The Army’s drone force is surging – thanks to Ukrainian troops trained in the UK ...Middle East

The UK has dramatically advanced its drone capabilities through a training programme with Ukrainian forces.

Drones have revolutionised warfare in Ukraine and are now responsible for around 70 per cent of battlefield casualties there. Partly as a result, the British Army has surged its training of drone pilots and drone development, as it looks to modernise its force and prepare for a possible future conflict with Russia.

The UK’s drone programme has benefited from direct training with frontline Ukrainian soldiers as part of Operation Interflex, a UK-based multinational training programme designed to strengthen Ukraine’s resistance against Russia’s invasion.

The 1st Battalion Irish Guards, which leads Interflex training, has increased its number of trained drone pilots from 10 to around 80 in just a year, commanding officer Lieutenant Colonel Ben Irwin-Clark told The i Paper.

“We’ve got a drone hub, where we can now 3D-print and repair our own drone parts – drones which we didn’t have, and hadn’t even thought of, a year ago,” he said.

Irwin-Clark added that their next project is to make a mobile drone hub that “can go on the back of one of our new vehicles, which are being delivered in the new year. It’s all a direct result of training our Ukrainian brothers and sisters.”

The 1st Battalion Irish Guards has also converted a storage barn into a close quarter battle and drone assault course which is “entirely inspired by the example of the armed forces of Ukraine,” he said.

More than 60,000 Ukrainians have already travelled to the UK as part of Operation Interflex, which ranges from six weeks of basic training to programmes aimed at developing leaders and instructors.

Many came from the front lines, bringing a wealth of real-world experience of contemporary warfare with them.

Irwin-Clark said the training programme was a “two-way” experience, and that the benefits to the British Army have been “absolutely extraordinary, far more than I could have hoped for”.

“It’s already revolutionised the training, and it will revolutionise the way we are able to operate,” he said.

The UK is set to invest £2bn into drones during the current Parliament, and in 2025 launched UK Defence Innovation (UKDI), which will inject £142m into drones and anti-drone weapons in its first year alone.

Last month, Defence Secretary John Healey said the country’s Strategic Defence Review, a blueprint for the Armed Forces, had been clear that “we must learn the lessons of the war in Ukraine, which is why we’re surging investment into drone and counter-drone systems”.

Healey said that “Russia’s continued bombardment of Ukrainian civilians and their grey-zone drone incursions across Europe show why this drone drive is so urgent”.

A Ministry of Defence spokesperson told The i Paper that “Britain is entering a new era of warfighting readiness, driven by the biggest sustained boost in defence spending since the end of the Cold War.”

He added that “with £4 billion committed to developing world-leading capabilities, alongside a new drone centre, we are accelerating the use of autonomous systems across the Armed Forces”.

But British drone firms have previously told The i Paper that “red tape” is smothering efforts to build the weapons needed.

Operation Interflex training, which covers everything from marksmanship to survival in the cold Ukrainian winters, is a constantly evolving process, with Ukrainians giving regular feedback to help make the programme as realistic as possible.

“I can only hope that what we were able to deliver, along with the training, is some sort of feeling of unity and brotherhood that we stand with them,” Irwin-Clark said.

Drones have been the most rapidly changing area of the programme, according to Interflex Commander Colonel Andy Boardman, who described the technological advances in Ukraine as “world leading”.

Interflex also recently added a countering chemical warfare module to its training, after hearing reports from trainees about Russia dropping gas grenades from drones.

“We have quite a quick turnaround in terms of understanding a change to tactics in a country and then reincorporating that into our training,” Boardman told The i Paper. “We like to keep as agile as we can.”

He added that many of the Ukrainians bring “very direct personal combat experience” which the UK will “absolutely learn from”.

Boardman said that they then work to feed that into the broader British Army, “and all of our partner nations are doing the same. Every country that’s involved in this is taking back a very up-to-date combat experience from their instructors back into their own militaries, which will help us all modernise.”

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