British Army to Get New Drones and Anti Armour Weapons Under £416m MOD Contracts

Defence minister Luke Pollard has unveiled £416 million in new contracts to arm British soldiers with surveillance drones, and confirmed the first steps toward restoring a long range anti armour weapon the Army has lacked for more than three decades.

Speaking at the DVD 2026 land warfare exhibition on 16 September 2026, Pollard set out three deals, a contract to replace the Army's ageing Watchkeeper drones, a smaller deal for hand launched surveillance systems, and early work on a beyond line of sight anti armour weapon. The announcements build on the government's £298 billion Defence Investment Plan, published earlier this year.

Luke Pollard's DVD 2026 Speech, Three New Army Contracts Explained

DVD is the Ministry of Defence's biennial exhibition for land warfare equipment, bringing government and industry together to show off British Army technology. Pollard, the Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry, opened by thanking Rupert, the newly appointed National Armaments Director, and industry partners for the showcase.

He then set out three procurements he said demonstrated how the department is speeding up contracting to turn rising defence spending into equipment faster, all responding, he said, to lessons drawn from the war in Ukraine. They also form part of the Recce Strike concept championed by the Chief of the General Staff, combining battlefield surveillance, targeting and long range fire to increase the lethality of British forces.

£416m Army Drone Deals, What the AR5 and ISR Contracts Deliver

The larger drone deal is a contract worth up to £400 million awarded to Tekever for its AR5 aircraft, a long endurance surveillance drone able to carry up to 50kg of cameras and sensors, replacing the Watchkeeper system in service since 2014. The order starts with six aircraft and can grow to as many as 24 by 2029, built at a new Tekever factory in Swindon that the Ministry of Defence says will support more than 1,000 skilled jobs by 2030.

The second deal is a separate £16 million contract with three British small and medium sized businesses to supply more than 1,025 small ISR drones, giving individual soldiers real time awareness on the frontline. Evolve Dynamics in Hampshire is providing lightweight FOXE NATO drones with infrared cameras, Marlborough Communications in Surrey is supplying Skydio X10 INTL drones, and Brigantes Consulting in Exeter, working with Harmattan AI, is delivering SONORA training drones. The deal has already created more than 30 new roles across Hampshire, Surrey and Exeter, including several filled by veterans.

Anti Armour Weapon Contract, Britain's First Since Swingfire Retired

The third announcement is more preliminary. Pollard confirmed that contracts have been awarded to MBDA and Thales to explore technology for a new beyond line of sight anti armour weapon, a system capable of striking armoured targets from a distance without the firing vehicle needing a direct line of sight to its target. It is a capability the British Army has not held since Swingfire, a wire guided anti tank missile, left service more than 30 years ago. No missile design, contract value or in service date has been announced, the work is an exploratory study intended to feed into the wider Recce Strike approach of connecting surveillance, targeting and long range fire.

Pollard framed all three contracts as evidence that reformed procurement can move at pace, though the anti armour work in particular will take years to mature from study into fielded equipment.

£298bn Defence Investment Plan, Where the Army's Money Is Going

The drone and anti armour contracts sit inside a much larger programme of investment. The Defence Investment Plan, published earlier this year, commits £298 billion to defence over the next four years, including more than £19 billion for land warfare capabilities and £11 billion for weapons and ammunition. Within that, £4.4 billion covers the Boxer, Ajax and Challenger vehicle programmes, £370 million rolls out the Project Asgard targeting system tested in Estonia, and £220 million funds Project Nyx armed autonomous drones designed to fly alongside Apache helicopters.

Pollard linked the spending to the Chief of the General Staff's 20:40:40 strategy and the government's aim of doubling the Army's fighting power by 2027, tripling it by 2030 and increasing it tenfold by 2035. He also cited jobs created across the supply chain in Merthyr, Oakdale, Telford, Stockport and Newcastle, alongside prime contractors in Bolton and Glasgow.

Further funding is still to come. Pollard said the Defence Finance and Investment Strategy, intended to draw private capital into defence programmes, will be published after this year's budget, backed by a new Defence Investment Unit and the existing Defence Tech Unicorn Fund. A Defence Investment Summit is scheduled for early December, when industry partners are expected to announce further commitments.

What's Next for the Army's £19bn Land Warfare Modernisation

For now, the concrete progress is limited to the drone contracts. Production is under way at Tekever's Swindon site, and the small drone deliveries are, according to the Ministry of Defence, nearing completion. The anti armour weapon work remains at the study stage, with no design, cost or timetable yet confirmed.

Pollard used the speech to argue that defence spending needs to be better communicated to the public, framing procurement reform, jobs and battlefield capability as parts of the same story. The next milestones are the Defence Finance and Investment Strategy after the budget and December's Defence Investment Summit, both meant to show how private capital will be drawn into the programmes set out at DVD 2026.