DSEI 2025: MBDA’s new SPEAR GLIDE munition breaks cover

MBDA has unveiled a first look at a new product in its SPEAR family portfolio, designed to meet the future requirements of a medium-range utility strike weapon and enable greater saturation and suppression of adversaries’ air defences at a shorter range.

Named SPEAR GLIDE, the missile is positioned as a low-cost variant of the main SPEAR product and will be primarily aimed at the fourth-generation combat aircraft market, such as the Eurofighter Typhoon, Gripen E/F and KF 21, according to an MBDA spokesperson who spoke to select media ahead of DSEI.

Matured over the last 18 months, the product has completed its assessment phase with the front end and warhead components currently being tested, MBDA added. Weighing approximately 100kg with a 2m length, the munition is ITAR-free and will have a semi-active laser and electro-optic/infrared (EO/IR) seeker.

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While the company noted it was still looking for a customer partner on this product, it envisioned that the GLIDE could have a possible entry into service in around two to three years – dependant on platform integration development.

SPEAR GLIDE does share common features with the rest of the family product line, including the actuation system and the wing kit outer mould line. However, it also has some core design changes aimed at lowering costs, offering a faster rate of manufacture and facilitating quicker entry into service.

SPEAR GLIDE will forgo a turbojet engine and will have a full calibre kinetic penetrator. At the front end of the missile, the radio frequency (RF) seeker has been swapped out with an EO/IR seeker, allowing the missile to do image-based navigation in GNSS denied environments.

“The read-across from SPEAR to SPEAR GLIDE is minimal, and we’ve been very careful to maintain a mass balance, central gravity; everything else that SPEAR has with the way the designs are applied,” the spokesperson added.

To allow for quicker procurement and production, the MBDA spokesperson further explained that the SPEAR GLIDE munition would contain commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) components – using the EO/IR sensor as an example.

“We’ve taken COTS components, but … we’ve blended that with advanced machine-learned algorithms from our image processing team to give us that high-end weapon performance,” they added.

The AI algorithm that will eventually be used in the terminal navigation, the spokesperson explained, has been developed with DSTL over the last two to three years.

The navigation system is currently at TLR6 maturity level, the spokesperson confirmed, with it set to be first integrated in MBDA’s new Crossbow OWE solution which is due to enter production by late 2026.

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