Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to his Department's press release entitled Hypersonic missiles development accelerated by new contract, published on 13 February 2026, what the estimated cost is of delivering the hypersonic missile programme.

Through innovative procurement practices and rapid commercial mechanisms that harness the breadth of the UK's industrial and academic supply chain, the Ministry of Defence's (MOD) Hypersonics programme intends to deliver a weapon demonstrator by 2030. With a mandate to "do differently", the programme deviates from traditional (CADMID) procurement sequencing and adopts early technology maturation, prototyping and system testing, This agile, spiral development approach aligned with Defence Industrial Strategy maintains MOD's existing gated approvals process. The programme is at the early Strategic Outline Case; the overall costs for the capability will mature, as will the in-service delivery date.