McLAREN is helping Britain build a hypersonic missile.
A connected division of McLaren Racing has joined arms race to knock Russia and China out of pole position – although it will be kept separate from the racing arm.
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The goal is to build a super-fast rocket that can turn and swerve at speeds exceeding 4,000 mph.
The MoD wants the missile inside the next six years, as Russia and China already have.
Hypersonic missiles can maneuver at speeds exceeding Mach 5 – or five times the speed of sound – making them unpredictable and much more difficult to shoot down.
Russia has launched deadly Khinzal and Zircon hypersonic missiles into Ukraine.
Some were shot down by Patriot missiles, despite Putin’s claim that they were unstoppable.
China surprised the US and allies by testing two hypersonic weapons in 2022.
The UK has nothing to compare with them.
Vice Admiral Andrew Burns said McLaren met the military’s need for an “edge over any rival”.
He said: “Defence and motorsport have a lot in common, including a competitive instinct fueled by the need to win.
“This drives innovation and technical excellence, accompanied by the ambition to gain an advantage over any rival.”
The hypersonic project is part of a three-year agreement between the Ministry of Defense Future Capability Group and McLaren Racing Accelerator.
SAS legend Andy McNab – who wrote the bestselling Brave Two Zero – said: “It’s great. McLaren knows about winning.
“It’s all about efficiency and anything that increases efficiency is good news for the Ministry of Defense.”
McLaren said its Accelerator shares “elite motorsport expertise, processes and culture” with the industry.
Its clients include Saudi Arabia’s new city NEOM and the world’s third-largest cigarette company, British American Tobacco.
The MoD said the McLaren Accelerator was helping to “deliver a hypersonic capability”.
The Surrey-based racing experts are working with Britain’s Team Hypersonics, whose aim is to build a missile by 2030.
The MoD said: “Team Hypersonics is striving to do things differently and aims to reduce development timelines outside of traditional MoD timelines, which is why it has teamed up with McLaren.”
They added: “The program will provide hypersonic capability to the British military by the end of the decade.”
The McLaren Accelerator is based at the racing team’s £300 million headquarters in Surrey.
It sits on the edge of a Second World War airfield where hero pilots trained to win the Battle of Britain.
An MoD spokesperson said: “We are also collaborating with McLaren by speaking to some of their wider team members outside of Accelerator.
“For example, we are talking to a senior manager on their procurement team to better understand how they complete work proposals and the processes they use to see if there are any learnings we can bring back to the Hypersonics Team.”
Announcing the historic agreement in March, Matt Dennington, co-chief commercial officer at McLaren Racing, said: “This new partnership with the Ministry of Defense offers a great opportunity to extend and apply our technological innovation and expertise and a high performance culture with the aim of improve operational efficiency across a wide range of exciting projects.”
The Defense Ministry said McLaren was working on four projects, including hypersonic missiles and vehicle electrification.
McLaren said the partnership “focused on shared learning and improving decision-making processes to help achieve a culture of high performance and operational efficiency.”
They said they were not involved in missile technology.
A McLaren spokesperson said: “McLaren Racing is categorically not involved in the development of any technology or any type of weaponization capability with the MiD.
“Any suggestion that we are is false. We also do not have access to any confidential information about the weapons’ capabilities.
“The Ministry of Defense’s partnership with McLaren Accelerator, a separate division of the racing team, is centered on improving decision-making processes to help achieve a high-performance culture.”
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