How to build a prison air defense
2025-11-26
Top 23 Counter-Drone Companies in the United Kingdom
The United Kingdom runs one of the densest counter-drone supply chains in Europe: primes, radar houses, RF effector makers, interceptor startups and independent test ranges, all within a few hours of one another. This guide profiles the 23 UK counter-drone companies that matter most to buyers, integrators and procurement officers, and sets out who does what. The reason the list is this long is demand: the Ministry of Defence recorded 266 reported UAV incidents near Defence sites in 2025, more than double the 126 logged in 2024 (UK MoD, 2026).
The threat is not hypothetical. Between 20 and 26 November 2024, sophisticated UAVs were observed over several US air bases in the UK — RAF Fairford, Feltwell, Lakenheath and Mildenhall — with approximately 170 sightings reported, around half of them judged credible, and the IISS later linked the launches to a Russian shadow-fleet vessel that was docked in the UK at the time (IISS, 2026). Prisons run a parallel problem: the National Audit Office reports drone sightings around prisons in England and Wales rising by more than 750% between 2019 and 2023, and by a further 43% between 2023-24 and 2024-25 (NAO, 2026). Whitehall is funding the response at scale: the newly formed UK Defence Innovation committed £142 million in its first year — about £30 million of it to counter-drone — against a ringfenced budget of at least £400 million a year (UK MoD, 2025), inside a global counter-UAS market heading from USD 9.17 billion in 2026 to USD 29.70 billion by 2031 (MarketsandMarkets, 2026).
How We Ranked the Top UK Counter-Drone Companies
Companies are ranked by how directly the core product serves a counter-drone mission, then by technology differentiation, track record with defence, security and government buyers, international reach and public footprint. That ordering puts primes and platform vendors at the top and test, training and advisory specialists at the bottom — the shape of a real shortlist rather than a size chart. If you are new to the subject, a primer on the main types of drone detectors explains the sensor categories that recur below.
Ranked by how directly each company’s core product serves a counter-drone mission, these are the UK counter-drone companies that matter most in 2026. Size is shown in each card, but it is not the ranking criterion — a two-person software team can outrank a 500-person manufacturer if the product is more central to stopping a drone.
Note: Company profiles are based on publicly available data from each company’s website and LinkedIn profile.
1. BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is the largest organisation on this list: more than 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence specialists in 13 countries, inside one of the world’s biggest defence primes. Its counter-drone relevance is systems-level rather than product-level — cross-domain integration, electronic systems and threat intelligence that feed a national air picture rather than a single effector.
01
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence
TIER 1 · MULTI-DOMAIN C2 & CYBER
Home to over 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts across 13 countries
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 1K-5K employees |
| 🌐 Website | baesystems.com |
BAE Systems Digital Intelligence employs more than 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence specialists across 13 countries, working at the heart of organisations that keep vital infrastructure running, national security protected and armed forces prepared. Its teams weave digital threads of data together so customers get the insight they need to make critical decisions. It is part of BAE Systems, one of the world’s largest defence contractors, and lists counter-drone (C-UAS) among its capabilities.
2. HENSOLDT UK
HENSOLDT UK is the radar specialist on this list: the Kelvin Hughes heritage, now behind the SharpEye solid-state pulse Doppler transceiver, built to pick out very small radar cross-section targets in heavy clutter and bad weather. That is the hard part of drone detection at sea and on the coast, and it is why HENSOLDT sits inside so many naval, coastal and border surveillance programmes.
02
HENSOLDT UK
TIER 1 · MARITIME & COASTAL RADAR
Detect and Protect
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 201-500 employees |
| 🌐 Website | uk.hensoldt.net |
HENSOLDT UK manufactures and supplies maritime navigation and surveillance radar, with deep roots as Kelvin Hughes, a name trusted in radar for more than 70 years. Its core technology is the SharpEye solid-state pulse Doppler radar transceiver, designed to detect very small radar cross-section targets in severe weather or high clutter conditions. Since joining HENSOLDT in 2017 it has also become the group’s gateway for radar, optronics, spectrum dominance and avionics in the UK defence market.
