Drones could soon be printed on the battlefield to give troops an instant edge in combat, the Army has revealed. British soldiers have produced and flown suicide drones using 3D printers during a live-fire exercise in Kenya. The trial took place during Exercise Bull Storm, which involved around 1,400 troops including 3rd Battalion The Rifles and reconnaissance teams from the Royal Yorkshire Regiment.
The drones were designed and built in the field using commercially available components and software.
Major Steve Watts, from 3 Rifles, led the project and said it could mark a first for the Army. He said: “I can’t be 100% certain but I believe it’s the first time anyone in the Army has done this
“We obtained what’s called special purpose clearance from the Military Aviation Authority to build and fly our self-made drones during this training.”
Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers technicians printed the parts on-site using portable generators and assembled them with items such as circuit boards, cameras and batteries.
The printers worked in high temperatures thanks to improvised methods of regulating airflow. “It took about three-and-a-half hours to print one drone in Kenya,” Maj Watts said. Each first-person view (FPV) drone cost around £400 and could reach speeds of up to 190mph.
They were launched using a cam net and Land Rover setup, and remained airborne for approximately three and a half minutes.
The design was based on the DK 5 model developed by the Edinburgh Drone Company.
Troops used the drones to simulate strikes and reconnaissance in combat scenarios.
Maj Watts said: “If we had this capacity in the British Army and I’m a platoon commander planning a mission, I could print off some bespoke FPVs now and fly them off on the same day.”
He added: “Imagine if we had whole platoons trained to use these weapons on operations, armed with a virtually endless supply of them. That would increase the Army’s fighting power many times over.
“There can be few more effective ways of achieving that than printing our own attack drones in the field at the point of need.”