PRESS RELEASE : UK to supply thousands of drones as co-leader of major international capability coalition for Ukraine [February 2024]

The press release issued by the Ministry of Defence on 15 February 2024.

The UK and Latvia will jointly lead a capability coalition, which will see thousands of drones supplied to Ukraine, including first-person view (FPV) drones, which have proven highly effective on the battlefield.

Ukraine will receive thousands more drones as Defence Secretary Grant Shapps 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 Grant Shapps 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.