Following analysis of the recent Breakdown Test and Criticality Analysis (BTCA) programme conducted on Javelin missiles, the Safety Responsible and Senior Safety Responsible delegation holders have endorsed a five-year extension to the Javelin in-service life. This extension grants a shelf life of 25 years (plus a further two years for disposal) for all UK Javelin missiles to ensure a sufficient stockpile for UK military operations.

Breakdown Test and Critical Analysis (BTCA) is routinely undertaken across different weapons in the RAF munitions stockpile, with specific outcomes held at Official-Sensitive classification. The evidence from the most recent programme of BTCA activity, completed in 2025, confirmed that the assessed batches of air-to-air and air-to-surface munitions remain suitable for continued service use. I am withholding further technical detail for security reasons.

Subject matter experts within the Ministry of Defence and its industry partners who undertake Breakdown Test and Critical Analysis (BTCA) understand the limitations of the test methods used, and apply it appropriately where used to inform decisions on air carriage life for Royal Air Force weapons.

Plans to complete mission system integration and jettison trials for SPEAR 3 are part of a wider weapons integration programme and are subject to prioritisation and test platform availability across the entire programme. The SPEAR 3 integration programme and subsequent release to service will occur in the early 2030s.

As I confirmed to the House during Defence Oral Questions on 16 March 2026, we have received the final Army safety investigation report, and work is ongoing to agree next steps. The department continues to engage with General Dynamics on the report and next steps, as we have since Exercise TITAN STORM. I will update the House after Easter recess to outline next steps.

The RAF continues to monitor the development of the global collaborative combat air market and develop advanced capabilities to augment crewed combat air as part of the Future force mix that will deliver control of the air for the UK.

As advised in my response to Question 106283, the project is within its concept stage, and we cannot yet assess the adequacy of the UK supply chain regarding this project. However, we have set clear expectations that Project Grayburn will be manufactured in the UK to enhance sovereign industry, generate employment and provide opportunity for export.

There is currently no specific definition for the future export potential of Project Grayburn, but it is desirable for the project to create future export opportunities. As part of the current phase, analysis of potential addressable export opportunities will be conducted.

With regards to the decision framework being used to assess potential future calibre changes, the project will employ the established scrutiny and approvals tools for decision making, including the Combined Operation Effectiveness and Investment Appraisal.

It would not be appropriate to release a complete list of criteria as it could, or would be likely to, prejudice the capability of our Armed Forces. Additionally, I will await the findings of the current investigations before making a further decision the future of Ajax.

The 23 Ajax vehicles on Exercise Titan Storm and the Ajax vehicle subsequently used to establish a baseline for noise and vibration were all part of Capability Drop 3; manufactured and assembled in Merthyr Tydfil.

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, our Test and Evaluation Transformation programme is piloting the provision of a high-fidelity virtual test range, focused on the evaluation of UK equipment in the most demanding operational environments. This project will pave the way for the UK Defence enterprise to rapidly test, innovate and integrate systems against the most demanding operational use-cases.

Since publication of the Defence Industrial Strategy, the project’s technical approach has been tested through the largest and most ambitious multinational trial ever undertaken on a virtual range of this type. This successfully validated the technical direction of the project and work is underway to establish the facilities needed to expand access to the pilot by the summer of 2026.

Wargaming, such as the December 2024 Industry Wargame, helps the Ministry of Defence, industry, and wider society identify and address risks, enhancing operational resilience and ensuring mission continuity in contested environments. The exercise yielded critical insights across multiple areas essential for surging capacity and scaling to full warfighting readiness. Achieving this requires strengthening strategic collaboration with industry and international partners, alongside further developing enablers such as appropriate legislation, financial frameworks, specialist skills development, and digital transformation.

Considerable progress is already underway, including work on a Defence Readiness Bill, the formation of a dedicated scenario planning and modelling capability, accelerated digital system upgrades for secure information sharing, and cross-Government efforts to access vital defence skills.

The Ministry of Defence plans to introduce a supplier resilience maturity assessment framework and tool as part of the Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP). This will be a phased approach involving piloting and testing in a live environment during the remainder of financial year 2025/26, with full implementation commencing in April 2026.

The framework—developed as part of a suite of proactive risk management mechanisms - and piloted with industry—enables structured assessment across twelve resilience domains, covering leadership, people, place, and operations, with sixty criteria in total. It is designed for use at both organisational and programme levels and supports MOD-led, supplier-led, or joint assessments. The accompanying tool provides both qualitative and quantitative scoring and visualisation. Final recommendations for implementation are expected following the pilot phase, which is currently underway.

