UK agrees drone defence plan with four EU allies

"Britain is to develop new air defence weapons alongside the EU's four biggest military powers, deepening ties with the European defence sector. The project will invite manufacturers in the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Poland to submit plans to build low-cost missiles and autonomous drones. The allies are pledging a speedy process to build the weapons together, inspired by Ukraine's development of cheap drones to counter attacks from Russia."

"The MoD says the programme will prioritise a "lightweight, affordable" surface-to-air weapon, with the first project to be delivered by next year. The plan, announced at a meeting of the five countries' defence ministers in the Polish city of Krakow, marks a boost to UK-Europe ties after the failure of talks last year over UK participation in the EU's new 150bn (130bn) defence fund."

"Huge numbers of low-cost drones have become a key part in defending the country from Russian attacks that can involve hundreds of attack drones, rendering traditional missile defence systems impractical and costly. "To be effective at shooting down relatively low-cost missiles, drones and other threats facing us, we need to make sure that we're matching the cost of the threat with the cost of defence," said Pollard after the meeting."

Five countries — the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Poland — will invite manufacturers to design low-cost missiles and autonomous drones for shared air defence. The programme will prioritise a lightweight, affordable surface-to-air weapon with the first project expected by next year. Ministers pledged a speedy collaborative process and each country committed multimillion-pound or multimillion-euro contributions, though an overall budget remains unconfirmed. The initiative draws inspiration from Ukraine's rapid domestic drone manufacturing and widespread use of low-cost drones, which has exposed limitations and high costs of traditional missile-defence systems. Defence leaders emphasised matching defence cost to the cost of threats.

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