From Andrew Chuter, Defense News:  Britain’s Ministry of Defence is set to order a new batch of Brimstone precision-guided missiles from maker MBDA as the Royal Air Force continues to rebuild weapon stocks in the wake of the Libyan conflict.

A new order for the Dual Mode Brimstone air-to-surface weapon, possibly worth tens of millions of pounds, could be announced within days, said sources with knowledge of the program.

The missiles will also fill a gap in RAF inventories caused by a 28-month delay in development of a new Brimstone 2 version of the weapon, scheduled to have been in service in October 2012. . . .

Dual Mode Brimstone, which uses a millimetric radar and a laser-guided, man-in-the-loop system, has been widely used in Afghanistan and more recently Libya.

About 230 of the missiles were fired in Libya. The upcoming order is the first replenishment deal since the conflict ended, although the British struck a deal with MBDA as the NATO mission was drawing to a close in 2011. . . .

The missiles are taken from existing weapons fitted with just the original millimetric radar and updated with the addition of a laser guidance system to give Brimstone its dual-mode capability.  (photo: Daily Air Force News)

Image: daily%20air%20force%201%2014%2013%20Brimstone%20missile.jpg