Russia is ‘laughing’ at UK military drones ‘built to fail’, warns expert behind Ukraine’s drone war

5 June 2025, 15:54 | Updated: 8 June 2025, 09:24

The British and French armed forces risk pouring billions into drone programmes that would 'crash and burn' in real combat, according to a leading British volunteer at the heart of Ukraine’s drone war.

Richard Woodruff, from East Sussex, has helped produce thousands of attack drones through his charity Front Line Kit - cheap, remote-controlled aircraft that have destroyed millions of pounds in tanks, air defences, and vehicles behind enemy lines.

But he said he’s “terrified” by what he’s seen in recent promotional footage of UK and French drone models, describing them as poorly built, underpowered, and unfit for combat.

His warning comes as the Government commits £2 billion to drone warfare under its Strategic Defence Review, promising to arm British forces with the “weapons of the future”.

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Instead, Mr Woodruff said the Ministry of Defence risks wasting money on experimental and unproven systems, instead of learning from battlefield-tested, mass-producible drones in Ukraine.

He said: “I’ve seen the RAF’s new model, and it’s terribly built. “You’d expect some level of quality control if you’re going to promote this to the world.

“The Russians will be laughing at how unprepared we are.”

The model he reviewed — a 7-inch First Person View (FPV) drone shown in RAF social media posts — is meant to be part of the UK’s push toward autonomous and semi-autonomous weapons. In a visual inspection at their workshop in Lviv, Western Ukraine, Mr Woodruff and his team claim to have found multiple design faults, including:

• A ‘weak’ frame lacking ‘structural integrity’
• Visibly low-quality motors
• A bent antenna and undersized battery limiting signal and range

Mr Woodruff also claimed France’s new mobile 3D printing units, designed to make drones directly on the battlefield, are destined to fail.

He said the idea has already been tried “hundreds of times" and abandoned by drone units across Ukraine.

He said: “It’s not strong enough, even with the strongest [material].

“When you strap a munition to it, the frame flexes and changes the flight characteristics, sending the flight computer into a frenzy, meaning these things crash.“It’s terrifying that I know more about simple drone production than the British and French militaries.”

His comments come days after Ukrainian special forces reportedly used £250 drones of the kind his team builds to strike deep inside Russia, damaging 30% of the country’s long-range bomber fleet.

He said: “We’ve hit 25-million-dollar air defence systems with our drones, so we understand how to make a big difference with something that costs £250.”

Woodruff’s blunt assessment of British and French drones echoes broader criticism that the Government still lacks a clear plan to mass-produce proven, low-cost systems ready for combat.

That’s despite the SDR promising to shift defence procurement away from “top-down” decision-making by putting frontline experience first.

Dr Jack Watling of thinktank, the Royal United Services Institute, has warned that the armed forces need to “get out of the innovation mindset and into an industrial one”, focusing on quantity and reliability over experimental tech.

In a statement to LBC, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Defence reiterated its commitment to improving the “accuracy and lethality” of the armed forces by investing £4 billion in autonomous systems.

They added that all drones used by the British Army go through “rigorous testing”.

LBC has also approached the French Army for comment.