Ukraine will receive thousands more drones as Defence Secretary
announces today that the UK
will co-lead a major drone capability coalition with Latvia for
Ukraine.
As part of the coalition, the UK will scale up and streamline the
West’s provision of “first person view” (FPV) drones to Ukraine.
FPV drones have proven highly effective on the battlefield since
Russia’s full-scale invasion, providing their operators with
situational awareness to target enemy positions, armoured
vehicles, and ships with explosive ordnance.
By creating a competition to produce these drones at scale and at
an affordable price point, the UK will leverage the strength of
Western industry. This is the first project to be launched from
the £200 million drone package announced by the Prime Minister in
January this year. It will see the UK order thousands of FPV
drones for Ukraine, including from UK manufacturers, providing a
boost to the industry and delivering on the Prime Minister’s
priority to grow the economy.
Defence Secretary said:
The UK continues to do all we can to give Ukraine what it needs –
upping our aid to £2.5bn this year and committing £200m to
manufacture drones, making us Ukraine’s largest drone supplier.
Today, we’re going even further. I’m proud to announce that the
UK and Latvia will co-lead an international coalition to build
Ukraine’s vital drone capabilities. Together, we will give
Ukraine the capabilities it needs to defend itself and win this
war, to ensure that Putin fails in his illegal and barbaric
ambitions.
The Defence Secretary also meets his NATO counterparts today to
review progress on support for Ukraine, NATO’s new warfighting
plans, ramping up defence production capacity and preparations
for the NATO Summit in Washington in July, where leaders will
mark the Alliance’s 75th anniversary.
The UK continues to play a leading role in NATO, contributing to
all operations and missions, committing almost all our Armed
Forces under the NATO Force Model, and offering a full spectrum
of capabilities.
In the margins of the NATO ministerial, the Defence Secretary
will bring together his counterparts from 13 NATO Allies* and
Sweden to sign an agreement on two new multinational procurement
initiatives focusing on munitions and missiles. Spearheaded by
the UK, these initiatives aim to increase defence industrial
capacity across the Euro-Atlantic area, replenish stockpiles at
pace and continue support to Ukraine. This multinational approach
offers a scalable solution for nations to jointly procure more of
the missile and munition types that NATO and Ukraine need.
The UK is also working with NATO Allies Canada, Denmark, the
Netherlands and the United States to deliver priority air defence
equipment to Ukraine. This partnership, which Canada recently
joined, has so far delivered hundreds of short and medium air
defence missiles and systems to keep Ukraine’s cities safe from
Russian bombardment.
Tomorrow, the Defence Secretary will participate in the Munich
Security Conference and meet international counterparts to
discuss Euro-Atlantic security issues, including support for
Ukraine.
The UK is committed to standing with Ukraine for as long as it
takes and has committed to provide £2.5 billion in military aid
to Ukraine in 2024/25, an increase of £200 million on the
previous two years.
- Croatia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
The Netherlands, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania and
Türkiye.
