Ministry of Defence: £30m aircraft project led by Belfast firm cancelled

Spirit Aerosystems is based in Kansas in the US

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) has cancelled an unmanned aircraft project which was being led by Spirit Aerosystems in Belfast.

The £30m contract for Project Mosquito was announced in January 2021.

It aimed to develop a combat aircraft which would fly at high-speed alongside fighter jets.

However, the MoD said the project would not now proceed beyond its design stage.

It added that the decision was taken by mutual agreement with industry partners, after a detailed review of the technical demonstrator and the broader Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) Programme.

The MoD said it would continue to explore novel technologies but the review of the project concluded that "more beneficial capability and cost-effectiveness appears achievable through exploration of smaller, less costly, but still highly capable additive capabilities".

Spirit said that the ending of the project would not hit jobs, as those involved were transferring to other commercial, defence, and space programmes within the company.

Sir Michael Ryan, Chairman of Spirit AeroSystems UK, said the project had produced useful results.

"We have no doubt that the accrued learning will continue to deliver benefit for UK defence and we anticipate many opportunities to further develop our relationship with the MOD," he said.