{"id":4011,"date":"2026-07-21T07:49:06","date_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:49:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/4011\/"},"modified":"2026-07-21T07:49:06","modified_gmt":"2026-07-21T07:49:06","slug":"raytheon-uk-unveils-red-kite-a-new-sovereign-precision-weapon-designed-to-boost-raf-stockpiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/4011\/","title":{"rendered":"Raytheon UK Unveils Red Kite, a New Sovereign Precision Weapon Designed to Boost RAF Stockpiles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Raytheon UK has introduced the new Red Kite munition, described as the company\u2019s first sovereign precision weapon fully designed and digitally engineered in the United Kingdom.<\/p>\n

Raytheon UK has unveiled, during the second day of Farnborough International Airshow 2026<\/a>, a new precision air-launched munition called Red Kite. The weapon is described as the company\u2019s \u201cfirst sovereign precision weapon fully designed and digitally engineered in the United Kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Red Kite was developed in cooperation with a consortium of British defense partners, quickly moving from concept to prototype thanks to advanced digital modelling<\/a> technologies. The goal is to manufacture an affordable, highly deployable precision weapon that will allow the UK to rapidly scale critical stockpiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Kite was designed with affordability and adaptability in mind, and marks a significant step forward for UK defence,\u201d said James Gray, managing director and chief executive of Raytheon UK. \u201cWorking closely with our partners over the past five years, we\u2019ve combined innovative design, digital engineering and proven technologies to develop a sovereign capability for the RAF faster and more efficiently than ever.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notably, as shown in the concept\u2019s rendering, Red Kite uses the same airframe of the GBU-53 Stormbreaker<\/a>. This would indicate that Red Kite falls in the 250 lb (113 kg) class, as the Stormbreaker has a reported weight of 204 lb (93 kg).<\/p>\n

\"Stormbreaker\"\"Stormbreaker\"<\/a>The GBU-53 Stormbreaker, which shares the same airframe of Red Kite. (Image Credit: RTX)<\/p>\n

It is unclear if Red Kite will share other capabilities with Stormbreaker. The latter notably features a tri-mode seeker that employs imaging infrared, semi-active laser and millimeter wave radar to see through fog, smoke and rain as the weapon glides over 45 miles to strike\u00a0both fixed or moving targets<\/a>\u00a0on land or at sea.<\/p>\n

Although it did not disclose details about the guidance, Raytheon said the new weapon builds on the company\u2019s experience with the Paveway IV, the dual-mode precision-guided bomb which is the standard free-fall weapon used by the Royal Air Force. Red Kite can be integrated across a wide range of air platforms, says the company, with likely candidates being the UK\u2019s fleet of Typhoons and F-35s<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cRed Kite is about getting capability to the frontline faster \u2013 reducing cost, increasing availability and meeting our customers\u2019 needs when it matters most,\u201d added Gray.\u00a0 \u201cIt represents a clear step toward a more resilient, sovereign UK defence industrial base.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Raytheon UK has introduced the new Red Kite munition, described as the company\u2019s first sovereign precision weapon fully…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[14,2112,2445,1771,2446,2447,642],"class_list":["post-4011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-defence-industry","tag-farnborough-international-airshow","tag-farnborough-international-airshow-2026","tag-raytheon","tag-raytheon-uk","tag-red-kite","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/defence\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}