Britain can shake off US and become a drone superpower, says defence boss
Military drones offer the quickest route for Europe to rebuild its arms industry and reduce reliance on US weaponry, according to the boss of a key UK defence supplier.
Peter Dilnot, the chief executive of GKN Aerospace parent Melrose Industries, said governments should prioritise investment in unmanned aircraft, because they take much less time to develop compared with traditional military equipment such as fighter planes.
Mr Dilnot said European authorities were already stepping up drone programmes, which have played a central role in the Ukraine conflict.
He said: 'Quite a lot of the development is uncrewed aircraft and cycles for those are a bit faster. If you don't strap someone to something you can speed up the development cycle. Because of what's happened, quite a lot of that is going on underneath the hood.'
Mr Dilnot said Donald Trump's recent stance on Ukraine had given the European defence sector a new impetus, as he said that companies such as GKN 'will step up' production.
GKN is a supplier for military programmes such as the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer drone, for which it produces composite tail sections and lightweight landing gear.
Mr Dilnot said: 'I wouldn't describe it as a war footing, but there is an urgency around this. It will take time.'
Time will also be needed for Europe to reduce its reliance on American hardware, he added, particularly given that the vast majority of the West's defence spending is on US equipment.
He said: 'Much of European defence spending on procurement is actually on US platforms. You can't change that overnight.'
US programmes are the cornerstone of Melrose's defence business, led by the Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter, whose European customers include the UK, Germany and Italy. It also works on the Boeing Apache attack helicopter used by the British Army.
Meanwhile, despite increased tensions between Europe and Mr Trump, Mr Dilnot said he saw little danger of the US pulling the plug on defence exports.
He said: 'Unless there's a major breakdown between Europe and the US that goes beyond the tariff element, then it would be an act of self-harm for them.
'It's the inverse of everything that Mr Trump is driving towards. What they want is for other countries to be spending more on their kit.'
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