The Advanced Short Range Air-to-Air Missile, or ASRAAM, has been successfully reconfigured to function as a surface-to-air missile.
Air Commodore Blythe Crawford, Commandant for the UK’s Air and Space Warfare Centre until recently, confirmed the adaptation of the missile during a conference on Integrated Air and Missile Defence hosted by the Royal United Services Institute on 24 April 2025.
MBDA UK originally designed this infrared guided missile – which entered service in 1991 – to be fired from Typhoons and F-35 fighter jets against targets within visual range.
Now, however, users have fired ASRAAM from the ground in three different regions, Crawford said, without stating where this occurred.
ASRAAM adaptation in Ukraine
This flexible reconfiguration has benefitted Ukraine’s Armed Forces, a military in perpetual need of munitions of all types as the war-torn nation seeks to repel invading Russian forces in the last three years.
In December 2023, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) confirmed that the department had worked as part of a team with the original equipment manufacturer in the summer of 2022 to develop air defences systems that can fire ASRAAM.
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By GlobalDataWithin four months of initiating the surface launched ASRAAM project, these air defence systems were developed, manufactured, trialled and Ukrainian crews trained on their usage, on UK soil, before being transferred into Ukrainian hands.
Earlier this year, in February 2025, the UK MoD released imagery of the Gravehawk missile defence system. About the size of a shipping container, the MoD said that this mobile air defence system is able to retrofit air-to-air missiles into a ground-based air defence role. The system was jointly funded with Denmark.
Two prototypes of the air defence capability system were tested in Ukraine in September 2024, and a further 15 systems will be delivered in 2025.
UK procure multi-role missiles
The UK is also pursuing a more agile Ground Based Air Defence strategy.
On 23 April, the Minister for Defence Procurement and Industry, Maria Eagle, revealed government plans to procure an additional 800 Thales lightweight multi role missiles (LMMs), also known as Martlet, for air defence purposes by June 2027.
Martlet is currently deployed from Royal Navy Wildcat helicopters. However, the missile can be fired from a variety of tactical platforms on land, air, and sea against a wide range of conventional and asymmetric threats, including armoured personnel carriers, fast in-shore attack craft and uncrewed air systems.
The precision laser beam riding guidance system allows for low collateral damage; ideal in an urban environment. The missile can reach Mach 1.5 with a range in excess of six kilometres, and equipped with a triple effect warhead and proximity fuse.
