floor, it feels like entering one of the iconic photographs of Spitfire production during the Second World War, albeit with the latest technology and Windracers’ Norse-inspired horse’s head emblem hanging from banners on the walls. As the company increases
production, nearly every bay is occupied by the tough-looking aluminium airframe of a surprisingly large twin- engine fixed-wing aircraft at a different stage of manufacture. Named ULTRA, it is an aircraft that has earned a reputation in Ukraine for always coming back. That is perhaps unsurprising given the repairability and adaptability of its aluminium airframe compared with carbon fibre. Sometimes all it takes to repair damage on the front line is a drinks can and a rivet gun. Windracers’ ULTRA autonomous
cargo drone was originally conceived to reduce the cost of delivering aid to remote communities in places such as Africa. Then Russia invaded Ukraine and ULTRA gained an additional mission. “In 2022, we were first contacted
U
kraine’s armed forces need drones in quantities that would once have seemed extraordinary. At the same
time, warnings that the UK could face direct confrontation with Russia within the next few years have placed a new urgency behind efforts to strengthen the UK's defence industry.
Can the UK learn the right lessons
from drone warfare in Ukraine, build its industrial muscle and position itself at the leading edge of the global industry in time?
When you step on to the balcony overlooking the Windracers factory
by the MOD to see whether we could help by providing some UAVs to Ukraine,” said Rob Datson, chief of flight operations at Windracers. “Initially, this was in a resupply and then an intelligence-gathering role. But as the conflict has developed, so has the platform.” New opportunities have also arisen for Windracers in Ukraine, although Datson cannot discuss them. What he can explain are the lessons the company has learned from operating there. “It’s a hostile and challenging
environment, so it was necessary to support the UAV directly in country,” he said.
Flying in Ukraine teaches lessons that no trial can reproduce. “There is the old saying that no plan survives first contact with the enemy,” Datson said. “You’ve got to expose yourself to potential failure in order to learn.”
Freedom to fail
The appetite for risk in Ukraine is very different from that in the UK. “There’s no regulator out there, so it clearly removes the friction and puts the determination of risk entirely at your own feet,” Datson said. “The benefit of that is the speed of testing, learning and development. “But we are talking about wartime versus peacetime. Development in an unregulated war zone is rapid, but the safety level would be intolerable in a peacetime civilian environment. We need to be cautious about drawing lessons for the UK.” Even so, Datson argues that the military needs greater freedom to iterate rapidly, within an environment that strikes a more appropriate balance between safety and progress.
That means access to large areas
of segregated airspace where a lower level of risk can be tolerated and approvals can be granted quickly. Such a facility, he believes, would help the UK remain at the forefront of the technology without attempting to recreate the conditions of a war zone.
Shortening the feedback loop Evolve Dynamics is a UK manu- facturer of small, portable and deployable uncrewed aerial systems focused on intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. “The binoculars in your pocket
that you put up in the sky,” is how Tom Redman, the company’s CEO, describes its products. Evolve Dynamics’ origins are closely linked to Ukraine’s need for drones following Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014. “We’re ten years old, and ten years is a long time in the drone industry,” Redman said. “During that time, we’ve had an enduring presence in Ukraine and the UK.” Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022
led to a larger in-country presence for training, repairs and upgrades.
Autumn 2026 | Advance 53
Photo credit: Endstate
TECHNOLOGY
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