The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has awarded a contract, details of which have been heavily redacted, for “external assistance” for work on what it has called Priority Weapons Projects.
Valued in excess of £800,000 ($1m), the contract, awarded to a Fox and Pickle Associates, began in March 2025 and will run through to March 2027.
The contract notice was published by the UK government on 15 April and updated on 1 May and was issued by the MoD’s Air Commercial Team at RAF Cosford.
While Fox and Pickles Associates is registered at Companies House, little additional information can be gleaned from what public material is available. The company is registered to an address in Manchester, UK, suburb.
According to Companies House information, the same Manchester address is also listed as being the site of two other companies: Leading Edge Legal and Nudgems Limited.
With so little information available, it is unclear what services Fox and Pickle Associates will be providing to the MoD under its Priority Weapons Projects.
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By GlobalDataWhat are the Priority Weapons Projects?
The UK MoD is undertaking a range of research programmes into new technologies that could shape the future battlespace, including laser-based weaponry, AI integration, and hypersonic missiles. However, the reference to Priority Weapons Projects, appears new.
Some weaponry development is being undertaken via the MoD’s Portfolio Management Agreement 2 (PMA2) with European defence prime MBDA under the complex weapons programmes, although it is not known whether such capabilities are part of the abovementioned Priority Weapons Projects.
The UK is also developing laser-based weapon systems for use on land and at sea, through programmes such as DragonFire at Porton Down.
Another emergent capability that is shaping how nations conduct warfare, as seen in the ongoing war in Ukraine, is through the massed used of small first-person drones, equipped to operate as loitering munitions.
Such weapons now proliferate the battlefields of Ukraine and are now considered to be the most lethal of all weapon systems deployed by Ukraine or Russia, more so than conventional lethal platforms like artillery and long-range strike systems.
