Britain to send 10,000 ‘cutting-edge drones’ to Ukraine in major show of support
The UK is sending a further 10,000 military drones to Ukraine, as part of a massive ramping up of the embattled nation’s drone capability.
The announcement was made by UK Defence Secretary Grant Shapps, as he visited Ukraine on Thursday, along with the Chief of the Defence Staff, Admiral Sir Tony Radakin.
As part of the package, the UK will provide an extra £125million, in addition to a £200 million drone deal announced in January.
The Defence Secretary said the extra investment would allow Ukraine to quickly boost its stocks of “cutting-edge drones to help fight Putin’s illegal invasion.”
The 10,000 new uncrewed platforms will be rolled out across 2024.
The majority of the systems will be First-Person View (FPV) drones, which have already had a massive impact on the battlefield.
The FPV drones can loiter over the battlefield and drop their munitions onto enemy armour or artillery emplacements with devastating impact.
The enhanced military package will also provide Ukraine with 1,000 one-way attack drones, which have been researched and developed in the UK.
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Multiple surveillance and maritime drones are also being provided by Britain.
Grant Shapps made the commitment to provide thousands of extra drones as met President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov on Thursday.
Afterwards, Mr Shapps said: “I am ramping up our commitment to arm Ukraine with cutting-edge new drones coming directly from the UK’s world-leading defence industries – straight from the factory floor to the frontline. I encourage international partners to join the UK in this effort.
“Ukraine’s Armed Forces are using UK donated weapons to unprecedented effect, to help lay waste to nearly 30 per cent of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet.”
In the early hours of Tuesday morning unmanned maritime attack drones, believed to have been supplied by the UK, destroyed a Russian patrol ship in the Black Sea.
Video footage of the attack showed what appeared to be several maritime surface drones racing towards the Sergei Kotov, followed by large explosions.
The vessel is reported to have sunk with at least a dozen Russian sailors reported dead or missing.
Ukraine’s armed forces have earned significant praise from Western allies for their highly effective use of different types of drones, destroying and damaging thousands of pieces of Russian equipment and vehicles.
More than £100million of the £325million drone package is being spent on boosting Ukraine’s maritime capabilities in the Black Sea.
Today’s announcement builds on a commitment by the UK and Latvia last month to lead a coalition of countries to bolster Ukraine’s drone capabilities.
Since the start of the war against Russia, the UK has committed more than £7billion of military support to help Ukraine.
The UK has also helped train more than 60,000 Ukrainian recruits since the invasion of Crimea in 2014.