3. Chess Dynamics
Chess Dynamics supplies the electro-optical layer that most counter-drone chains depend on: stabilised surveillance and fire-control systems and turrets, plus Vision4ce real-time video processing that turns a camera feed into a track. As a Cohort group company it also wraps installation, training and maintenance around the hardware — useful for buyers who do not want to assemble an integrator themselves.
03
Chess Dynamics
TIER 1 · EO TRACKING & FIRE CONTROL
Fire control, surveillance, and positioning systems for demanding environments in the defence sector
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 201-500 employees |
| 🌐 Website | chess-dynamics.com |
Chess Dynamics is a systems house based in Horsham, Plymouth and Wokingham supplying surveillance, fire control and positioning systems for the land and maritime domains. Its portfolio includes counter-sUAV (drone) protection systems and the Vision4ce brand of real-time video and image processing for electro-optic systems, with survey, installation, training and maintenance offered across the whole product range. Chess is a subsidiary of the Cohort group.
4. MARSS Group
MARSS is the command-and-control play: NiDAR fuses sensor data from air, land, sea and subsurface domains into one operational picture, with deployments across more than 60 strategic locations. Buyers who already own radars, cameras and RF sensors but cannot get them to agree on what they are seeing tend to end up here — sensor-agnostic data fusion is the whole product.
04
MARSS Group
TIER 1 · AI COMMAND & CONTROL
Outperforming the threats of tomorrow. Today.
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 51-200 employees |
| 🌐 Website | marss.com |
MARSS is a defence and security technology company specialising in AI-enabled command and control (C2/C4I), autonomous mission management and multi-domain surveillance. Founded in 2005, it works with NATO, defence agencies, governments and industry. Its NiDAR platform fuses air, land, sea and subsurface sensor data into a single operational picture, with deployments across more than 60 strategic locations protecting borders, naval assets, critical infrastructure and high-value environments.
5. OSL Technology
OSL Technology is the airport-scale integrator: Heathrow and Gatwick, plus the UK Ministry of Defence, run counter-drone capability built on third-party sensors fused by its proprietary FACE engine. Where false alarms cost more than missed detections — a live runway, a crowded terminal — this is the UK integrator to benchmark others against. OSL is now part of the Danish Terma Group.
05
OSL Technology
TIER 1 · INTEGRATED SITE C-UAS
Experience our industry-leading Integrated C-UAS Solutions
| 🏭 Industry | Security Systems Services |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 51-200 employees |
| 🌐 Website | osltechnology.com |
OSL Technology, a Terma Group company, delivers integrated counter-UAS solutions that combine advanced third-party sensors with its own fusion technology to improve detection, cut false alarms and speed up decisions. At the centre is FACE, an AI-powered fusion engine that brings multi-layered, technology-agnostic capabilities to security teams. Customers include Heathrow and Gatwick airports and the UK Ministry of Defence, protecting airports, military sites and critical infrastructure against both aerial and ground threats.
6. CRFS
CRFS supplies the RF layer other counter-drone architectures are built on rather than a complete defeat system of its own: wideband spectrum monitoring, direction finding and 3D geolocation, packaged as the RFeye ecosystem. That makes it a component supplier to integrators as much as a vendor in its own right — you buy the detection and the bearings, then decide separately what to do about them. Its acquisition by Motorola Solutions in 2025 moved it inside a much larger buyer with existing public-safety and defence channels.
06
CRFS
TIER 2 · RF SPECTRUM MONITORING & GEOLOCATION
Extraordinary RF Technology
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Cambridge, UK |
| 👥 Size | 51-200 employees |
| 🌐 Website | crfs.com |
CRFS designs and manufactures hardware and software to detect, capture, monitor, geolocate and analyse RF signals in congested and contested environments. Its multi-mission RFeye ecosystem is a TRL-9 solution widely deployed by NATO nations and allies, spanning spectrum monitoring, electronic warfare support, direction finding and geolocation, RF recording and I/Q data capture, and forensic wideband signal analysis. Founded in 2007 and based in Cambridge, the company was acquired by Motorola Solutions in 2025.
