Like Windracers, Evolve Dynamics has learned the importance of rapid iteration.
“The kind of rugged, contested-
environment, maximum-operational- availability challenge is where we’ve really doubled down in our product development,” Redman said. “Our presence in Ukraine gives us the ability to shorten the distance between the operators and our engineers. “I want my team who are designing the latest software release or mechanical design to have at the top of their minds the user feedback they have received straight from the battlefield.” Adaptability is essential because the usefulness of a system may be temporary. “It’s not about having a fixed product
that’s going to do the job for years,” Redman said. “What we’re seeing is a learning period during which the enemy learns to counter our capability, and then we need to adapt and create a new capability leap.” The frequencies used by Evolve’s
drones are actively targeted in Ukraine. One response has been to increase autonomy, including the use of visual inertial odometry to support navigation
and visual recognition during reconnaissance, strike or logistics missions when GPS is being jammed. The lesson, Redman said, is not that one product must solve every problem indefinitely. “It’s about having an engineering team that's thinking in this rapid- iteration way.”
A war of industries For Redman, another lesson from Ukraine, reinforced by China’s industrial strength, is that modern conflict is a “war of industries” and supply chains. “The UK doesn’t have the domestic industrial capacity to manufacture most of the critical technologies needed for drones,” he said. “The UK is pretty exposed from an underlying critical-technology point of view.” Evolve Dynamics experienced that vulnerability when growing US domestic demand led its American thermal-camera supplier to restrict the number of systems available to customers in Europe and the UK. For around six months, Evolve had
drones sitting on its production line waiting for cameras, with little it could do to accelerate delivery.
Redman argues that the UK lacks an objective measure of the sovereign capabilities it needs to retain. “We are in danger of pouring quite a lot of money into buying drones now from largely friendly NATO nations, but not establishing any enduring capability in the UK,” he said.
Without that industrial capacity, the UK will not capture the full economic benefit of rising demand. The opportunity is visible on the Windracers factory floor, but it depends on orders reaching UK manufacturers and their suppliers. SMEs have played a major role in
Ukraine’s ability to build and adapt drones and could do the same for the UK, if they are given the opportunity. “I think they’ve got about 150 companies now contributing to their drone capabilities, and we have nowhere near that number in the UK,” Redman said.
“In the UK, once you get to a successful trial, you think, brilliant, shall we crack on and start iterating this at scale? But the orders are not there, so you end up being starved of oxygen just
54 Advance | Autumn 2026
TECHNOLOGY
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