Lockheed Martin UK has presented a new incarnation of the family of UK-designed, UK-built ITAR free turrets that are building on the legacy of producing the turrets for AJAX and, earlier, for the WARRIOR Capability Sustainment Programme.

The new family of turrets includes uncrewed and crewed solutions: DVD 2026 at Millbrook provided the opportunity to showcased the crewed variant, and to do so on a new vehicle base, the REDBACK IFV hull by South Korea’s Hanwha.

The advanced turret was armed with a CTA 40 mm gun, although different gun choices are possible. The high elevation enables the use of the same turret to deliver C-UAS and low level anti-air capability, a major selling point of the new turret family. The CTA 40 mm gun comes with 2 airburst ammunition offerings, one of which particularly optimized for anti-air, maximizing its effectiveness.

Specifically in order to facilitate the employment against air threats, the turret was showcased with a Safran PASEO commander panoramic sight, with high elevation and, especially, with full integration of SKYKEEPER functionality.

SKYKEEPER is the Air Defence Command and Control solution by Lockheed Martin UK, already in use by the British Army (where it was originally born as the LEAPP, Land Environment Air Picture Provision). The integration of SKYKEEPER software and a dedicated screen in the turret ensure the IFV gains visibility of the recognized air picture over the battlefield.

SKYKEEPER facilitates the exchange of data and target tracks in real time. Its vehicular application, known as “MANEUVER”, was already demonstrated to the British Army in November 2024 aboard an AJAX vehicle. In that occasion, SKYKEEPER enabled the “ingestion” of data directly from the SKYKEEPER network; from a deployed Saab GIRAFFE 1X radar (used for SHORAD / C-UAS by the British Army). It also enabled the AJAX to access live video feed from INDAGO quad-copter drone (used by the British Army under the name KESTREL as part of Project TIQUILA).

Notably, the integration of the turret on the REDBACK was carried out in approximately 12 weeks, an extraordinarily short timeframe. The system as displayed is described as having a Technology Readiness Level 8; ready to undergo firing trials.

The lineage of the turret is obvious at first glance: it draws widely from the experience of the WARRIOR CPS project. Although the UK MOD ultimately cancelled the IFV upgrade instead of putting it into production, trials had been on the verge of wrapping up at the time.

The quick integration demonstrates the flexibility ensured by modern digital integration approach and by the latest Generic Vehicle Architecture standard.

The turret is being offered in pursuit of a number of global opportunities, of course including domestic future projects in the UK. The British Army is still clearly in need of an IFV solution despite the Defence Investment Plan refusing to address the point; additional lethality on BOXER is a requirement going forward; and the Land Ground Based Air Defence program envisions a specialized gun turret for C-UAS / low level defence. The LM turret family can pursue all of these opportunities.

The LM stand also included the uncrewed lightweight incarnation of the turret, which had first been showcased in February at the World Defense Show (WDS) in Riyadh. LM has 2 Memorandum of Understandings in place with Saudi Arabia’s ERAF to work together on the turrets: one, setting the groundwork for cooperation, signed at DSEI 2025 in London, and a second signed at WDS.

In February the turret was showcased with a 30x173 mm gun option; at DVD it had the 40 mm CTA, further showcasing the flexibility of the system, which from the beginning has been engineered to take different gun calibres, be vehicle-agnostic and suitable for C-UAS / anti-air applications thanks to very high elevation (+75°).

At DSEI 2025, a larger, remotely operated turret variant had been showcased atop General Dynamics’ proposed AJAX IFV variant.

As for SKYKEEPER, the British Army has been using it operationally for more than 3 years now after having the software of the original LEAPP fully upgraded. The system is now operationally proven by kinetic air defence engagements in the Middle East and further spiral development is now being pursued by the British Army.

As an Open Architecture system with “modular” software, SKYKEEPER supports rapid evolution, with software changes that can and have happened in days to weeks. Integration of a new radar can happen in 1 to 2 weeks. LM UK has supported last minute additions in the past in support of British Army field experimentation.

There is now work ongoing to also adapt SKYKEEPER to homeland security applications, in support of civil security against the threat of drones.

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