British killer drone maker wins backing from defence giant
A British company behind a drone that will give Army troops 'an Apache gunship in the boot of their car' has secured backing from one of Europe's biggest defence giants.
Hydra Drones has developed an unmanned aerial vehicle powered by rotors and up to six rocket boosters, making it capable of carrying up to 400 kilograms in weight and matching the firepower of an Apache helicopter when multiple drones are used simultaneously.
The heavy lift capability means it can be fitted out to carry everything from laser-guided Brimstone missiles to heavy machine guns and, one day, potentially injured soldiers.
It takes just minutes to launch and can fire missiles capable of hitting tanks 20 miles away.
A less capable version of the device has already been trialled by the Army. Bosses now want to complete a prototype and were close to winning funding from the Ministry of Defence before spending freezes last year prompted them to search elsewhere.
Hydra has now received an investment – understood to be worth hundreds of thousands of pounds – from Anglo-French-Italian missile manufacturer MBDA, which has also taken a minority shareholding.
MBDA is a joint venture between BAE Systems, Airbus and Leonardo and makes Storm Shadow cruise missiles for the UK, as well as the laser-guided, tank-busting Brimstone missile.
The cash invested in Hydra is in addition to nearly £1m of finance already raised by the company – which includes several former members of the Armed Forces – from friends, family and private individuals.
It will allow Hydra to finish a prototype and push on with further trials this year, probably in September.
The Army has been working with the company since 2021 and promoted its drone at the military sector's flagship Defence and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition in London in 2023.
Tom O'Connor, managing director of Hydra Drones and a former aircraft technician for the Army, said five Hydra drones would be able to match the firepower of Apache, reducing the need to put human lives in danger.
With a full payload, they should be able to stay airborne for up to 25 minutes, meaning they could be used to safely reinforce frontline troops with significant amounts of ammunition and food supplies.
At the same time, the diesel and electric-powered devices could potentially be paired with manned aircraft for a variety of other missions.
Mr O'Connor said: 'With this small, cheap platform, the Army will be able to deliver whatever it needs to deliver without using the relatively small number of manned aircraft. Instead, those can be freed up for more specialist tasks.
'It is semi-attritable – so it will not cost crazy money.'
The drone is designed to be 'modular', meaning its power can be easily scaled up or down using different numbers of attachable jets, and troops can pack it away easily when moving around.
MBDA's investment in Hydra comes as defence companies are investing in heavy-lift drones as cheaper alternatives to helicopters for militaries around the world.
The large number of helicopter missions currently move payloads of a few hundred kilograms or less, meaning there is huge potential for drones to become the workhorses for this kind of logistics.
BAE Systems last year invested in Malloy Aeronautics, another British company developing a heavy-lift drone.
The company's T-650, which can transport payloads of up to 300kg, has been dubbed a 'Land Rover in the sky' and can also use a range of attachments.
