Farnborough 2026: MBDA's Spear starting low-rate production in 2026

A three-pack launcher for MBDA's Spear air-to-surface missile, displayed at Farnborough 2026. (Janes/Tom Barton)

MBDA is beginning low-rate production of its Spear turbojet-powered mini-cruise missile in 2026, the company announced at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026, held from 20-24 July.

Known as Selective Precision Effects At Range (SPEAR 3) by the UK MoD, Spear uses GPS/inertial mid-course navigation, a two-way datalink (enabling mid-course updates, re-targeting, and mission abort functions), and a dual-mode seeker (millimetric waveband radar and semi-active laser: SAL) for terminal homing. It has a published range of 100 km, and is designed to be used against mobile or challenging static targets.

It has been developed as the UK's powered stand‐off weapon, primarily for internal carriage by the F-35B Lightning II, and for export.

On 21 May the F-35 Joint Program Office (JPO) said that earlier in 2026 a US Marine Corps (USMC) F-35B flown by UK Royal Air Force (RAF) and UK Royal Navy (RN) pilots had carried four of the missiles in one of its two internal weapons bays during a trial.

John McCullagh, Future Combat Air System (FCAS) business development executive at MBDA told Janes during a media briefing on 21 July that the company intends to have Spear certified for integration onto the UK's F-35Bs by the end of 2026 so that full testing can begin. “We have telemetry missiles, and a first flight on the [UK] F-35 would be for data gathering,” he added.

On 20 July at the Airshow MBDA signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) to ensure that GA-ASI's MQ-9B unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), and Gambit 6 collaborative combat aircraft (CCA), can carry and use MBDA's Spear.