A team of 72 wounded, injured and sick current and former military personnel have departed from London Heathrow for Sydney, Australia to represent the UK in the fourth Invictus Games.

Competitors from 18 nations will compete in 11 medal sports with events being staged across Sydney, including at Sydney Olympic Park and in Sydney Harbour. The event will begin with an opening ceremony on 20 October at the Sydney Opera House.

Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson said:

I wish all of our UK competitors the best of luck in Australia. The word ‘invictus’ means unconquered and perfectly embodies the fighting spirit of our armed forces and ex-service personnel. Meeting many Invictus competitors this year, I learned how sport is spurring on recovery. Our armed forces have a world-class attitude and I am sure they will make their mark.

Jayne Kavanagh, the UK Team’s Chef de Mission from the charity Help for Heroes, said:

Team UK have been working extremely hard for this moment and are ready to do the nation proud in Sydney. Achieving their goals with the British public behind them provides an incredible springboard for the recovery journeys that will continue long after the Games have ended. We are very grateful to our partners and sponsors who have helped make this opportunity possible.

Captain of the UK Invictus Games team, Mark ‘Dot’ Perkins, said:

Today is the culmination of months of careful preparation by all 72 competitors and the many staff, friends and family who have supported us. The next two weeks will demonstrate the unique power of sport to support recovery. Team UK are ready, raring to go and enjoying the camaraderie which the armed forces are famous for.

The Invictus Games is an international multi-sport event for wounded, injured and sick current and former military personnel. Getting involved in sport provides significant physical and mental health benefits including increased self-confidence.

More than 60% of this year’s British competitors are new to the Invictus Games. More hopefuls than ever before trialled for a place on the team this year, with 72 competitors being selected from 451 potential competitors.

Team members were chosen for their performance, their commitment to training and the benefit to their recovery competing will provide.

The competitors will be joined in Sydney by hundreds of friends and family members who will make the journey to show their support.

Team UK has been delivered through a partnership of the Ministry of Defence, The Royal British Legion and Help for Heroes. The Invictus Games Sydney 2018 will take place from 20-27 October.

The 20-year project resulted in a multi-million pound contract awarded to MBDA to build the next-generation Common Anti-air Modular Missile (CAMM), which has the capability to defend against anti-ship cruise missiles, aircraft and other highly sophisticated threats.

In May, the Royal Navy completed its acceptance firing trials, resulting in an initial operating capability for HMS Argyll, with the Army land system also recently completing a successful firing from a pre-production launch vehicle. Sea Ceptor will provide local-area air defence to the Type 23 and Type 26 frigates, replacing Sea Wolf; Land Ceptor will replace the Rapier missile to deliver a state-of-the-art ground-based air defence capability.

A representative from Dstl’s Air Defence Weapons team, said:

Since its conception, Dstl and its predecessors have been involved throughout the development and procurement of both the Sea and Land Ceptor. Initial studies were conducted to define future capability needs, followed by a series of technology demonstrator projects, with Dstl providing technical direction to help ensure the end product was exploitable into the Ceptor projects. As these moved into their Demonstration and Manufacture phases Dstl continued to provide independent technical advice to Defence Equipment and Support and the front line commands in order to ensure that the solutions met their performance requirements.

Richard Smart, Director Weapons at Defence Equipment and Support, said:

The DE&S Weapons project team has working closely with Dstl colleagues to develop Sea Ceptor and Land Ceptor; vital air defence systems which will protect our Armed Forces personnel on operations against current and future threats. Together with industry we will continue to support the front line commands as this world-beating equipment enters service in defence of our national security and interests.

Sea Ceptor and Land Ceptor use innovative seeker and datalink technology to achieve a high degree of accuracy. The associated radar systems track the threat and the datalink is then used to update the missile with the location of the threat. The CAMM’s own active radar seeker can then take over the missile guidance. The missiles are designed to provide 360-degree coverage with a high degree of manoeuvrability.

By employing innovative technologies to enable a common solution across land and maritime domains, CAMM/Ceptor delivers approximately £1 billion worth of through-life savings within the complex weapons pipeline. Further savings are expected through export, for which two customers have already been confirmed.

The Defence Minister highlighted how our Armed Forces’ can work closer together at a Protection of Cultural Heritage event, before further discussing future co-operation with Italian Defence partners.

Minister for the Armed Forces Mark Lancaster said:

European security is UK security and we are strengthening our defence partnership with Italy, a key NATO ally.

Our two countries cooperate on a wide range of shared security challenges, from threats to valuable cultural property to countering cyber-attacks.

At the Protection of Cultural Heritage event, Lancaster announced that the Army-led Cultural Property Protection Unit (CPPU) is now starting to recruit reservists. The CPPU was established as part of the UK Government’s implementation of the Hague Convention that places obligations on the Armed Forces for the protection of cultural property from damage, destruction and looting.

In speaking with Italian counterparts, he reaffirmed the UK’s commitment to the Statement of Intent signed earlier this year to further defence and security cooperation between the two countries in the maritime, land, air and cyber domains and to strengthen the interoperability of our Armed Forces through regular planning and training activities.

The Defence Minister also met with British Armed Forces personnel posted in Italy including those in the Combined Libya Fusion Cell, a multinational intelligence group monitoring the situation in Libya, and the European Naval Force mission to disrupt human trafficking networks in the Mediterranean.