Suzanne Jude, of MBDA, said: 'By supporting agile, pioneering SMEs such as Hybrid Drones, we're not just investing in a product, but in the future of defence ecosystems, strengthening competitive advantage in an increasingly complex global defence landscape.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mirror
an hour ago
- Daily Mirror
Fresh Florian Wirtz transfer talks emerge as Leverkusen eye Liverpool star
Liverpool are already making moves in the transfer market as they seek more star power to bolster Arne Slot's title-winning squad ahead of the upcoming 2025-26 campaign Liverpool mean business in the summer transfer window. And after swiftly securing a replacement for the outgoing Trent Alexander-Arnold, the Reds are now closing in on a British record transfer. Arne Slot and Co are in a strong position after winning the Premier League and will be out to defend their domestic crown. The Dutchman will be given the funds to strengthen the squad after predominantly working with the same group of players he inherited from Jurgen Klopp last summer. While the focus is on incomings, a number of outgoings are expected, too. Darwin Nunez could be the biggest name to depart with Liverpool weighing up a move for a new No.9. With things heating up, Mirror Football rounds up all the latest transfer news and gossip from in and around Anfield... READ MORE: Fresh Wirtz talks We're getting closer to a deal but talks between Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen are ongoing over the finer details of the monstrous package that will see Florian Wirtz head to Anfield. The Reds will not be meeting the £126million price tag that Leverkusen have slapped on their sought-after star. But they are prepared to offer the Bundesliga outfit a guaranteed £100m, with the deal likely to eclipse the current British transfer record with add-ons. Talks are set to continue with a deal edging closer... Leverkusen eye Quansah There has been plenty of speculation that players could be included in a deal to get Wirtz over the line and Bayer Leverkusen have now been credited with an interest in Jarrel Quansah. The Athletic have confirmed that the £40million-rated centre half is indeed on the German outfit's radar, with Leverkusen in the market for a new defender. Any deal for Quansah would be separate to the blockbuster one involving Wirtz, who will likely become the most expensive Premier League player of all-time should a move to Anfield be finalised. Leverkusen are in the market for a new central defender after losing Jonathan Tah on a free transfer to Bayern Munich. Kerkez gets green light for move Milos Kerkez has been given the green light to join Liverpool - by his Bournemouth team-mate, Justin Kluivert. Kerkez is known to be the Reds' top target as they seek another left-back. Talks over a deal with one of the Cherries' star performers are ongoing with Kerkez keen on joining Arne Slot's side. And Kluivert has now told Voetbal Primeur: 'He'll probably go there. I hope so for him. He hasn't really said goodbye yet, but I hope he'll make it happen there.'
Powys County Times
5 hours ago
- Powys County Times
Napoleonic prisoner of war camp buried under field bought from farmer
A Napoleonic prisoner of war camp buried under a field in Cambridgeshire has been bought by a trust with the intention of preserving it as a historic site. Norman Cross, the world's first purpose-built prisoner of war camp, was privately owned by a farmer, and has been bought by Nene Park Trust. Located near Peterborough, it contains the remains of around 1,770 French, Dutch and German soldiers captured in the Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars fought between the French and other European nations. The trust says it wants to preserve the site and make it available to the public as a historic and green space. The camp now lies barely visible under a field used for arable crops and grazing. But it previously held a self-contained town, with barracks, offices, a hospital, school, marketplace and banking system, according to historian Paul Chamberlain. It operated from 1797 to 1814 and housed around 7,000 French prisoners. The location was chosen because it was far from the sea, making it difficult for any escapees to return to France. Prisoners made intricate models from bone, wood and straw to sell at the camp market and trade for food, tobacco and wine. Around 800 of these artefacts, which include miniature ships and chateaus, are on display at the nearby Peterborough Museum and Art Gallery. The trust received £200,000 of grant funding from Historic England and £50,000 from the National Lottery Heritage Fund to buy the camp following years of negotiations. Its acquisition was fought for by resident Derek Lopez, who owned the Norman Cross Gallery near Yaxley and was an advocate of Peterborough's history. He died last year before seeing the sale complete. Duncan Wilson, chief executive of Historic England, said: 'The Norman Cross prisoner of war camp represents a pivotal moment in our shared European heritage that deserves to be better known.' Matthew Bradbury, chief executive of Nene Park Trust, said he was 'delighted' to take on the ownership of Norman Cross and wanted 'to share its green space and unique stories for generations to come'. Heritage minister Baroness Twycross said: 'Norman Cross represents a poignant chapter in our shared European story. 'The remarkable stories of those held in what was the first purpose-built prisoner of war camp should be remembered now and in the future. 'This partnership has secured this valuable heritage site for generations to come.'
