By Mauro Orru

The U.K. government said Wednesday that it has signed a contract with MBDA --a joint venture of Airbus SE, BAE Systems PLC and Leonardo SpA-- to acquire new surface-attack missiles for its F-35B lightning jets.

The contract has a value of 550 million pounds ($749.5 million), the U.K. government said.

The new surface-attack missiles, known as SPEAR3, have a range of more than 140 kilometers.

Write to Mauro Orru at mauro.orru@wsj.com; @MauroOrru94

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

01-06-21 1014ET