A new UK-Ukraine joint venture (JV) has formed today (2 July 2025) with the goal of scaling up production of the low-cost, attritable Raybird uncrewed aerial system (UAS), a proven system on the frontline, and with an ambition to bring the system to UK and Nato military operations.
Known as Skyeton Prevail Solutions, it is claimed to be the “first” JV between companies from the two nations. It will see Prevail Partners, a UK defence company, work with Skyeton, a Ukrainian company with 19-years engineering experience, and the original equipment manufacturer of Raybird.
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However, it should be noted that no contracts have been signed with the UK Ministry of Defence at present.
The move aligns with the UK’s ambitions to integrate more uncrewed systems into the armed services. The Strategic Defence Review commits the British military to procure numerous disposable and attritable systems as part of a ’20-40-40’ approach, and establish a new Defence Uncrewed Systems Centre by February 2026.
“Drones now kill more people than traditional artillery in the war in Ukraine, and whoever gets new technology into the hands of their Armed Forces the quickest will win,” asserted John Healey, the UK Defence Secretary, in his foreword.
Raybird
The multirole, all-weather drone – designated Nato Class 1 UAS – is a versatile system with a payload swap time of one minute. The system itself is around 23kg.
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By GlobalDataRaybird can deploy weapons and conduct intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) with a gimbal-stabilised camera, synthetic aperture radar for landscape image generation, and a target acquisition capability, traversing a distance of up 2,500km within a 28-hour endurance period.
Raybird has already accrued 350,000 flight hours in the Russia-Ukraine war, a conflict that is now well into its third year. There are currently 140 Raybird drone systems in operation. Each system typically comes with three individual aircraft, though crews usually fly only one at a time. There are around 500 aircraft flying in Ukraine presently.
The UAS is launched from a mechanical catapult launcher and recovered using a parachute and a pneumatic airbag.
Tapping into Ukrainian innovation
Chris Baxter, partner and member of the management board at Skyeton Topco, and Justin Hedges, executive chairman at Prevail Partners, spoke to Army Technology about the need to derive proven assets emerging in the Ukrainian battlespace.
Through this JV, the UK will “get an unmbilical cord link to frontline innovation,” Hedges maintained.
Baxter drew a comparison with the Bayraktar UAS that have added some mass to Ukraine’s uncrewed operations throughout the war.
Although there are varied estimates on the attrition rates for these Turkish drones, Baxter suggested that nearly all of them were shot down. Meanwhile, Raybird has a loss rate of 10% over the duration of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
When asked whether Raybird has operated inside Russian territory, Hedges said “Raybird is designed for extended reconnaissance missions. Its job is to operate deep in enemy territory, and it performs exceptionally well across the entire frontline.”
The Skyeton team have recently innovated by running Raybird with a new propulsion system, which has helped the UAS exceed the 10,000 metre mark.
“At that altitude, you’re in commercial airspace, but critically, even some of the more sophisticated Russian systems don’t shoot up that high,” Hedges observed. This altitude is reached only by the more costly and established ISR drones such as the American-made Reaper, Predator, and Global Hawk.
While production is currently taking place at a manufacturing site in Slovakia, where the JV would be able to fast-track the production of Raybird systems for UK applications, Army Technology learned that the JV are considering a production site in Wrexham, North Wales for sovereign production down the line, should the Ministry of Defence place an order for the system.
