The United Kingdom will grant Ukraine a licence for the new Stone Cloak electronic warfare system.
According to The Independent, during President Volodymyr Zelensky’s first visit to meet the UK’s newly appointed Prime Minister Andy Burnham. The two leaders agreed to launch serial production of the system at Ukrainian manufacturing facilities.
“The Stone Cloak is an example of British innovation at its best, proven on the battlefield, and this system will play an important role in strengthening the security of our two countries,” Burnham said.
The British Prime Minister added that, in addition to the licence itself, Ukraine will also receive the system’s intellectual property rights, enabling it not only to manufacture the Stone Cloak domestically but also to improve and modernise the system to meet Ukraine’s operational requirements.
Stone Cloak
The Stone Cloak is described as a compact electronic warfare (EW) system, roughly the size of a tablet, designed for integration onto unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The system enables Ukrainian forces to generate electronic jamming against enemy detection systems, reducing the effectiveness of hostile sensors and making it significantly more difficult for Russian forces to detect and track Ukrainian drones.
The UK Ministry of Defence has already supplied the Ukrainian Defense Forces with thousands of Stone Cloak systems to enhance their unmanned aerial operations.
Following its combat deployment in Ukraine, the technology is planned to be integrated into the UK’s future long-range strike capabilities, including the Project Brakestop programme, under which the United Kingdom is developing low-cost cruise missiles.
Project Brakestop
Prototype development under Project Brakestop has been carried out by three British companies: MBDA UK, MGI Engineering, and Rotron Aerospace.
MBDA UK has developed the Crossbow missile, which employs the company’s proprietary vision-based navigation system.
Rotron Aerospace has developed the SkyLance propeller-driven missile variant, trading some flight speed for increased operational range.
According to a government official, following additional trials later this year, at least one of the new weapon systems will be delivered to Ukraine by the end of 2026.
The third participant, MGI Engineering, secured its first defence contract by applying Formula 1–derived engineering technologies to the development of the Tiger Shark missile.
Development of the Project Brakestop missiles began in November 2024, amid delays in deliveries of US-made ATACMS and UK-supplied Storm Shadow missiles.
In addition to reducing dependence on politically driven delivery delays, the Project Brakestop missiles are designed for significantly higher-rate and faster production than the more complex Storm Shadow. The UK Ministry of Defence’s requirements call for a production rate of approximately 20 missiles per month.
