The UK MoD, on behalf of the International Drone Capability Coalition that it leads, has published two Invitations to Tender for 2 distinct capabilities to be supplied to Ukraine.

The first tender is for a ‘large’ First Person View drone capable of carrying a payload of over 5 kg. The intent it to initially procure up to 15 batches of 20 drones each, with associated options, for testing and evaluation. Following testing, platforms found to meet the requirements will be considered for production contracts at a rate of up to circa 500 drones per month. Industry is being asked to file its answers by 14 October.

First Person View drones are trickier to fly than more stable and automatically levelled UAS but that confers them a great agility that has made them very effective attack weapons which in Ukraine torment anything, moving or stationary, on the battlefield.

A separate, earlier ITT from the Drone Coalition is already looking at options for smaller FPV drones in 3 different (rotor) sizes: 7-inch, 8-inch and 10-inch diameter. The answers were due in June and production of the up to 15 test batches was expected to start within august, with expectations that selected systems would then be produced at a rate of up to 1,000 a month.

The other new tender is for an ‘Operational Drone Interceptor’ system, and answers from industry are due by 11 November. In this case, up to 5 batches of operational drone-interceptors are requested for testing. Each batch is required to comprise 2 complete systems, each of which must be capable of defeating 5 enemy UAS.

If successful in the demonstration, the intent is to follow up with production at a rate of “200 opposing UAS defeats per month”. An example of drone-interceptor already well established is the Raytheon COYOTE selected by the US Armed Forces. It flies close to enemy drones and defeats them with a proximity-detonated warhead. Born with a push-propeller, it evolved to integrate a radiofrequency seeker (Block 1B) and then adopted jet propulsion for higher speed and greater range (Block 2).

The UK stated intent with investments in the Drone Coalition is to help Ukraine win while pouring investment into national drone design and production capabilities that will so benefit also the UK’s own armed forces.

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