UK awards £3.16m contracts for low-cost drone interceptor programme

Today, the British Government announced that the Ministry of Defence has awarded a contract worth £3.16 million to develop a new low-cost interceptor to shoot down drones and other airborne threats.

The programme is called the Low‑Cost Air Defence Effectors (LCADE) and is to be delivered by the National Armaments Director (NAD) Group, which is part of the greater Low‑Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP) European effort.

The statement notes “the UK is the first of five European partner nations to award contracts under a joint programme to strengthen air defence.” Those countries also include Poland, France, Italy, and Germany, each of which is running its own national competition that is to be followed by a multilateral phase.

The next phase of the programme will focus on solutions that can be produced in large numbers across the five participating countries. Winning candidates will be required to have “strong manufacturing capacity and reliable supply chains to ensure the systems can be delivered quickly and at scale.”

The British contracts were delivered to small and medium enterprises in and effet to accelerate the pace of procurement and reduce the barriers to entry for start-up companies to break into the defence sector with their new innovations.

The need for a low-cost drone interceptor

The interceptors will provide an affordable counter for proliferated cheap drones that can overwhelm traditional air defence systems. Those systems are also more expensive and are not available in the quantities needed to counter masses of drones.

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The Government pointed to Russia launching over 200 drones daily at Ukraine in March 2026 as highlighting the need for Britain to have a low-cost interceptor. Design iterations are to be rapid by historical standards, with one contractor (Greenjets) saying it will move to demonstration trials later in 2026.

The programme is focused on the interceptors being affordable, scalable, able to be used by allied forces, and to be produced in the UK.

National Armaments Director Rupert Pearce said: “Through the LEAP programme, we are joining forces across borders to rapidly procure new systems, supporting both the UK and our allies against the growing mass drone threat.”

The winning British contractors

The winning civilian contractors are small or medium-sized, namely: Frankenberg Technologies, Greenjets and Cambridge Aerospace. Those companies will now develop and trial their drone interceptor designs. Each of these companies has a presence in the UK and has committed to build manufacturing capability in the country.

Frankenberg states on its website, “Our mission is to equip the free world with the tech to win the war. We do this by building missiles defenders can afford to fire and produce at scale.” Frankenberg partners with Airbus and in March 2026, it reported the first Airbus ‘Bird of Prey’ interceptor drone had sccessfully competed its first demonstration flight.

Cambridge Aerospace has only recently been identified by the MoD as a likely contractor. In April, the Ministry of Defence announced it would purchase a significant number of Cambridge Aerospace Skyhammar air defence systems, with the first deliveries starting the month following.