UK awards £3.16 million contracts for low‑cost air‑defence interceptors

The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded £3.16 million to three small‑ and medium‑sized firms—Frankenberg Technologies, Greenjets and Cambridge Aerospace—to develop low‑cost interceptors capable of shooting down drones and other airborne threats. The contracts are the first UK awards under the five‑nation Low‑Cost Effectors and Autonomous Platforms (LEAP) programme, which also includes France, Poland, Italy and Germany.

The programme aims to create affordable, mass‑producible air‑defence effectors to counter the growing use of cheap, large‑scale drones, a threat highlighted by Russia’s launch of more than 200 drones per day against Ukraine in March 2026. Delivered by the National Armaments Directorate’s Commercial X team, the projects are intended to boost UK defence capabilities, support jobs in Cambridge, Milton Keynes, Bristol and Stevenage, and stimulate broader European defence industry collaboration. "With the award of these contracts, Commercial X and the LCADE programme are demonstrating the powerful, low‑cost capabilities we can deliver when we open up Defence and collaborate with some of the UK’s most agile, innovative companies," said National Armaments Director Rupert Pearce.