The United Kingdom clearly signalled its intention to not follow the United States in its suspension of military aid to Kyiv hours before a key meeting with Pete Hegseth on Thursday by announcing a new tranche of weapon deliveries.
Britain will donate millions of pounds worth of advanced multi-purpose attack drones to Ukraine, the Secretary of State for Defence John Healey announced on Thursday. The revelation came just hours before Healey is due to have a sit-down with his American counterpart, the United States Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, on the future of the Ukraine war.
The United States under President Donald Trump has taken a decisive stance of pushing for peace, and in recent days has paused military aid to Kyiv in a bid to encourage Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to come to the negotiating table. Washington has also suspended intelligence sharing with Kyiv, and warned its close allies — the UK included — not to go behind its back and hand over intelligence briefs to Ukraine while the pause is in place.
Speaking on Thursday, Healey announced new contracts worth “nearly £30 million” for “Anduril UK supplying cutting-edge Altius 600m and Altius 700m drones”.
Anduril is an Anglo-American defence firm and Healey met staff in the U.S. on Wednesday.
Judging by promotional materials published by manufacturer Anduril, the Altius loitering munition is a tube-launched small drone rapidly accelerated to flight speed using compressed air. The self-contained launcher can be attached to aircraft, light road vehicles, and ships, and once airborne the drone deploys wings and can act as a communication node for the troops below, can spy on enemy positions or work as a decoy, or engage in a suicide mode with a 30lb explosive warhead, depending on mission payload.
The weapon is meant to be self-sufficient enough so a single human can operate a whole swarm of the devices, and Anduril itself makes much of its integration of A.I. into its weapon systems. In the case of the Altius, they say it can identify enemy targets on its own, presumably offering these up as strike options back to the human controller.
Healey said: “We are determined to achieve a secure, lasting peace in Ukraine, which means putting Ukraine in the strongest possible position to prevent any return to Russian aggression.
“The UK has already provided more than 10,000 drones to Ukraine’s Armed Forces, which have proved vital in disrupting Russian troop advances and targeting positions behind the frontline.”
Of the timeline for the Anduril delivery, the UK government said Ukraine would get the weapons “over the coming months”.
Healey’s meeting with Hegseth was arranged in the aftermath of British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s successful call upon President Trump last week. In advance of the meeting, Healey said the purpose of the talk was to advance Ukraine peace plans and praised the strength of the UK-U.S. ‘special relationship’.
The United Kingdom particularly wishes to act as a ‘bridge’ between the United States and Europe and has expressed an intent to present a Europe-concocted Ukraine peacekeeper proposal to President Trump in the future.
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