7. Cambridge Pixel
Cambridge Pixel sells the software layer beneath a radar rather than the radar itself: acquisition, scan conversion, tracking, multisensor fusion and display, hardware-agnostic and typically embedded inside someone else’s product. If you are shortlisting sensors, read our guide to choosing a drone detection radar first — Cambridge Pixel is the layer sitting behind several of the options on that page.
07
Cambridge Pixel
TIER 2 · RADAR SOFTWARE & SENSOR FUSION
Open-architecture radar, camera and sensor processing software, trusted by the US Navy, Royal Navy and defence primes
| 🏭 Industry | Software Development |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | cambridgepixel.com |
Cambridge Pixel develops open-architecture software and hardware for radar, camera and sensor systems, used in defence, security and maritime applications in more than 65 countries. Its modular, hardware-agnostic components cover radar acquisition and scan conversion, target tracking, multisensor fusion, display and effector control, plus SDKs and simulators. Users include the US Navy, the Royal Navy, Lockheed Martin, BAE Systems, Saab and Hanwha.
8. SteelRock Technologies
SteelRock’s NightFighter family covers the RF effector slot: portable, handheld and weapon-mounted systems that sever the radio and video links to a drone without firing a shot, all manufactured in Britain. Weapon-mounted form factors and third-party C2 integration make it a natural fit for mobile teams and vehicle platforms. For the cost logic behind the approach, see why jamming remains the most cost-effective anti-drone strategy.
08
SteelRock Technologies
TIER 2 · RF NON-KINETIC EFFECTORS
Innovator in Counter-UAV solutions for military, police and civil protection applications. Manufactured in Britain.
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | London, UK |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | sruav.co.uk |
SteelRock Technologies develops counter-UAV, electronic warfare and targeted equipment interference systems for military, public safety and civil protection use. Its NightFighter family of portable and handheld systems delivers non-kinetic RF neutralisation of drones and Wi-Fi connected devices, and is offered in portable, handheld and weapon-mounted form factors that can be integrated with third-party C2 and remote weapon station solutions.
9. Vizgard
Vizgard attacks the operator-burden problem: FortifAI runs computer vision on the edge so a camera can classify and reacquire a small, agile target without a human staring at the feed. Its counter-UAS detect/track/classify mode runs from ground or airborne platforms, which makes it a practical retrofit for existing PTZ estates that need to become semi-autonomous before new sensors are bought.
09
Vizgard
TIER 2 · EDGE AI VISION
Edge-based visual autonomy software to fully automate the cameras that protect us
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | vizgard.com |
Vizgard builds edge-based visual autonomy software that automates optical security and defence systems which traditionally demand repetitive or prolonged monitoring. Optimised to run on the edge, its FortifAI engine provides long-range visual intelligence, external sensor fusion and low-latency platform control, detecting and tracking people, faces, cars, boats, drones, birds, planes and helicopters, with single-object tracking and reacquisition of small agile targets under PTZ control, and counter-UAS detect, track and classify capability from ground or air platforms.
10. Canopy Inc
Canopy’s Defeat product is a UK-sovereign GNSS navigation influence platform — it works on a drone’s position fix rather than its radio link, so it reaches threats that RF jamming cannot. Court-admissible evidence at every engagement, CAP 2563 compliance and a supply chain with no PRC components are the differentiators for regulated sites, and it is a DASA-engaged programme.
10
Canopy Inc
TIER 2 · GNSS DEFEAT PLATFORM
UK sovereign drone intelligence, inspection and defeat. Observe. Detect. Command.
