IAV 2024: British Army mulls procurement of interim SHORAD system

The British Army is understood to be interested in procuring a new SHORAD system to replace British Army Stormer SP-HVMs (seen here on exercise with the 3rd (UK) Division on Salisbury Plain in 2015) sent to Ukraine. Given that the Stormer SP-HVM is scheduled to be retired in 2026, this new system could serve as an interim capability until the procurement of GBAD systems based on the Land Mobility Programme's Medium Protected Vehicle. (Janes/Patrick Allen)

The British Army is considering the procurement of a new mobile short-range air defence (SHORAD) system to replace its Stormer-based self-propelled high-velocity missile (SP-HVM) system, Janes learnt at Defence iQ's International Armoured Vehicles (IAV) 2024 conference held in London from 22 to 25 January.

While Janes understands that a business case for the procurement has not yet been approved and that its primary justification would be to fill the gap left by the donation of Stormer systems to Ukraine, the material presented at the IAV conference implies that the new system could take over the mobile SHORAD role once the Stormer reaches its planned out-of-service date in 2026.

According to slides outlining a conceptual road map for the British Army's Land Mobility Programme, which aims to reduce the number of different types of armoured vehicle platforms in service, the Stormer is planned to eventually be replaced by a ground-based air defence (GBAD) mission system's carrier variant of the future Medium Protected Mobility vehicle family.