As set out in the Defence Industrial Strategy, investing in mobile test technologies has the potential to accelerate innovation, particularly amongst smaller companies for whom geographically remote and highly capable test ranges may be prohibitively expensive. The same technology will also help Defence undertake more testing in the field, under operationally representative conditions, contributing towards the industrial, innovation and warfighting readiness ambitions in the Strategic Defence Review.

Mobile testing is one aspect of the Department’s Test and Evaluation Transformation programme, which is forecast to spend over £1 million on mobile test technologies this year. The scale of future funding is dependent on the outcome of the Defence Investment Plan.

The National Armaments Director Group is actively progressing plans to establish a dedicated strategic supply chain scenario planning capability as a core component of its Defence Supply Chain Capability Programme (DSCCP). This initiative will underpin a structured programme of scenario testing exercises—integrating wargaming, simulation, and strategic foresight—to stress-test supply chain resilience and inform defence policy and planning.

The capability will be delivered in collaboration with industry and government partners, leveraging our new supply chain illumination capability and aligning with the Defence Experimentation and Wargaming Hub. The capability will work with the wider landscape of existing scenario planning and wargaming activities that already take place within the Ministry of Defence and across government. Early development phases include pilot exercises across three service levels, with a proof-of-concept capability targeted by March 2026.

The trial referenced by the hon. Member was conducted by BAE Systems for a multi-rotor Uncrewed Air System (UAS) and the information on the trial can be found on the open internet.

The UK Armed Forces remain steadfast in their commitment to advancing their already strong capabilities. They continuously explore the potential adoption of new equipment, including drones, to ensure they remain at the forefront of operational effectiveness.

This Government launched the Strategic Defence Review (SDR) a path for the next decade and beyond to transform Defence. We are delivering our commitment to spend 2.6% of GDP on defence, accelerating it to 2027, and we have set the ambition to reach 3% in the next Parliament.

A key part of the SDR's vision for UK defence is innovation driven by lessons from Ukraine - harnessing drones, data, and digital warfare to make our Armed Forces stronger and safer. The SDR recommends that the Royal Air Force should shift towards the greater use of uncrewed systems as an immediate priority.

As part of this transformation, uncrewed and autonomous systems will be incorporated into the Royal Air Force through a broad mix of capabilities to enhance operational effectiveness. This Government is investing an additional £2 billion this Parliament into autonomous systems, including drones, and will establish a new Defence Uncrewed Systems Centre at initial operating capability by February 2026.

The exact types of uncrewed systems to be procured and the associated investment will be determined as part of the Defence Investment Plan.

The Challenger 3 trials are currently planned to conclude by the end of 2026. This timeline is subject to ongoing review by the project team to ensure it remains aligned with delivery milestones, operational requirements, and any emerging technical risk.

The Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Battlespace Integration Centre has identified numerous integration opportunities through the work undertaken to date on Integrated Air and Missile Defence, Future Air Dominance System, and other themes within the Strategic Defence Review. I am withholding information on the specific integration opportunities identified on the grounds of National Security as their disclosure would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Ministry of Defence (MOD).

Of equal importance have been the systemic opportunities to achieve better integration through understanding of dependencies and better systems-of-systems engineering. The majority of the value created by the Battlespace Integration Centre has been through collaborations on systemic improvements, such as:

• Exposing data-driven insights into relationships and dependencies between capabilities through collaboration with other MOD initiatives such as Strategic Decision Support and the Defence Capability Hierarchy.

• Digitising the likes of doctrine and threat data, for faster modelling and simulation of military capability problems.

• Sponsoring digital/AI innovation which can significantly cut down the time from identification of a problem to the accurate determination of the most effective option to address it.

The Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP) demonstrator is planned to use EJ200 engines from the Eurofighter Typhoon, giving a reliable engine for testing the aircraft’s design. A brand-new engine will power the final production aircraft.

Compiling a list of all the products that were developed with and without animal testing would take the medicine regulator a significant and disproportionate amount of time and resources.

Whilst new medicines are usually tested in animals, unless there is an alternative validated method, the majority of medicines used by the National Health Service are generic products, and these are usually licensed without any animal testing.

The Government is supporting and accelerating advances in biomedical science and technologies to reduce reliance on the use of animals in research, and importantly to avoid some of the scientific limitations of animal models of human diseases.