Britain will adapt front line counter-drone know-how honed in Ukraine to stop contraband reaching cells. On 16 January 2026, Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy tasked the Ministry of Justice to draw on Ukrainian expertise as UK Research and Innovation added £6.5m for prison-focused R&D. ([gov.uk](Link

Scale matters. Prisons in England and Wales recorded 1,712 drone incidents between April 2024 and March 2025, a rise of around 770% since 2019, driven by organised crime moving drugs, phones and weapons into custody. ([gov.uk](Link

The new funding forms part of a cross-government effort to trial next-generation tools so officers can detect illicit flights and safely bring them down before drops occur. The goal is practical kit that can be deployed by frontline staff rather than lab-bound concepts. ([gov.uk](Link

Access for industry will come via high-stakes competitions led by the Ministry of Justice with UK Defence Innovation and UKRI, open to UK and Ukrainian firms with solutions that can be trialled quickly in live environments. Recent HMGCC Co-Creation challenges offer a useful template for speed and format. ([gov.uk](Link

Lammy announced the plan in Kyiv during events marking the first year of the UK–Ukraine 100‑Year Partnership, where ministers also advanced trade, energy and reconstruction initiatives that bind British industry more closely to Ukrainian innovation pipelines. ([gov.uk](Link

The competitive route is already in motion. In November 2025 the Ministry of Justice launched a Counter‑Drone Challenge through HMGCC Co‑Creation, offering £60,000 to develop proposals that defeat designs built to evade current sensors-the clearest signal yet of procurement appetite. ([gov.uk](Link

A follow-on HMGCC brief highlights a growing blind spot: drones steered over cellular networks rather than short‑range radio. That points to demand for sensor fusion, RF mapping and AI‑assisted classification that can run securely on premise-an opening for nimble defence-tech SMEs. ([sa.catapult.org.uk](Link

Any defeat mechanism must also clear strict legal guardrails. Interference with wireless telegraphy in prisons is permitted only with specific authorisation under the 2012 Act, updated in 2018, to prevent harmful overspill beyond the perimeter-so solutions will need surgical precision. ([legislation.gov.uk](Link

The Ministry of Justice says this push sits alongside a £40m security upgrade this year, including £10m on physical anti-drone measures such as netting and reinforced windows. The new R&D layer complements rather than replaces those defensive works. ([gov.uk](Link

For founders and systems integrators, expect short application windows, pitch sessions within weeks and pilot deployments that move quickly once safety cases are signed off. Eligibility on recent challenges has been broad-with no security clearance required at entry-which lowers the barrier for first-time defence suppliers. ([sa.catapult.org.uk](Link

Two near-term signposts: the NPSA–US DHS Capability Optimisation Research Environment trials on counter‑UAS in late February, and the London Counter‑UAS Technology conference in April. Both are likely to shape requirements and partnerships around detection and defeat. ([battle-updates.com](Link