The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that the competitors for Venture NIGHTFALL is anticipated to open in December, following the shut of its preliminary trade engagement interval.
The replace got here in a written query from James Cartlidge, Conservative MP for South Suffolk, who requested when the competitors would start. Responding on behalf of the division, Defence Minister Luke Pollard acknowledged that officers are nonetheless assessing the trade submissions obtained final month.
In Pollard’s phrases, “The Division is at present reviewing suggestions from trade on the NIGHTFALL Request for Info, which closed on 24 November 2025. We count on to launch the NIGHTFALL competitors in December 2025.”
The affirmation follows the detailed requirement revealed earlier this 12 months, which set out one of the crucial bold tactical ballistic missile programmes the MoD has tried in a long time.
The Single Assertion of Person Want describes a ground-launched missile able to putting past 500 kilometres, surviving contested electromagnetic circumstances, and delivering a 200-kilogram payload with a CEP50 of 5 metres. The specification pushes mass manufacturing and speedy deployment timelines, with a goal effector worth of £500,000 excluding warhead and launcher.
Because the requirement doc makes clear, “The Person requires a cheap, tactical (>500km) ballistic missile, able to being safely floor launched from a cellular platform in a excessive menace tactical setting, navigating to and precisely putting a user-programmed co-ordinate.”
The MoD additionally careworn survivability and environmental resilience. In response to the discover, “It shall be operable in harsh bodily environments, day and night time, of low multispectral signature, resilient in a posh Electromagnetic setting (EME), together with inside a GNSS denied & degraded setting, and resistant towards focused EW assault and spoofing.”
Velocity of supply is central to the programme. The requirement units “an aggressive timeline of an illustration firing in circa 9 months from any contract award and serial manufacturing roughly 3–6 months later, producing a minimal of 10 items per 30 days.”
The mission calls for {that a} single cellular launcher be capable to fireplace a number of missiles inside quarter-hour and redeploy inside 5 minutes to keep away from counter-fire. Methods should function with out reliance on international export-restricted elements and provide a progress path for vary, manoeuvrability and precision.
Acceptable submissions embrace full missile ideas or contributions in propulsion, airframes, navigation, scalable manufacturing, cellular launchers, and integration. Proposed options that can’t scale quickly or that don’t comply with a ballistic trajectory won’t be thought-about.
Business responses to the RFI closed on 24 November. The forthcoming competitors will formalise the down-selection course of, with the MoD aiming to scale back candidates to a small variety of funded demonstrator designs in 2026.