UK and Ukraine plan to mass-produce interceptor drones to shoot down Shaheds

A joint project between the UK and Ukraine to manufacture interceptor drones has been in negotiation and could be realised within months.

Source: Bloomberg citing UK's Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard, as reported by European Pravda

Details: Ukraine and the United Kingdom plan to launch a joint production of interceptor drones to counter Shahed-type drone swarm attacks. Pollard told Bloomberg on the sidelines of the Defence Industries Forum in Kyiv that the project, known as Project Octopus, is currently in talks and could move quickly into production.

Quote: "Very shortly we'll be producing around 2,000 drones a month, deliberately shipping all of them to Ukraine so they can be used to intercept Russian drones."

More details: He added that initial production will be based in the UK and organised with enough flexibility to respond to changing battlefield needs.

Quote: "The UK is outstanding at R&D and advanced manufacture, so we can add something that our Ukrainian friends don't have in this respect."

More details: Pollard said the UK hopes to run further industrial projects with Ukraine, including the production of glide bombs.

Quote: "We're starting with drones for obvious reasons. But in general Ukraine is an essential partner for us in terms of creating the technologies we need to deter Russia and to re-arm Europe."

Background:

• On 11 September, Ukraine and Britain signed an agreement to produce Ukrainian interceptor drones.
• The UK Ministry of Defence earlier announced that the first joint project will be a new advanced air defence interceptor drone called Project OCTOPUS. It will be mass-produced in the UK, with plans to manufacture thousands of units per month.

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