{"id":636129,"date":"2026-06-13T05:15:14","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636129\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T05:15:14","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T05:15:14","slug":"great-britain-europes-largest-drone-testing-centre-opens-in-swindon-to-boost-defence-innovation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/636129\/","title":{"rendered":"Great Britain: Europe\u2019s Largest Drone Testing Centre Opens In Swindon To Boost Defence Innovation"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>12\/06\/2026. London, United Kingdom. Dan Jarvis, Secretary of State for Defence visit to Uncrewed Systems Centre for Excellence. Picture by Lauren Hurley \/ No 10 Downing Street <\/p>\n

– Advertisement –\"\" 12\/06\/2026. London, United Kingdom. Dan Jarvis, Secretary of State for Defence visit to Uncrewed Systems Centre for Excellence. Picture by Lauren Hurley \/ No 10 Downing Street<\/p>\n

As the conflicts in\u00a0Iran and Ukraine show, drones are rapidly reshaping warfare, with cheap systems destroying high value targets and innovation cycles measured in weeks, not years.\u00a0Ukraine uses\u00a0roughly 200,000\u00a0drones a month and\u00a0there were 700 drones launched per day at the height of conflict in Iran.<\/p>\n

The new Uncrewed Systems Centre (USC), based at the DroneTEX facility in Swindon, will help the UK\u2019s Armed Forces stay at the leading edge of innovation and take advantage of constantly evolving technologies.<\/p>\n

It\u00a0will be the UK\u2019s focal point for the development and testing of the latest drone technology and drive collaboration with\u00a0industry,\u00a0allies\u00a0and partners.\u00a0At 545,000\u00a0sq\u00a0ft,\u00a0DroneTEX is the size of more than 10 football pitches and\u00a0will rapidly\u00a0develop\u00a0and\u00a0field new\u00a0capabilities.<\/p>\n

The Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis MP met defence industry leaders,\u00a0investors\u00a0and military specialists\u00a0as\u00a0he toured the facility today.<\/p>\n

At the opening of the USC, Defence Secretary\u00a0Dan Jarvis MP\u00a0said:<\/p>\n

The character of warfare is changing, and it is changing fast. From Ukraine to the Middle East, we are seeing right now how uncrewed systems are rapidly evolving and reshaping conflicts \u2013 on land, in the air and at sea<\/p>\n

Our new DroneTEX facility at the heart of our Uncrewed Systems Centre is Europe\u2019s largest drone test and development facility, and will help us ensure the UK embraces technologies that are redefining warfare.<\/p>\n

Where once new technology could take years from inception to reaching our Armed Forces, we will now be able to develop and field new tech in a matter of weeks \u2013 because in this new era, those who innovate fastest will win.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0state-of-the-art\u00a0centre will\u00a0work with British companies, supporting SMEs, unlocking\u00a0exports\u00a0and creating high-skilled jobs.<\/p>\n

It will harness the power of data and digital integration as the UK embraces AI and autonomy, including through our new Task Force RAID (Rapid AI Delivery) which the Prime Minister and Chief of the Defence Staff announced earlier this week.<\/p>\n

The Strategic Defence Review announced a major increase in autonomy investment of \u00a32 billion in this parliament, taking total defence investment in autonomous systems to \u00a34 billion.<\/p>\n

The MOD has spent over \u00a3450 million on uncrewed systems, including \u00a3300 million on their research and development since July 2024. In the last year, UK Defence Innovation has injected\u00a0over \u00a3142 million in rapid investment to scale up production of drones and anti-drone weapons.<\/p>\n

UKDI is the focal point for innovation within the Ministry of Defence, backed by a ringfenced annual budget of at least \u00a3400 million, enabling UK companies to scale up innovative prototypes rapidly.<\/p>\n

– Advertisement –<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"12\/06\/2026. London, United Kingdom. Dan Jarvis, Secretary of State for Defence visit to Uncrewed Systems Centre for Excellence.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":636130,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-636129","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636129","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=636129"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/636129\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/636130"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=636129"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=636129"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=636129"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}