The UK army is at its smallest - but Ukraine shows how Britain can still stay in the fight

The announcement that Britain will be providing Ukraine with 100,000 drones over the coming months shows, just as the , where the UK is focusing its warfighting strengths. And it is no coincidence that the Government waited until just before a crucial meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group in Brussels to make it. This is where the UK is ahead.

Defence Secretary John Healey knows all too well the criticisms voiced by our allies over the size of our armed forces. The British Army is at its smallest since Napoleonic times, and the Royal Navy's fleet is a mere shadow of its size during the Falklands conflict of 1982, let alone its former glory when the British Empire spanned a third of the globe. He knows too that unless Britain's 2.5% GDP defence spending target is radically increased in September, the UK risks slipping from 's leading European force to the bottom of the league.

UK drone production offers a meaningful way to counter this.

One need only look at 's successful strikes against Russian air bases over the weekend to appreciate the effectiveness of some of the drones the UK is supplying.

Operation Spiderweb, planned over 18 months and executed by 's SBU security service, involved smuggling truckloads of drones thousands of kilometres into Russian territory before launching them near four major airbases.

The result was the destruction of 41 Russian aircraft used in the war on , including four strategic Tu-95 heavy bombers.

Britain is supplying drones that are highly manoeuvrable, jam-resistant, and capable of striking with precision.

Some are even hardwired with fibre optics to ensure control is never lost.

While now has a robust drone industry of its own, Britain remains a world leader in the technology. These platforms fly further, navigate more accurately, and hit harder.

That's largely down to the dozens of small, specialist firms across the UK which form the backbone of its defence innovation.

They work fast, adapt faster, and some of the more basic models even use off-the-shelf components to create deadly capabilities that are cheap to build.

The Government, ever strapped for cash, has realised drones represent serious bang for very little buck.

Its latest drone package costs just £350million - peanuts by the standards of modern lethal weaponry.

Sensing the direction of travel, defence giants like BAE have spent the past 18 months acquiring these SMEs to consolidate the technology and deliver it at scale.

And this isn't just an investment in Ukraine's war effort. These drones will shape the future of Britain's military capability too.

Uncrewed aerial systems are already seen as force multipliers for conventional UK platforms.

Project Ark Royal will see long-range drones operate alongside F-35s on Britain's carriers, while the Global Combat Air Programme - or Tempest - will deliver a sixth-generation fighter jet capable of acting as a command hub for swarms of accompanying drones when it enters service in the next decade.

Sustaining the supply chains and the companies behind them will ensure that the UK has what it needs when its own moment arrives.

And that moment is coming.