weapons’.
The Oreshnik is a rebadged RS26. An expensive piece of junk that cannot even independently set targets for its warheads. Point it at a city and the rest is random.
The Su57 is primitive junk. It has a radar cross section over 1000x that of a F35.
The T14 is a prima donna with a dodgy powertrain that doesn’t even have a production line.
The T90M is an ammunition carousel waiting to kill the crew. One minute they are there the next they are a few bags full of singed gobbets.
The lesson of this war is that innovation and adaptability are essential.
Russia is capable of neither.
Thomas Glover
Reply to Carpe Jugulum
Your usual good and well worded post!
And, as I have said before, in the days of the USSR the major innovations in military, especially aeronautical, technology came from Ukraine. And it seems they still do!
Carpe Jugulum
The fortunate fact is that Russians are crap at war, that is why they needed a pact with Hitler to invade Poland. Their army is a one trick pony, throw mass at the enemy.
This is of course excellent news.
I believe it was Sir Kier Starmer’s idea to launch the “Dragons Den” initiative.
Unfortunately Andy Burnham is plotting to overthrow him. Whilst Burnham is pro-Ukraine, he’s also a fanatical tax and spend socialist.
Will there be enough money after his planned splurging on welfare slackers to help Ukraine?
“Russia pledged to retaliate, with Sergei Lavrov, the foreign minister, warning Kyiv that “massive group strikes” would now be carried out “on a regular basis” against Ukraine.”
Unlike the massive group strikes we have been carrying out for the last 4.5 years. If talking won wars, mafia land would be at the Polish border now.