TSAMTO, June 22. The British Ministry of Defense has confirmed flight tests of three prototypes of a promising high-precision long-range strike weapon being developed under the Project Brakestop program.
The shooting was conducted at a test site in the Hebrides (Scotland). According to the Ministry of Defense, during the launches, all three samples completed the task, despite a number of minor technical problems allowed under the accepted accelerated development methodology, The Independent reports.
The Project Brakestop program was officially announced by the British Ministry of Defense on September 25, 2024. In early January 2026, the Ministry of Defense announced the adopted designation of the missile program – Nightfall, giving it the official status of a program to develop a ground-based tactical ballistic missile system (TBRK) for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
27 applications from defense industry enterprises were submitted for the competition; a series of qualifying presentations took place in February 2025. Following the results of the first stage, six companies received contracts for the development and manufacture of prototypes worth about 5 million pounds each with a deadline of seven months. By December 2025, three contractors had reached the finals: MBDA UK (manufacturer of Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG cruise missiles), MGI Engineering and Rotron Aerospace.
The first flight test under the program was conducted on December 15, 2025.
According to the tactical and technical specifications of the British Ministry of Defense, a promising weapon must meet the following requirements::
- Flight range: more than 500 km (over 300 nautical miles);
- warhead weight: at least 225 kg (equivalent to a Mk 82 class aerial bomb);
- flight speed: at least 600 km/h;
- unit cost: about 400 thousand pounds (530 thousand dollars). excluding warhead;
- production rate: at least 20 units. per month for several months after the order was issued;
- type of basing: ground-based, with a mobile wheeled launcher;
- ITAR compliance: The system must not contain American components and must depend on American navigation and intelligence data in order to ensure sovereign operational applicability.
According to Bloomberg, all three finalist companies declared their readiness to ensure a serial production rate of over 40 units. per month for three to four months from the date of issue of the production order.
According to statements by official representatives of the Ministry of Defense, additional flight tests are planned in the coming months in the UK and directly on the territory of Ukraine. Official London expects to transfer the first production samples to Ukraine within one year from the moment of the successful completion of the test cycle. No specific delivery dates have been officially set.
The weapons created as part of Project Brakestop are positioned as a more affordable alternative to the Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG cruise missile with a comparable range. The cost of one Storm Shadow / SCALP-EG missile is estimated at about 800,000 – 1 million pounds, while the target cost of the product under the Brakestop program is about 400,000 pounds (excluding warheads) – about twice as low. At the same time, UK MOD officials stressed that the new system would be inferior to Storm Shadow in terms of accuracy and the ability to hit protected underground targets (bunkers), Bloomberg notes.