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Hessle, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | canopyinc.co |
Canopy is a UK drone intelligence and defeat company serving critical national infrastructure operators, defence programmes and commercial clients. Canopy Defeat is a UK-sovereign GNSS navigation influence platform for sensitive sites and CNI protection that detects, classifies and defeats hostile drone threats through a fully automated pipeline requiring a single operator confirmation. It is CAP 2563 compliant, generates court-admissible evidence at every engagement, runs on a 100% UK supply chain with no PRC components, and is a DASA-engaged programme. The wider Canopy platform spans C2, Observe, Defeat, Sight, Beacon and a VR training simulator.
11. Gibson Robotics
Gibson Robotics’ Red Kite is a fixed-wing capture effector: it intercepts a drone and brings it down intact rather than burning it out of the sky, which is what makes the evidence and the wreckage usable afterwards. It integrates with an existing detection network and is ITAR-free, which suits operators who cannot accept fragmentation over a crowd, a runway or a prison yard. Compare it with the older net-gun approach to drone capture.
11
Gibson Robotics
TIER 2 · NON-DESTRUCTIVE INTERCEPTION
Precision Defence for Drone-Threatened Skies
| 🏭 Industry | Robotics Engineering |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Glasgow, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | gibsonrobotics.com |
Gibson Robotics, founded in Glasgow, builds non-destructive drone interception for critical national infrastructure and sensitive sites. Its flagship Red Kite system is an autonomous fixed-wing capture effector that integrates with existing detection networks and neutralises hostile drones without collateral risk, described by the company as ITAR-free and forensic-ready for defence, aviation, CNI and law-enforcement operators.
12. Beyond Mission & Impossible
BMI brings the Ukrainian production lesson to Britain: a two-part airframe and solder-free electronics that cut drone assembly time by up to 60–70%, plus a patent-pending acoustic homing seeker for interceptors hunting Shahed-type threats and fibre-optic spools reaching 50 km. It sells manufacturing know-how and components as much as finished systems, which makes it a partner for primes rather than a rival to them.
12
Beyond Mission & Impossible
TIER 3 · INTERCEPTORS AT SCALE
Unmanned Systems & C-US Field-Proven Technologies Scaled to Mass Production
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | bmi.army |
BMI was founded after its founder worked alongside drone and counter-drone manufacturers and combat units in Ukraine, where more than 350 drone companies operate but only a few manufacture at scale. It redesigned airframe manufacture around a two-part, assembly-friendly design with solder-free electronics, cutting drone assembly time by up to 60–70%. Current work covers a universal dovetail rail for tool-free payload mounting, a patent-pending acoustic homing system for interceptor and FPV drones targeting Shahed-type threats, and fibre-optic spool systems with ranges up to 50 km.
13. Swerfvalk
Swerfvalk pairs a hydrogen-powered, long-endurance UAV with an AI counter-drone layer: Valk One flies the surveillance mission with a 5 kg payload and mesh relay, then Valk Vortex detects, classifies and neutralises hostile drones. The end-to-end framing is unusual — most UK vendors sell either the platform or the defeat system, and few offer end-to-end coverage of a perimeter.
13
Swerfvalk
TIER 3 · UAV + AI DEFENCE ECOSYSTEM
Precision in Flight, Innovation in Sight
| 🏭 Industry | Airlines and Aviation |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | London, UK |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | swerfvalk.com |
Swerfvalk designs hydrogen-powered UAVs and couples them with an AI-driven counter-drone system to build an end-to-end aerial defence ecosystem. Its Valk One platform is a long-endurance, zero-emission UAV with a 5 kg payload and deployable mesh-relay communications, while Valk Vortex autonomously detects, classifies and neutralises hostile drones for border surveillance and critical infrastructure protection. The company is headquartered in London.
14. PDA Electronics
PDA Electronics is the electronic-countermeasures house: mobile phone detectors and jammers for government agencies, extended to counter-drone systems off the same RF engineering base. It is a discreet supplier rather than a marketer, which is typical of the sub-contracted EW work behind larger C-UAS programmes.
14
PDA Electronics
TIER 3 · RF JAMMING & DETECTION
Phone detectors and jammers for government-associated agencies
| 🏭 Industry | Security and Investigations |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Buckinghamshire, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | pdaelectronics.com |
PDA Electronics manufactures a wide range of phone detectors and jammers for government-associated agencies, alongside electronic countermeasure equipment, mobile phone detection and counter-drone systems. The company is based in Latimer, Buckinghamshire.
