Thousands of interceptors to be delivered to Kyiv each month to protect citizens from nightly Russian attacks
Memphis Barker Senior Foreign Correspondent
10 September 2025
Britain will jointly produce interceptor drones with Ukraine in an agreement hailed as a “game-changer” for air defence.
John Healey, the Defence Secretary, will on Thursday announce a project to manufacture the drones in Britain using a Ukrainian design – one of the first practical results of an agreement to co-operate on such technology.
Interceptor drones offer a cheap way to knock out incoming one-way attack drones, such as those fired by Russia into Poland on Tuesday night.
Advanced missile defence systems such as the US-made Patriot are highly effective but – at about $3m (£2.2m) per missile – can cost 100 times more than the Shahed-style drones launched by Vladimir Putin.
Interceptors are also more effective against the latest Russian drones than the Ukrainian mobile-gunner teams that chase after them in pick-up trucks, blazing off machine gun rounds. Russia now sends the drones high into the sky – and out of range – before dropping them on to targets.
Under “Project Octopus”, Britain and Ukraine will aim to produce thousands of the interceptors per month. They will be delivered to Kyiv to protect citizens from the nightly barrages of Russian drones.
In July, president Volodymyr Zelensky set a target for Ukraine to produce 500 to 1,000 interceptor drones per day, hailing the systems as an effective way to counter drone swarms.
Mr Healey will announce the joint project in a speech tomorrow at the DSEI defence trade show in London.
He will say: “This deal is a first of its kind, giving UK industry unprecedented access to the latest equipment designs, supporting Ukraine in its fight to defend against Putin’s illegal invasion and showing how defence can be an engine for growth.”
Sir Keir Starmer, the Prime Minister, will hail the “landmark moment” as proof that British support for Ukraine “will not falter.”
Earlier this summer, the UK announced an agreement to co-operate with Kyiv on manufacturing drones and last week Mr Healey visited Ukraine to sign a deal to expand the partnership into the joint ownership of intellectual property.
The “Project Octopus”’ interceptors will be built on a design from systems that are already in use on the battlefield – flooring Russia’s Shahed drones at about a tenth of the price of the incoming munitions.
Russia has recently ramped up the manufacture of one-way attack drones. Barrages of more than 500 drones are already common over Ukraine, with Moscow firing as many in a single evening as it was capable of doing over an entire month last year.
Jobs boost
On Monday, the UK announced its Defence Industrial Strategy, including £250m to support regional projects such as drone technology development in Wales and Scotland’s space sector.
“We will innovate at a wartime pace, support UK and Ukrainian security and boost jobs here in Britain,” Mr Healey will say on Thursday.
Interceptor drones can fly at speeds fast enough to overtake and blow up slower-moving Shahed-style drones. Some are now fitted with AI systems that enable advanced computer vision and target recognition.
In July, Britain announced a deal with Skyeton, a Ukrainian long-range drone company, to manufacture its Raybird system in the UK.
The deal will produce more of the battle-proven drones, which have more than 350,000 hours of combat flight time, as well as share crucial technological expertise with the British defence industry.
On Tuesday, Dutch pilots flying F-35 fighter jets scrambled to shoot down the Russian drones that entered Polish airspace. They only arrived in Poland a few weeks ago as part of Nato efforts to secure the borders with Russia.
Interceptor drones offer a far more cost-effective defence than launching the advanced fighter jets.