British military sites have recorded a sharp rise in drone activity over the past year, raising concerns about the country’s ability to protect key installations from hostile surveillance or attack, The Independent reported.
More than 340 incidents were recorded at or near military bases in the 12 months to August 2026, up from 250 during the previous year.
The latest figure is nearly triple the 126 incidents reported in 2024.
The increase comes amid warnings that Russia could expand its aggression against NATO territory, intensifying scrutiny of Britain’s readiness to detect and counter hostile drones.
The UK Ministry of Defence declined to identify who may be behind the activity. However, security experts have pointed to rogue operators potentially working on Moscow’s behalf.
Former British Army Captain Tobias Ellwood said the incidents expose British military sites as potential targets and argued that London has been too slow to adapt to the threat.
“Here in the UK, we are doing nothing about protecting our critical national infrastructure, as well as military bases, and it’s such an easy way to disrupt,” Ellwood said, as quoted by The Independent.
“At the moment these are just rogue drones … but it’s not a huge step to then add a kinetic dimension to them to make them introduce lethality. All this points to the fact that we are not taking the rise in threat levels that our European cousins are addressing seriously at all.”
Government Points to Stronger Detection
The UK Ministry of Defence offered a different explanation, saying the increase partly reflects improvements in drone detection technology.
Minister for the Armed Forces Louise Sandher-Jones said the government is treating the activity “extremely seriously” and moving to equip military sites with new counter-drone systems.
She also pointed to the Defence Investment Plan, which allocates 750 million pounds ($1 billion) to counter-drone capabilities protecting British forces at home and overseas.
“In February, we established new restricted airspace areas over 44 critical defence sites in the UK. This autumn, we will introduce restricted airspace areas over a further 160 sites,” Sandher-Jones explained.
