DSEI 2025 — The UK has announced a plan to mass produce Ukrainian-designed air defense interceptor drones to defend against Russian attacks.
The Ministry of Defence said Project Octopus aims to produce “thousands” of systems every month. The Ukrainian interceptor drones have been “highly effective” against Iranian-designed and Russian-launched Shahed one-way attack drones “despite costing less than 10 [percent] to produce” compared to the uncrewed systems they are designed to strike, it added in a statement.
The MoD did not respond to a request for comment on the manufacturer of the drones, an exact model or production location.
In April, Ukrainian media reported that its defense industry had developed an interceptor drone capable of downing Shahed attacks, including a claim by developers that the system had already destroyed 20 of the Russian-used types. It remains unclear if the UK will produce the same interceptor aircraft.
The MoD anticipates that the system “will help Ukraine defend against aerial attacks such as Russia’s reckless overnight attack against western Ukraine, which saw Poland and NATO scramble to intercept Russian drones that entered Polish airspace.”
Warsaw said its airspace had been “breached” 19 times by Russian drones on Wednesday.
“The assessment of Polish and NATO air forces is that they did not veer off course, but were deliberately targeted,” Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister Radosław Sikorski explained on social media platform X. The Polish air force with support from the Netherlands, Italy and Germany, shot the Russian aircraft down, he added.
UK officials, including Prime Minister Kier Starmer have condemned the Russian incursion. Russia’s Ministry of Defense did not deny the incident, but suggested the drones were meant to strike Ukrainian targets.
The announcement also comes days after Ukraine said Russia launched its largest drone and missile attack since the war’s outset in 2022, using hundreds of unmanned aerial vehicles and decoys.
Britain’s renewed focus on drone production comes after Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in June that the two European nations would produce “long-range drones” soon, according to a Guardian newspaper report.