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Hypersonica began flight trials in Norway for a weapon it aims to have ready in 2029.
Russia’s use of the Oreshnik conventionally armed intermediate-range ballistic missile against targets in Ukraine has made an impression farther afield, amplifying Europe’s appetite for its own set of deep-strike weapons.
From cruise to ballistic to hypersonic missiles, defense ministries across Europe are injecting a sense of urgency into research and development activities to test and introduce these systems in the coming years.
“We can see from the war in Ukraine the decisive impact of long-range precision weapons, so the UK is stepping up, investing more than £400 million [$540 million] for long-range and hypersonic weapons this year,” UK Defense Secretary John Healey announced Feb. 13.
- Hypersonica flies Mach 6 hypersonic missile demonstrator
- London boosts spending to build up the capability
Fielding such systems was one topic that Healey planned to discuss with European counterparts during the Munich Security Conference on Feb. 13-15.
The appetite for such capabilities is also drawing in startups. Hypersonica broke cover in announcing a successful first hypersonic missile flight test. During the test at Andoya Space in Norway, the missile topped Mach 6 and flew more than 300 km (186 mi.), the UK-German newcomer disclosed Feb. 10. Hypersonica said the system operated nominally during ascent and descent through the atmosphere and validated subcomponents at hypersonic speed.
The goal is to deliver a European hypersonic strike system by 2029, cofounders Philipp Kerth and Marc Ewenz said in a statement. The tested system went from design to launch in nine months, they added.
“Our test flight yielded invaluable datasets that will inform the design and development of future high‑speed strike systems and enhance our ability to analyze adversary weapon profiles,” Kerth and Ewenz said.
Hypersonica, based in Munich with a London subsidiary, was founded in 2023. The company aims to start full-scale flight testing before April.
Those plans mesh with a European desire to field homegrown deep-strike capabilities. For instance, Germany asked the Pentagon last year for the Lockheed Martin Typhon system as a bridge until an indigenously developed system is ready. France, the UK and others also are looking at their deep-strike needs, too.
“Our mission is clear: Equip Europe with the technological edge it needs and wants in maneuverable hypersonic systems to defend against military aggression and safeguard the democratic values that bind our societies,” Kerth and Ewenz said in a separate statement on company financing.
Several European countries signed a letter of intent on Feb. 12 to develop long-range, low-cost loitering munitions jointly, bolstering an existing agreement on conventional deep-strike weapons. France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Sweden and the UK agreed to develop the munitions, which would have a range of 500 km.
The project forms part of the European Long-Range Strike Approach (ELSA) program to develop long-range, deep-strike weapons to increase deterrence and promote cooperation between industry and armed forces (AW&ST July 28-Aug. 10, 2025, p. 18). The arrangement was struck on the sidelines of a meeting of NATO defense ministers in Brussels, the Germany Defense Ministry said.
“They will be interoperable, meaning we can jointly maintain, procure, train and further develop them,” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said.
Developing the system across the six ELSA members can accelerate production and procurement, the Polish Defense Ministry stated.
The move is part of a broader push in Europe to collaborate more and bring scale to defense programs, both to boost the local industrial base and to shed reliance on the U.S. and its suppliers.
At the same NATO meeting, Denmark, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Poland and Turkey declared they would collaborate on drone-based deep-precision-strike capabilities. The High Visibility Project is intended to explore “new development and acquisition mechanisms to accelerate adoption and involve nontraditional defense companies,” alliance officials stated.
Meanwhile, a UK-German initiative to look at deep-precision-strike weapons with a range of 2,000 km is about to enter a new study phase, the UK Defense Ministry said Feb. 13. London championed the Deep Precision Strike weapon as “the most advanced systems ever designed by the UK,” due to enter service in the 2030s and combining low-observable and hypersonic technologies. The project emerged from the 2024 UK-Germany Trinity House Agreement and could form a component of ELSA.
According to Polish officials, the ELSA initiative has expanded to include airborne early warning capabilities, long-range air-launched strike weapons and a “Euro Multi Missile Launcher,” in reference to the mobile ground-launch system.
At the same time, London is looking to speed up homegrown hypersonic missile work. The Defense Ministry said it was spending a further £12 million to build up the capability. The UK kick-started a £1 billion effort two years ago to bolster hypersonic missile work, awarding £48 million in contracts to validate different technologies to mature the high-speed strike capability, the ministry said Feb. 13.
The latest award has gone to help a small team of engineering companies develop a system design that could lead to prototype flight trials. Armentum and subcontractors Ebeni and Synthetik Applied Technologies UK will be part of what the ministry calls Team Hypersonics and are expected to bring about a weapons system demonstrator by the end of the decade.
The UK also continues to work on Project Nightfall, an effort to develop and provide a ballistic missile with more than 500 km range to Ukraine. The initiative also is supposed to help London figure out its own priorities for such a system.
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