15. Quell
Quell combines two unusual ingredients: a deep neural network platform, Deep Truth, and additive manufacturing. The output is aimed at anti-air and anti-maritime threat, counter-surveillance and concealment — so it is a component and analysis supplier to C-UAS programmes rather than a boxed drone-detection product.
15
Quell
TIER 3 · AI & ADDITIVE MANUFACTURING
Defence & Security technologies – powered by Deep Truth
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | quell.scot |
Quell develops next-generation AI and additive-manufactured defence and security technologies, built on its deep neural network and machine learning platform, Deep Truth. Its solutions address anti-air threat, anti-maritime threat, counter-surveillance and concealment, protecting military and civilian assets and critical national infrastructure.
16. Advanced Research and Combat Technologies
ARC Technologies is rebuilding the cartridge: inductively fired, cased telescoped polymer ammunition that allows selectable lethal and less-lethal effects from one round, with counter-drone small arms as one of its three verticals. That puts it at the hard-kill end of the market — relevant to buyers who need a gun-based last line of defence, not a jammer or an interceptor.
16
Advanced Research and Combat Technologies
TIER 3 · COUNTER-DRONE SMALL ARMS
Defence Technology. Redefined.
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | arc-technologies.co.uk |
Advanced Research and Combat Technologies (ARC) is an advanced research and technology company rebuilding weapon systems from first principles. Its foundational patent-pending innovation is inductively fired, cased telescoped polymer ammunition, which replaces the percussion cartridge and enables selectable effects from a single round plus built-in security. ARC is developing that architecture across three verticals: small arms, from rifles to sidearms to counter-drone systems; autonomous systems built around integrated weapons; and artillery.
17. Claymore Industries Scotland
Claymore Industries is a Scottish precision-engineering house turning out weapon systems and counter-drone hardware for modern battlefields, with tactical firearms and next-generation security platforms alongside. It is a small, early-stage manufacturer, so expect engineering-partner engagements rather than off-the-shelf catalogue buying.
17
Claymore Industries Scotland
TIER 3 · WEAPON SYSTEMS
Engineering Victory
| 🏭 Industry | Defense and Space Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Glasgow, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | claymoreindustries.co.uk |
Claymore Industries is a Scottish defence technology company developing advanced weapon systems and counter-drone solutions for modern battlefields, specialising in precision engineering, tactical firearms and next-generation security platforms. The company is based in Glasgow.
18. ISS Aerospace
ISS Aerospace is a dual-use aerial systems house: it builds autonomous platforms and integration for energy, defence and environmental work, including defence decoy and countermeasures systems and surveillance. It is a partner for programmes that need airframes and autonomy developed to a specific operational problem rather than bought off a shelf.
18
ISS Aerospace
TIER 3 · AUTONOMOUS AERIAL SYSTEMS
Delivering An Autonomous Future
| 🏭 Industry | Aviation and Aerospace Component Manufacturing |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | issaerospace.com |
ISS Aerospace develops autonomous aerial systems, integrating its own technologies and those of its partners into systems intended to improve the cost-effectiveness and safety of client operations. Its focus is the energy, defence and environmental sectors, with projects worldwide spanning seismic deployment, UXO and ERW mapping, trace gas detection, photogrammetry, linear infrastructure inspection, wind turbine inspection, defence decoy and countermeasures systems, and surveillance systems.
19. Shield UAS Solutions
Shield UAS Solutions is the outsourcing option: a system-agnostic practice that supplies C-UAS advisors, training, threat and risk assessments and field service representatives — and under its CaaS model will deploy its own operators to run your counter-drone operation, so you never buy the kit. That is a genuinely different procurement route from buying hardware.
