Defence Secretary Dan Jarvis MP has opened Europe’s largest drone testing and development facility in Swindon, establishing the UK’s Uncrewed Systems Centre (USC) at the new DroneTEX site as the focal point for drone innovation, industry collaboration, and rapid capability fielding. At 545,000sq ft, the facility is the size of more than ten football pitches and is designed to compress development timelines from years to weeks. The strategic urgency is clear: Ukraine is deploying approximately 200,000 drones a month, and at the height of the Iran conflict, 700 drones were being launched per day. Innovation cycles in this domain are…
