British defense leaders to create barriers to drone purchases

LONDON – Britain’s Ministry of Defense will step up efforts to equip the armed forces with unmanned capabilities, a senior procurement official said at the 2023 edition of the DSEI show here.

Defense Procurement Minister James Cartlidge told hundreds of military and industry officials attending a keynote speech at the event that the Government intends to produce a strategy document covering the drone sector.

In part, the move was aimed at speeding up the introduction of this class of weapons into the military, he said.

“In the coming months we will present an unmanned systems strategy. It is enormously important. “It will help accelerate the UK armed forces’ access to unmanned systems and rapidly equip them with innovative technology across air, sea and land,” Cartlidge said.

Defense Ministry officials said the strategy would likely be published by the end of the year.

It is the latest in a series of strategic documents recently produced by the Ministry of Defense in the land, air and maritime domains.

Analysts believe the latest document will likely consider industrial and military aspects related to drones, including the question of when the government should develop them or buy them off-the-shelf.

The head of the British Army, General Patrick Sanders, shed a little more light on the systems’ growing influence on MoD strategy in a speech later in the day.

“Later this year we will form a new UAS group within a refocused Joint Aviation Command,” he said. “This expanded JAC mandate will bring deep expertise and the coherence required by the new unmanned defense strategy, and will provide a focal point for the industry around which we aim to develop the next generation of UAS platforms in an even closer partnership.” .

By coincidence, or perhaps not, major British defense companies BAE Systems and Qinetiq took advantage of the first day of the DSEI fair to announce that they had signed a framework agreement to study collaboration in the drone sector and associated mission management systems.

Qinetiq also announced that it was developing a low-cost, disposable drone called the Jackdaw, which could be available by mid-decade.