19
Shield UAS Solutions
TIER 3 · C-UAS AS A SERVICE
Market leaders in C-UAS Advisors, C-UAS Technical Solutions and C-UAS as a Service
| 🏭 Industry | Business Consulting and Services |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Grantham, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | shielduassolutions.uk |
Shield UAS Solutions is a system-agnostic C-UAS practice offering three services: technical advisors, technical services, and C-UAS as a Service (CaaS). Technical services cover C-UAS training, threat and risk assessments and field service representatives deployable globally. Under CaaS, Shield deploys its own operators to design and run a counter-drone operation on the client’s site, so the client does not have to buy its own equipment.
20. Radnor Range
Radnor Range is where counter-drone hardware gets proved: a Welsh-border range complex with a controlled airspace for flying UAVs and a confined site for testing RF and laser emitters, ISO 17025 accredited for blast and ballistic testing and approved as a Dstl and MoD training range. If you need a counter-UAS claim independently evidenced under explosive licence, this is one of the few UK sites that can host it.
20
Radnor Range
TIER 3 · C-UAS TEST RANGE
Testing and evaluation of weapons, ordnance, munitions and explosives, autonomous systems and novel weapon systems
| 🏭 Industry | Defense & Space |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | United Kingdom |
| 👥 Size | 11-50 employees |
| 🌐 Website | radnor.org.uk |
Radnor Range is a privately owned UK organisation centred on a multi-disciplinary range complex providing testing, evaluation and training services, focused on weapons, ordnance, munitions and explosives and their effects. It offers a controlled environment for flying UAVs and drones and a confined site for testing RF and laser emitters. The external range supports blast trials up to 75 kg HE and firing trials to 3,000 m; facilities are accredited to ISO 17025 for blast and ballistic testing, and it is a UK MoD supplier and an approved Dstl and MoD training range.
21. Aviation Innovation Centre, Goodwood Aerodrome
The Aviation Innovation Centre at Goodwood Aerodrome sells something most C-UAS vendors need and few can get: real airspace to test in. It supports BVLOS flight, UAS, unmanned traffic management, urban air mobility and counter-drone technology, with demonstration facilities close to London — the practical place to prove a system in front of buyers.
21
Aviation Innovation Centre, Goodwood Aerodrome
TIER 3 · C-UAS FLIGHT TEST AIRSPACE
Dedicated to the development, testing and showcasing of emerging technologies in the UAV industry
| 🏭 Industry | Airlines and Aviation |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Chichester, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | aviationinnovationcentre.com |
Based at Goodwood Aerodrome in the South Downs, the Aviation Innovation Centre provides airspace, facilities and services dedicated to the development, testing, trialling and showcasing of BVLOS flight, unmanned aerial systems, unmanned traffic management, urban air mobility, counter-drone technology and other emerging aviation technologies. It sits within easy reach of London.
22. The Unmanned Company
The Unmanned Company sells the step before procurement: CUAS Planner simulates drone threat scenarios against candidate defensive systems using validated multi-rotor physics and AI agent behaviours, so deployment decisions can be tested at scale before hardware is bought. It is the software counterpart to live trials, and the cheapest way to find out that a proposed sensor layout has a blind spot.
22
The Unmanned Company
TIER 3 · C-UAS SIMULATION SOFTWARE
Providers of Drone Defence Planning Software for Defence and Security
| 🏭 Industry | Operations Consulting |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Warrington, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | theunmannedcompany.com |
The Unmanned Company develops simulation software for counter-UAS planning. Its flagship product, CUAS Planner, lets defence and security organisations model drone threat scenarios, evaluate defensive systems and make procurement and deployment decisions with evidence. Built on validated multi-rotor physics and AI-driven agent behaviours, it complements real-world trials by letting planners test tactics and technologies at scale. The company was founded in the UK in 2022 and is based at Sci-Tech Daresbury.
23. Paragon Drones
Paragon Drones runs counter-UAS consultancy and drone detection alongside a commercial UAV inspection business, which means its operators already fly the kind of low-altitude work that a detection system has to classify correctly. For utilities, construction and critical infrastructure, that combination of sensing and flying is a practical single supplier.
