Contracts with European defense contractor MBDA UK will improve missile capabilities of the British Royal Navy's destroyers, the British Defense Ministry announced this week.

A statement on Tuesday said the Common Anti-Air Modular Missile program, known as CAMM or Sea Ceptor, will be integrated into weapons systems of Britain's six Type 45 destroyers.

Additionally, long-range Aster 30 missiles will be purchased from defense contractor Eurosam to equip each of the Royal Navy's six Type 45 vessels with 72 missiles.

The ships, comparable to the U.S. Navy's Arleigh Burke-class destroyers in length, displacement and purpose, will receive 24-missile CAMM silos, to accompany 48-missile silos for the Aster missiles.

"The introduction of the U.K.-produced CAMM missile in conjunction with the current Aster 30 missile will provide the Type 45 with a significant uplift in anti-air capability into the future as the Type 45 delivers the backbone of air defense to the Royal Navy's Carrier Strike Group," Defense Equipment and Support chief Sir Simon Bollom said in a press release.

The MBDA UK contract runs for 11 years, and the Eurosam contract for 10 years, with the upgrade in firepower comes at a cost of $689 million.

A statement known as the Defense Command Paper 2021, released by the British government in November 2020, said the Defense Ministry will see an increase in spending of over $33 billion over the next four years.

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