On September 11, the Royal Air Force announced it has selected Leonardo for a research program dedicated to the counter-drone fight. The aim is to study and evaluate the different technologies to bring a comprehensive response to all the current and future UAV threatens.

The experimentation will be conducted by Leonardo as of 2020. The Italian industrialist will especially conduct trials in several infrastructures of the UK Ministry of Defense. The program will try, within a three-year period, to determinate the best solutions for detection, tracking, identification and neutralization of UAVs considered hostile. The work could also provide an understanding of the different technological bricks of an anti-drone system to identify the most appropriate technologies to set a comprehensive system.

The launch of this program worth several millions pounds is particularly related to the incidents occurred at Gatwick and Heathrow airports.