23
Paragon Drones
TIER 3 · DETECTION & UAV INSPECTION
Counter-UAS, Drone Detection & UAV Inspection Services UK
| 🏭 Industry | Security Systems Services |
|---|---|
| 📍 Location | Rochester, UK |
| 👥 Size | 2-10 employees |
| 🌐 Website | paragondrones.co.uk |
Paragon Drones provides counter-UAS consultancy, drone detection systems and specialist UAV inspection services across the UK, supporting critical infrastructure, utilities and security-sensitive environments with risk-led airspace security and advanced drone operations. Its operational inspection work covers confined-space inspection, topographic mapping, magnetometer surveys, UXO detection, utility asset inspection, 3D site modelling and geospatial data collection.
How to Choose a Counter-Drone Partner in the UK
Start with the threat model, not the catalogue. A fixed site that needs early warning should shortlist detection first: HENSOLDT UK where coverage is coastal or naval, Cambridge Pixel where you are integrating your own radar, CRFS where the RF emitter itself has to be found and geolocated, and MARSS or OSL Technology when the problem is fusing sensors you already own. Sites that need to stop a drone must choose between non-kinetic and kinetic effects, and in the UK that choice is constrained by law as much as by physics — only the police and certain agencies may currently interfere with a drone, any active emitter needs OFCOM authorisation, and the Armed Forces Bill extends equivalent powers to Defence sites. Buyers comparing the wider European market should read our German counter-drone companies and Danish counter-UAS companies lists; the shortlist logic is the same, the suppliers are not.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many drone incidents are reported near UK defence sites?
The Ministry of Defence recorded 266 reported UAV incidents near Defence sites in 2025, up from 126 in 2024 — a doubling that led to new legal powers for Defence personnel to defeat drones at those sites, and restricted airspace at 40 defence sites. Prisons show the same trend: the National Audit Office reports drone sightings around prisons in England and Wales increasing by more than 750% between 2019 and 2023, and by a further 43% between 2023-24 and 2024-25.
Which UK companies make counter-drone detection systems?
Detection splits into four sensor families. HENSOLDT UK and Cambridge Pixel cover radar — SharpEye hardware in the first case, open-architecture radar software in the second. SteelRock Technologies and PDA Electronics cover radio frequency, as does CRFS for wideband spectrum monitoring and direction finding. Vizgard and Chess Dynamics cover electro-optical tracking. MARSS and OSL Technology fuse those layers into a single air picture.
Who supplies counter-drone systems to UK airports?
OSL Technology, a Terma Group company, is the clearest reference: its integrated C-UAS is deployed at Heathrow and Gatwick, fusing third-party sensors through its FACE engine. One caveat for anyone planning an airport procurement — no shutdown of a UK airport by drones could be verified in 2025 or 2026. The high-profile closures were continental, at Copenhagen in September 2025 and Brussels and Liège in November 2025, while the UK’s documented incidents have concentrated on defence sites and prisons.
Can UK companies jam or shoot down drones legally?
Not on their own behalf, and not everywhere. Interfering with a drone is currently reserved to the police and certain government agencies, any active-emitting system requires OFCOM authorisation, and it must not interfere with protected communications. The Armed Forces Bill introduced in January 2026 gives Defence personnel equivalent powers at Defence sites, and the Civil Aviation Authority issued guidance in 2026 after a rise in military and police jamming disrupted civil airspace — RF effects have historically affected GNSS out to 100 nautical miles and 40,000 feet. For everyone else, detection, assessment and a rehearsed response plan are the lawful starting point.
How much is the UK spending on counter-drone technology?
Substantial and rising. UK Defence Innovation committed £142 million in its first year — roughly £30 million of it to counter-drone — against a ringfenced budget of at least £400 million a year, and placed a £300 million DragonFire laser contract for Type 45 destroyers starting 2027. The MoD says counter-UAS spending has quadrupled and exceeds £200 million this year. The 2024 Defence Drone Strategy set aside at least £4.5 billion over a decade.
