United Kingdom Ramps Up Drone Production For Ukraine
The British Ministry of Defence has announced that more than 85,000 military drones, have been delivered by the United Kingdom to Ukraine in the space of a six month period this year. The news of the UK’s accelerated production was announced by the Defence Secretary John Healy at a meeting with the Ukraine Defence Contract Group (UDCG).
In addition to the UK’s individual efforts to provide much needed drones to the UK. The UK also co-leads the Drone Capability Coalition with Latvia, this initiative is aiming to deliver 35,000 new interceptor systems to Ukraine in the coming months. Funding for the drones comes from UK, Denmark, Netherlands, Latvia and Sweden.
£600 million has been invested by the UK into increased drone manufacture which includes tens of thousands FPV (first person view) drones. The FPVs have become a crucial asset within the battlespace in Ukraine, as both sides heavily utilise drone warfare. This news comes in the wake of the UK government confirming a planned increase in defense spending to 2.6% of the GDP from April 2027.
The £600 million spent this year by the UK on drone production is pulled from the £6.5 billion commitment made by the UK Government for the support of Ukraine’s defense. This not only covers the manufacture of drones but also their transportation to the country, and also supplies surveillance and reconnaissance drones.
The UK Defence Secretary John Healy commented on the announcement in a recent press release:
‘The UK is stepping up our support to Ukraine by delivering over 85,000 drones in the last six months and signing new industrial partnerships to rapidly develop thousands of new interceptor drones to shoot down Putin’s attacks. This is growing jobs in both the UK and Ukraine.’
He added,
‘Putin’s dangerous escalation in Ukraine and across Europe must be matched by ramping up our drone production and strengthening NATO’s air defences.’
As well as his meeting with the UDCG, Healy met with NATO defence ministers where he announced an extension of the RAF’s contribution to NATO’s Eastern Sentry Mission to the end of this year. British Typhoon’s have already been taking part in defensive flights over Polish airspace in response to recent Russian Drone incursions into the region.