The British newspaper “The Telegraph” conducted an investigation into the standards and loopholes in the United Kingdom that prevent defense start-ups from developing.
The return of international tensions, the war on European soil, and the presence of three predatory powers (United States, Russia, China) have forced European countries to redefine their priorities and reinvest in defense. Like France, the United Kingdom has focused on drones. But could the enemy of innovation be bureaucracy? This is the thesis of “The Telegraph,” which highlights the difficulty for start-ups not in producing in the UK, but in testing their technologies there. With a slogan: “These drones can defeat Putin, not bureaucracy.”
“Exceptional British companies have emerged in recent years,” explains Toby McCrindle, a lawyer who advises many of them. “They have recruited some of the best engineers from our universities, raised funds, and developed world-class capabilities. But we find ourselves in an absurd situation where they have to send their equipment out of the UK to test it.” The cause: limited spaces for conducting truly useful experiments and a sprawling bureaucracy. Obtaining testing authorization in Great Britain is often formidable and requires navigating a maze of administrative formalities.
“The Telegraph” cites the example of ZeroUSV, a company that builds autonomous boats. The company is only authorized to sail on less than 4 square kilometers in open sea in the bay of Plymouth – whereas during a NATO exercise in September 2025, the start-up had free rein over some 860 square kilometers of ocean.
The result of this “absurdistan”? Many start-ups are going to countries like Ukraine, the United States, Spain, Norway, Estonia, or Lithuania to fly their drones, sail, and conduct tests.
“We do not have adequate testing facilities; we do not have the necessary shooting ranges to evaluate anything other than drones or relatively limited systems,” laments McCrindle. “If you want to test an interceptor system against drones flying at a specific speed and altitude in a critical manner, you simply cannot do it in the UK.”
Statements from the Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokesperson mention determination to support innovators and unleash growth in the maritime sector, while the government aims for the UK to be a global leader in drone technology by collaborating with industry and regulators to develop the sector while safeguarding airspace security.
Ratsey remains unimpressed by these declarations: “We have a real advantage in Britain right now. But we will lose it if we are not allowed to continue progressing. At the moment, we are shooting ourselves in the foot.”
