View the Uncrewed & Autonomous Systems and Defence Transformation 2024 Attendee Snapshot, and explore:

• 2024 Attendee Organisations
• 2024 Attendee Job Titles

This content piece explores how the UK’s 2025 Strategic Defence Review positions uncrewed and autonomous systems at the heart of future military operations. From drone swarms on land to collaborative air platforms and undersea autonomy, the Review outlines how these technologies will enhance capability across all domains. Backed by major investment, new procurement models, and a clear shift toward innovation, autonomy is no longer an add-on- it’s a strategic priority shaping UK Defence through to 2035.

Steve Philpott's latest piece explores how the war in Ukraine has rapidly accelerated the development and deployment of uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs) in combat operations. From logistics and de-mining to fully robotic assaults, Ukrainian and Russian forces are testing the limits of what these systems can achieve. As Ukraine scales up its UGV programme and other nations watch closely, lessons from the battlefield are already influencing global procurement, design, and doctrine. With armed ground drones now a reality, the future of land warfare is shifting fast - and it’s increasingly unmanned.

The ground and air uncrewed systems market in our targeted regions is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.1% until 2029. The reasons for this growth are driven by a range of factors that vary across nations. However, the maturation of certain technologies combined with the demands demonstrated by recent, ongoing, and anticipated conflicts strongly indicates the inevitable "robotisation" of the battlefield.

This report highlights some of the most significant programmes relating to uncrewed systems in Australia, India, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, South Korea, Spain, Turkey, the UK, and the U.S. It serves as an essential resource for understanding the current landscape of these critical technologies.

Following our Market Report, we are also releasing our Unmanned Systems International Programme and Budget Snapshot 2024-2029. This short document highlights the spending forecast per programme up to FY 2029 while also highlighting speakers and documents that may help the reader better understand future trends to be better prepared for the robotisation of the battlefield.

Uncrewed systems and the technology around them continue to evolve rapidly, calling for greater speed and agility in procurement. We were privileged to interview Captain Dennis Monagle, who faced these challenges head-on.

Here, we explored how the captain was able to speed up procurement while still fulfilling his obligations to his stakeholders of delivering ISR-capable Unmanned Aerial Systems to the Fleet. Through effective partnerships and strong knowledge of the procurement vehicles, MQ-9 Reapers were readied in record time.

At Defence iQ's International Armoured Vehicle Conference in 2024, we had the privilege of hearing from Mr Markus Otsus, Department of Applied Research, Estonian Military Academy on 'Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGV) Autonomy Trials In Estonia - The Approach, Realisation and Results'.

At Defence iQ's International Armoured Vehicle Conference in 2024, we had the privilege of hearing from Nicholas Valentine, Lead Engineer – Human Machine Teaming Future Capabilities Group, DE&S – UK MOD on 'Human Machine Teams: Remote Autonomous Systems (RAS) In The Land System Environment'. 

This insightful presentation covers; 5 challenges and 5 opportunities of Human Machine Teaming. 

At Defence iQ's International Armoured Vehicle Conference in 2024, we had the privilege of hearing from Lieutenant Colonel Martijn Hadicke, Head of Development and Innovation RAS-Program, Royal Netherlands Army on 'Operationalising Combat Unmanned Ground Vehicles'.

This insightful presentation details programs, projects and activities. 

Join us at Uncrewed Systems to connect with top-tier military leaders, S&T specialists, and industry experts as we address urgent defence demands and future investments and capabilities in UGVs and UAS.