Counter UAS (Uncrewed Aerial Systems) Technologies

This competition supports counter UAS technologies that address the needs of national security, protection of critical national infrastructure and wider government priorities.

The competition will help support a resilient UK national security and defence ecosystem by accelerating innovation and the development of critical sovereign capabilities. It will also support ambitious companies developing technology ideas with high potential to scale, boost economic growth and reinforce a robust UK supply chain.

The aim of this competition is to develop new solutions to counter the illegal use of UAS around civil and military sites, including airports, prisons, critical national infrastructure, schools and public events.

We are interested in dual use technologies that can be applied across civil, defence, and security and intelligence domains.

We welcome solutions that can effectively detect, track, identify, decide and defeat current and emerging threats whilst minimising collateral damage and interference with communications and electronics.

Your project must develop and appropriately test, validate or demonstrate one of the following solution types:

1. Solutions that provide protection from UAS across UK defence sites, airports, schools, public events and sites of critical national infrastructure (CNI), with a focus on cost effective and scalable solutions appropriate to the location. Technology solutions should already be at TRL5 or above and aiming for introduction and deployment by 2028.​

2. Affordable solutions that protect the UK’s prison estate from illegal UAS activity. Early stage developments and technology validation in the laboratory environment of future systems that can adapt to a rapidly changing threat environment, are typically up to TRL4, and aimed for introduction and deployment by 2030.​

Organisations are encouraged to actively use this B2Match platform to explore opportunities, build partnerships and strengthen their approach to participating in the competition.

The UK faces a challenging and evolving threat environment, characterised by geopolitical instability and fast paced technological change. There are growing risks of UAS ingress to defence sites, critical national infrastructure, prisons, airports, schools, and public events. In order to meet the challenges these threats pose there is a need for development of novel solutions to better meet current threats in a wide range of use cases and protect against future threats. This requires collaboration within the innovation ecosystem to understand those needs and develop solutions whilst minimising impacts such as those on other legitimate communications and electronics systems. Strong understanding of how systems can efficiently integrate into existing infrastructure and operations is key to the success of this competition. 

This B2Match platform provides a dedicated space for organisations to:

• Highlight your capabilities, areas of interest and key partners you are looking for

• Gain insights to improve your network and approach for counter-UAS technology development

• Identify supporting services including test facilities and organisations with relevant experience of specialist areas such as regulatory and legal compliance

• Meet with peers, collaborators and ecosystem stakeholders to discuss cooperation and partnerships