The Ministry of Defence has awarded a £256,080 contract to Viking Arms Ltd for the rapid delivery of a training fleet of First-Person View (FPV) drones.
The short-term procurement—running just 19 days from 12 to 31 March 2025—aims to equip and train British Army personnel in delivering FPV strike capabilities, drawing on lessons from the war in Ukraine.
The contract supports the Field Army’s initiative to develop a basic FPV drone capability, one of the “First 6” directives identified by Director RAPSTONE as part of efforts to meet the Chief of the General Staff’s ambition for an “Any/Any Network.”
This vision—announced at the RUSI Land Warfare Conference—envisions a digitally integrated battlefield where any sensor can cue any effector, enabling British forces to defeat adversaries up to three times their size by 2030.
This procurement includes 60 units each of 5″, 8″, and 10″ quadcopter-style drones, along with goggles, controllers, antennas, and other accessories, all designed for modularity, ease of use, and rapid deployment. The kits are suitable for training with payloads that simulate anti-tank, anti-personnel, and anti-structure munitions.
The equipment will be used to train a new cadre of drone pilots, with on-site familiarisation training provided to instructors already experienced in military drone systems. The Ministry emphasised the need for portability and simplicity in the drone systems, calling them “organic and rapidly deployable” assets to provide a tactical edge during day and night operations.
The procurement reflects an urgent push to accelerate British Army capabilities in drone warfare, a domain rapidly evolving as militaries worldwide adopt tactics seen in Ukraine—where FPV drones have become a cheap, flexible, and lethal tool in both reconnaissance and strike roles.
So 180 First Person View drones for £256k. So that’s about £1400 per unit, not hugely expensive but not cheap as chips either. Seems they are intended for training purposes and reuse, so I guess if they last for a few years and help to train a couple of thousand end users its not a bad deal.
When will frontline units get drones..? If that can happen next month then I’d say the MoD / Army are getting their procurement systems sorted to a level of responsiveness that will be need for any sudden incursion from Russia, given Russia has just announced another expansion of its military with the spring call up…
Cheers CR
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My own Potensic Atom SE cost @£165.00…. It’s good for a twenty minute flight but rather useless at carrying a Grenade or anything else remotely offensive…… Maybe £1400 isn’t such a bad price after all. ?
CR, maybe some of the contract cost includes provision of training personnel from the manufacturers and also support costs.
Depends what you mean by “drones”, drones already are in front line units, and have been for a while.
“This vision—announced at the RUSI Land Warfare Conference—envisions a digitally integrated battlefield where any sensor can cue any effector, enabling British forces to defeat adversaries up to three times their size by 2030.”
it took me a moment to realise its still April 1st!
Pretty sure a single Challenger could take on multiple T90s, recycle them all, and move onto its next mission after a cuppa for the crew.
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£1400 per drone 🤣
Bloody hell…
Right im sorry but thats a rip off for what will a one-way kamikaze drone
The FPV drones I fundraise for cost $600 aka £464.28.
We just completed our fundraiser for 3 more of them last night
Ukrainians use a DJI Mavic or similar type drone alot for reconnaissance and then the FPV kamikaze drones are made from various groups in Ukraine e.g. WILD HORNETS
JOHN
These are training drones, not ment to be used in combat. Therefore I recon they have to be a little more robust, then the one way only. They will have to survive impacts (but without the explosion, of course), in simulated stress situation, with countermeasures deployed, so the training actually worth something. Plus just learning will produce it’s own little accidents anyway.
Home built and developed capability! You just can’t have enough, I think. And if they can built sturdy ones, they can build throwaway ones too.
This is a start, but these drones and drone pilots need to be embedded at all formation levels so the British army is essentially generative when it comes to drone warfare, in affect it becomes just something the army does and has.. as the embedded as the squad support weapons and mortars.
Also how would say FPV ISTAR at platoon level impact on what effectors a platoon has.. if the platoon can now find and track the enemy hiding in a wood 1000m away, what is it going to do about it.. suddenly you want more Kinect effect out beyond the range of a modern infantry rifle and probably indirect fire at that… so suddenly having a couple of 60mm mortars in your platoon becomes very useful or go large and equipment every section with a commando mortar set up and a FPV drone… suddenly the lethality mix is profoundly different.
What equipment does a section, platoon etc need to protect itself.
Finally that deep understanding of how a formations from sections to battalions will move and operate in a drone saturated environment… so every section, platoon, company and battalion knows how it deploys and uses its drones and how to survive against drones..
It’s these things the army needs to focus on.. how do you construct your sections and platoons in a world where FPD are ubiquitous and ever square mile of battlefield has many drones.
Well a drone group (looking at the battlefield maps) is normally sat behind the front lines in a bunker, trench, house
Detached away from other units if needed, set up with a supply of drones, e.g 50 drones on the floor, with munitions
Drone Charging Station, Drone Jammer (REB) , Ground Station and other stuff needed
Vehicles to move A to B, and logistics, food, ammo, etc
Pity we cant do pictures on here! I have some from those units ive fundraised for…
Reconnaissance drone (eg MAVIC) to go out searching…for enemy vehicles and trenches
FPVs follow or turn up and hit targets day and night
If 20 russian vehicles try attacking the front line, then Ukrainians need to have 20 FPV drones ready to counter attack
And yes they can call in extra fire power to help out
Drone operators are better hidden , or be No 1 target of the enemy, like snipers are!
The enemy will have drones as well searching for you… tit for tat
Some of the Ukrainian Brigade’s have at least 2 Drone units\ companies(etc)
I know some of the guys in Ukraine like the company Front Line Kit who have been in discussion \ to events with visiting British MPs discussing the above issue of drone warfare
We really do need to wake up and get a move on with this!”
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Most people here have probably seen the hundreds of fpv videos coming out of Ukraine. An issue I am concerned with is operator PTSD. It has the potential to be a massive issue down the line. Is the MOD considering this?
And no. I am not suggesting we don’t use them. I am asking if anyone has considered solutions to what could be a big problem.