“You’ve got to expose yourself to potential failure in order to learn”
“We are ex-war fighters, combat specialists, deep experts in killing folks, and we understand the exam question better than anybody else,” said Jon Parker, CEO of Flyby Technology. “This is our superpower, really, because we’re able to speak to the customer at the level that they understand and expect, whereas the primes can’t.”
at the point where there’s a capability that could be iterated upon.” Redman believes the industry needs meaningful orders placed with suppliers for several years at a time. Contracts worth £5 million or £10 million would be “rounding errors in the context of the overall defence budget”, he said, but could give smaller companies the confidence and cash flow to invest. Otherwise, the opportunity may
be lost. “Fast forward three or five years, and
I don’t think we are on a pathway to build many drones at all,” he said.
Buying kit or building capacity? York-based Flyby Technology offers manufacturing, design, consultancy and training, drawing heavily on the military experience of its team. Its modular, open-architecture
Jackal drone was initially developed for dual-use roles. Early trials included transporting test samples for the NHS, although regulation made it difficult to fly frequently enough in the UK. In April 2023, Jackal became the first drone to fire a supersonic missile.
Autumn 2026 | Advance 55
In its military configuration, Jackal can perform reconnaissance, logistics, precision-strike and air-to-air missions. Parker cannot discuss the company’s activities in Ukraine, although he said an announcement with a prominent Ukrainian company would soon provide “a new perspective to combat in that region”. Like Windracers and Evolve Dynamics, Flyby has found that rapid iteration is essential. “You need to be able to iterate with the vendor in real time over Signal,” Parker said.
“The ability to keep altering
your system according to battlefield requirements is the secret to whether you survive or don’t. This might mean a patch coming in on a daily basis, and that’s something the Ukrainians have learned how to handle. “What we do in the UK won’t work in wartime.” Parker also sees modern conflict as a test of industrial strength. “Fighting a peer adversary is not just war fighter versus war fighter; it’s your industry, innovation and industrial might pitched against that of your enemy,” he said. “But we are not building a defence industrial base. We’re just buying kit. “The UK’s ability to ramp up
production depends on industrial supply chains that we haven’t built.” He argues that the MOD is still attempting to reduce unit costs by buying 200 of a system when the requirement in a major conflict could be closer to 200,000.
Overseas companies opening factories in the UK may contribute to domestic capacity, but they may not provide complete assurance during a crisis.
Photo credit: Endstate
TECHNOLOGY
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