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Britain Is Sending Ukraine 120,000 Drones—and Building Its Own Drone Industry at the Same Time
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The United Kingdom’s largest-ever drone package for Ukraine will deliver at least 120,000 drones this year, with most of the investment going to British-based companies, UK Defence Journal reported on June 10.
The package is designed not only to support Kyiv on the battlefield, but also to strengthen Britain’s own defense industrial base, according to information provided by the UK Ministry of Defence to Parliament.
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Luke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, outlined the details in a written answer to Labour MP Luke Akehurst, who had asked what steps the ministry was taking to ensure that investment in the Ukraine drone package also builds long-term UK industrial capacity.
Pollard said that at the latest Ukraine Defence Contact Group meeting in April, the UK Defense Secretary announced “the UK’s largest-ever drone package for Ukraine, delivering at least 120,000 drones this year, with deliveries already underway.”
He added that “the majority of this investment will be spent with UK-based companies.”
According to Pollard, firms expected to benefit include Tekever, Windracers, and Malloy Aeronautics. The minister said the spending would support high-skilled jobs and strengthen domestic production capacity.
Pollard said the approach would help ensure that rapid support for Ukraine also contributes to the “long-term growth, resilience and scalability of the UK’s defence industrial base.”
Tekever, an Anglo-Portuguese company with major production capacity in the UK, produces the AR3 and AR5 long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Ukrainian forces have used Tekever systems against Russian assets in the Black Sea and along the front line.
Windracers, based at Solent Airport in Hampshire, builds the ULTRA twin-engine heavy-lift autonomous aircraft.
Malloy Aeronautics, headquartered in Maidenhead and acquired by BAE Systems in 2024, has supplied T150 and T400 heavy-lift quadcopters for operational use by Ukrainian forces.
Earlier, Ukrainian forces carried out the first known operation in which a bridge was destroyed using unmanned aerial systems alone—specifically British-made Malloy T-150 logistics drones.
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