In 2001, the company delivered its Storm Shadow cruise missile to the Royal Air Force, which it had co-developed with the French subsidiary of Matra BAe Dynamics.

[9] The missile was delivered 37 months behind schedule, due largely to hardware and software technical difficulties, however the UK Ministry of Defence also blamed the delays on MBDA for "failing to meet contractual performance".

[9] MBDA UK became the prime contractor for the multinational Meteor programme in 2002 to deliver a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile (BVRAAM) capability to its participants.

The programme involved MBDA UK's sister divisions in France, Italy and Germany,[9] as well as Spain and Sweden.

[18] In 2017, the company began leading a consortium to develop a laser directed-energy weapon technology demonstrator, named Dragonfire, for the UK MOD.

[19] In 2018, MBDA UK opened a new facility in Bolton to carry out final assembly work for Meteor for all six European partner nations.

The potential complicity of MBDA UK in these crimes became the subject of a 300-page report submitted to the International Criminal Court by the European Centre for Constitutional and Human Rights in 2019.

[31] It is the only part of MBDA with a Special Security Agreement (SSA) with the U.S. Department of Defense, allowing it to carry out classified activities in the United States.