Spectator
6 hours ago
- Spectator
OnlyFans is giving HMRC what it wants
Fenix International occupies the ninth floor of an innocuous office block on London's Cheapside. The street's name comes from the Old English for marketplace, and once upon a time Cheapside was just that: London's biggest meat market with butcher shops lining either side of the road. Today, the street houses financial institutions and corporate HQs. But Fenix still runs a marketplace. Some may even call it a meat market, albeit one that operates on the phones of hundreds of millions of users worldwide. Its name: OnlyFans. OnlyFans is best understood not just as a porn site, but as a social media platform with a paywall. Creators – mostly women – post photos, videos and voice notes behind monthly subscriptions. Users pay extra to tip the women, customise content and have one-to-one chats with their favourite models. Not everything on OnlyFans is X-rated, but that's the content that makes the money. An entire ecosystem has grown around OnlyFans since it was founded nine years ago by two British brothers, Tim and Thomas Stokely. One 'e-pimp' explained that successful models outsource much of their work to offshore call centres to give the illusion of intimacy with customers. Low-paid workers in Venezuela or the Philippines are hired to impersonate creators over text chats, maintaining dozens, even hundreds, of relationships with lonely men. OnlyFans' profits are enormous. In 2023, it generated nearly £5 billion in sales – up more than 2,000 per cent in four years. The company paid £127 million in tax last year, £110 million of that in corporation tax. Because Fenix is based in London, the bulk of that cash is flowing straight into the Treasury. For comparison: Britain's fishing industry – supposedly a red-line issue in Brexit – brings in just £876 million and pays next to nothing in corporation tax, while also receiving £180 million a year in tax concessions. We don't think of OnlyFans as a media company (if we think of it at all) and so we ignore what it is in business terms: a staggering success. With more than four million 'content creators' and 305 million subscribers, it would easily rank in the top three British publishing companies. It is perhaps the most successful creator-based subscription service ever. Traditional platforms can't compete – OnlyFans' revenues are twice that of North America's Aylo, which operates the world's biggest porn websites. Britain's sex industry brings in far more to the economy than politicians are comfortable admitting Britain's sex industry brings in far more to the economy than politicians are comfortable admitting. The Office for National Statistics estimates Britons spend in excess of £6 billion annually on it. It is one of the few British industries which remains a net (digital) exporter. Indeed, OnlyFans is perhaps the strongest unicorn (a privately held start-up worth more than $1 billion) in the country. It's more profitable than any other British tech start-up. And it's doing something our other digital start-ups can't: exporting to America while keeping tax revenues onshore. Two-thirds of its revenue now comes from the US, proving that even in a global tech economy dominated by Silicon Valley, British firms can still compete. OnlyFans' success makes it all the more striking that, according to Reuters, Fenix is in talks to sell. Los Angeles-based Forest Road Company is leading a group of investors in negotiations to buy the business for £6 billion. It's rumoured that other suitors are vying for attention and that shares may be sold on the stock market. Either way, one of Britain's few successful exports could soon be gone. It's awkward to defend pornography, and so politicians don't try. Parliament hosts thousands of lobbying events every year – payday lenders, bookies, vape companies, even arms dealers turn up for drinks and canapés. There is no 'sex tech reception'. Ministers fall over themselves to visit impressive-looking factories that are in fact barely relevant. For example, Glass Futures, a research and production plant for the glass industry based in St Helens, was recently picked by Keir Starmer as the perfect location for his speech decrying 'Farage's fantasy economics'. The plant is a not-for-profit that makes £7 million in annual sales. OnlyFans pays more in tax in a month than Glass Futures earns in a year. But no MP would be caught dead at OnlyFans' Cheapside HQ, despite, I'm told, many invitations to visit. Neither has any politician ever defended the porn industry in a debate on innovation, exports or growth. The most recent House of Lords research note on 'the impact of pornography on society' contains no mention of the words 'economy', 'tax' or 'finance'. Of course, money isn't everything. The harms of porn – to women, to relationships, to the minds of teenage boys – are real and considerable. We might well be better off banning the whole thing. But if we are going to wage a moral war on porn, we should at least be honest about what we're sacrificing. The money is real – and it's already in the bank of HMRC.
