On the eve of the 34th meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, with participation from 50 countries, the British government announced the largest-ever drone shipment for the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The package reportedly includes an impressive 120,000 drones, to be delivered by the end of this year—within the next eight and a half months.
Deliveries under the package began earlier this month. It will include various types of drones, from reconnaissance and logistics models to around 1,000 long-range strike systems. It is noted that these systems have proven their effectiveness in Ukraine.
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It has not been disclosed which drones Ukraine will receive under this package, but it is expected that most of the funding will go to British manufacturers. These include companies such as Tekever, Windracers, and Malloy Aeronautics.
The products of all three companies are already familiar to the Ukrainian military. For instance, the Portuguese-British company Tekever has supplied Ukraine with Tekever AR3 reconnaissance drones capable of vertical takeoff and landing, as well as the Tekever AR5 operational-tactical drone.
As for Windracers, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are familiar with their ULTRA (Uncrewed Low Cost Transport) cargo drones, which have been in service since 2023. They were first delivered to Ukraine in 2023.
Earlier this year, it was reported that these cargo drones had doubled their range to up to 2,000 km. At the same time, work is underway to increase the UAV's payload capacity from 100 to 200 kg.
Malloy Aeronautics products have also been battle-tested in Ukraine. This refers specifically to the Malloy T-150 drone, which has been in service since 2022. It was used to strike one of the bridges in the Kherson region in order to disrupt enemy logistics.
Moreover, we recently reported that BAE Systems had demonstrated the capability of using an APKWS rocket with the TRV-150, a modernized variant of the Malloy T-150.
However, drones from these three companies are unlikely to make up a significant share of the 120,000 units the UK is set to deliver by the end of the year. It is likely that most of these drones will be reconnaissance, FPV strike, or interceptor drones. We can also mention the Ukrainian Otopus anti-aircraft drone, which is manufactured in the UK and entered serial production last year.
We also previously reported that the UK has the Skyhammer anti-aircraft drone, which is actually more of a missile and which it also intends to supply to Gulf countries.
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