challenge for the UK, particularly the MOD, to absorb many of its lessons. After all, who can live in peacetime as if every day could be their last? That said, interesting work is being
“Hardware is important, of course, but we are focused on what is common throughout: software, networks, command and control, and user interfaces.”
Jules Weekes, uncrewed and counter uncrewed systems delivery director, Amentum
Thankfully, the UK can tick off this period: we are beyond where Ukraine was in 2022, with a similar number of tactical drones and world- leading engineering. Secondly, sovereign innovation.
Ukraine developed novel drones such as the fixed-wing Raybird before 2022. Sovereign control is never absolute, but moving beyond the assembly of foreign components is critical.
While no country that needs
rare earth elements, especially for permanent-magnet motors, is free from the whims of Beijing, this has not stopped some innovative UK engineering, including unique propulsion modules. In terms of sovereign design and
production, the UK can therefore tick this off the list. For UK SMEs, the challenge is increasingly less about proving that they can innovate and more about ensuring those innovations can be manufactured and supported at meaningful scale in the UK. Thirdly, the innovation-forcing function of war. It will be a cultural
12 Advance | Autumn 2026
done here, and much rests on highly ambitious defence reform: a major reorganisation of the MOD, including efforts to accelerate procurement. However, wartime innovation does not get a green tick, for obvious reasons. Finally, scale. Britain has promising technologies and a growing population of specialist SMEs, but demonstrations and trials alone do not create an industrial base. The challenge is moving successful systems into repeatable production runs, sustained orders and export markets before companies are forced to look elsewhere for capital and customers. We have not yet seen the glory days
of the new Swindon drone industry cluster, but the fusion of vast testing areas, production space, knowledge and workforce is an exciting start.
False starts Looking back, where was the UK in 2022?
Militarily, the Watchkeeper
programme was ageing and approaching the end of its life. Elsewhere, UK drones would not be part of Ukraine’s early resistance. Ukraine’s initial purchases of
reconnaissance drones involved batches of DJI Mavics, widely praised for stable flight, affordable pricing and high-resolution imagery. With China’s mature drone industry delivering sheer scale through government subsidies, there seemed little point in exploring alternatives. Mavics spotted Russian forces, which
would then be decimated by artillery, and some dropped small grenades.
OPINION
Photo credit: diy13/
stock.adobe.com
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