Military drone maker warns it may need to leave UK
BBCA British business making state-of-the-art military drones has warned it may have to leave the UK without further support from the government.
Skycutter - based in the East Midlands - recently secured a contract with the US military which the firm said could ultimately be worth $200m (£151m).
Vince Gardner, operations director at Skycutter, told the BBC the UK government was moving "too slowly" and questioned whether it still made "financial sense" to remain in the country.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said it wanted the UK to be "the best place in the world to start and grow a defence business".
Skycutter - which has been designing drones for Ukraine in partnership with the MoD - said it was considering its options after being offered the US contract.
The firm secured the contract after winning a US competition with drone companies being invited from across the world.
It signed an initial deal with the Pentagon to supply drones worth $20m (£15.1m) but it could ultimately rise tenfold, Gardner said.
The initial production phases will lead to the company scaling up its operations in the US.
"As we've seen in the news recently with Iran with their drones flying over, there is a huge cost element of sending expensive missiles to take out these very low cost drones that are wreaking havoc in Ukraine and the Middle East," he said.
"So low-cost interceptors that have a high probability of a hit but at a low cost are what we're also developing with our Ukrainian partners."
Gardner said he and his team have put "so much" into building the company but do not feel the UK government is moving fast enough on drones.
"We have designed some of these drones through MoD programmes but we think these drones (for the US military) have proven themselves on the hardest stage, so we do expect the MoD will catch up to this, and we hope to receive orders for this kind of product.
"In wars that are raging at the moment, drone technology is moving forward at such a pace that you need to keep up.
"The government is going too slowly, in my personal opinion. The US has gone, 'We need capabilities and we need them fast'.
"Delivering these platforms quickly is key and the UK government needs to wake up to this fact and move quicker with the times."
Asked what would happen if orders do not come in from the UK government, Gardner said they will have to think long and hard about where they operate from.
But he added his team wants to stay in the East Midlands and the potential job growth in the UK drone market is exponential.
"We now have a branch in the US but it's whether or not it makes financial sense to stay in the UK or if we move the entire operation to the US where there is that significant traction.
"The drone market is currently only expanding so it could end up being thousands of jobs with the interceptors, the first-person-view and one-way attack drones.
"We want to stay here, this is our home, this is where we've developed this technology. We don't want to leave but the opportunities [in the US] are too great to turn down currently.
"Warfare has changed completely - tanks and heavy artillery is being taken out by a drone which costs $1,000 (£756)."
A Ministry of Defence spokesperson said: "We want the UK to be the best place in the world to start and grow a defence business and since July 2024 we have signed nearly 1,200 major contracts, with 93% of that spend going to UK-based companies.
"Earlier this year, we launched a dedicated Defence Office for Small Business Growth to boost opportunities and access for smaller firms, on top of our commitment to increase spending with SMEs by £2.5bn a year by May 2028.
"This government has overseen the biggest uplift in defence spending since the Cold War, with £270bn investment across this parliament.
"We are working to finalise the Defence Investment Plan and will publish it as soon as possible."
