New drone production facilities in the UK.
A quick thread noting some of the new capacity unveilled this year.
1./ Ukrspecsystems, the Ukrainian drone producer opened a new $250 million factory at RAF Mildenhall in Suffolk, as well as test facilities at the airfield.
UKrspecsystems manufactures the PD-2, Shark and mini-Shark ISR UAVs. Shark is likely to be built in the UK for both Ukriane and the British armed forces.
2./ Helsing, the German defence AI specialists have invested £350 million in new resilience factories in Plymouth to develop and produce the SG-1 Fathom ocean glider ASW detction drone and associated LURA AI platform, and manufacture the HX-2 medium range loitering munition.
SG-1 and LURA are components of the Atlantic Bastion programme announced by the RN this week. As part of the programme Helsing has aquired Blue Ocean Marine Technology Systems, a UK-Australian manufaturer of autonomous UAVs based at Plymouth who designed SG-1.
3./ Tekever, the Portuguese drone maker has invested £400 million in four sites in the UK employing 1,000 technicians, including a new 254,000 m2 facility in Swindon. Tekever manufactures AR-3, AR-5 an AR3 Evo in Swindon, Aberporth and Southampton.
AR-3 has been purchased by MOD for Ukraine and in a modified form for the RAF as StormShroud. AR-5 is in use by the Border Force to track small boats crossing the channel.
4./ STARK, another German manufacturer, has opened a new 40,000 m2 production facility, also in Swindon, for their Virtus medium range loitering munition, which has recently been trialled by the British Army and is being sent to Ukraine.
5./ In March Anduril, the US AI and drone maker, said they were considering opening a factory in the UK, although no site has been announced as yet. This month they unveilled a partnership with air taxi maker Archer and GKN for a strike drone for the British Army's Project NYX.
6./ Ukrpecsystems will produce the new Octopus interceptor drone, jointly developed by the UK and Ukraine, at their new Mildenhall factory from next year, for a range of European armed forces as part of the Drone Wall along Europe's frontiers.
7./ British SME Flyby is also building a new drone factory in Swindon, which is rapidly becoming a drone hub. Flyby will produce an improved version of their VTOL Jackal attack drone, which has previously been built in Turkey.
8./ Munin Dynamics, set up a former Norwegian Special Forces solider Magnus Freyer, has also established a factory at Swindon to produce smaller FPV type drones for Ukraine.
9./ To these new investments can be added the now BAES owned Malloy Aeronautics at Maidenhead, set up by Chirs Malloy, which has a footprint in the UK, Australia and USA producing T-150 and T-400 heavy lift drones, used in Ukraine and by British and US Armed Forces.
10./ there are numerous other drone manufacturers large and small as part of the UK's rapidly expanding ecosystem including British SMEs like UAVTEK in Cheltenham, M-Subs in Portsmouth. Established players like BAES, Thales, Saab and MBDA have also moved into drone production.
Neverthless the majority of this industrial capacity is currently underwritten by the UK's £5 billion per annum spend on munitions for Ukraine or the £5 billion MOD R&D budget, there are as yet few substantive orders for the British Armed Forces. That must change fast.
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