Written question asked by James Cartlidge (Conservative) on Monday, 29 June 2026, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 1 July 2026. It was answered by Luke Pollard (Labour) on Thursday, 9 July 2026 on behalf of the Ministry of Defence.
Uncrewed Systems: Testing
- Question
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To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much will his Department invest in autonomy testing infrastructure in the United Kingdom in the (a) current Parliament and (b) next Parliament.
- Answer
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Autonomous capability is at the forefront of Uncrewed Systems development across air, land, maritime and sub-surface domains. Ministry of Defence will optimise use of the Test, Trials, Training & Evaluation partnership with QinetiQ backed by a £1.54 billion contract extension from 2025 to 2030 which is running in parallel to the Test & Evaluation Transformation Programme. Greater use will be made of innovative high-fidelity synthetic testing from 2029.
The DroneTEX investment project has £234 million committed, with the Defence Investment Plan committing £310 million to further develop the Uncrewed Systems Centre, autonomy testing infrastructure and fund personnel to deliver world class validation of autonomy capabilities.
Secondary information
- Type
- Written question
- Reference
- 13879
- Session
- 2026-27
- Subjects
- Finance Testing Uncrewed systems
- Link
- View this Written question on www.parliament.uk
Librarians' tools
- Timestamp
- 2026-07-09 17:52:17 +0100
- URI
- http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/13879
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- http://indexing.parliament.uk/Content/Edit/1?uri=http://data.parliament.uk/writtenparliamentaryquestion/commons/2026-27/13879
- In Solr
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