00:00This is an AR-3 reconnaissance drone.
00:05In this corner of south-east Ukraine, it's best not to break cover for too long.
00:14This is the final test flight for the UAV or uncrewed aerial vehicle,
00:20before being sent on a longer mission over Russian-held territory to hunt for targets.
00:30Ukraine's drone tech has become the envy of Western weapons manufacturers,
00:35but this one was made 1,800 miles away.
00:41And this is the story of how it got here, and why Ukraine needs it.
00:49So let's go back to where it all began, and follow the drone from factory to frontline.
00:58We've come to an airfield on the west coast of the UK.
01:01Behind these doors is a key component to Ukraine's fight against Russia.
01:06We've come to this private airfield in the west of Wales, because this is the start of a journey.
01:11The drones produced in the warehouse behind me are just about to embark on an 1,800-mile journey to
01:16the east, to Ukraine, and we're going to join them.
01:21This is one of several manufacturing sites in Britain for the Portuguese defence firm Tekeva.
01:26It has expanded into the UK market in recent years, partnering on both government and military contracts.
01:34Before 2022, their focus was on drones that would be on the lookout for things like illegal fishing activity or
01:40migrant boats out to sea.
01:44All that changed with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
01:50Now, more and more of Tekeva's drones are in the skies over Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine and out over
01:56the Black Sea, on the lookout for targets.
01:59So, behind us is our AR-3. It is a circa 4-metre wingspan, 25-kilogram platform that can operate
02:10beyond 200 kilometres.
02:12Depending on the payload configuration, you can do kind of 12, 16 hours, and it's really designed to do kind
02:19of long-range ISR activity.
02:22ISR meaning intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.
02:26The AR-3 has a vertical take-off variant.
02:34But the ones headed for Ukraine launch with the help of a catapult.
02:44This airfield has its own designated airspace over land and sea.
02:49Are we cleared to turn off the aircraft and disarm the batteries?
02:54The British military is also training to use the drone.
03:00For soldiers here and out in Ukraine, being able to unbox, assemble, and launch quickly is critical.
03:07You unbox it, stand it up on the structure, assemble the wings.
03:11Within 10 minutes, it's ready to be configured to your comm system.
03:15Within 30 minutes, the Mark 8 is ready to fly.
03:21Get in, get out. It's all about protecting staff and the user.
03:25In 2026, the UK says it will supply 150,000 drones to Ukraine, part of a $1 billion funding package.
03:37In the workshops, around 50 people are employed to assemble, paint, and laminate the drones,
03:44while looking for any imperfections that may affect aerodynamics.
03:50Each aircraft is made up of around 300 components.
03:54This is the area where the wiring system for the AR-3 is put together.
04:01It can take three to four weeks to assemble one UAV from start to finish.
04:08Many of those produced here are headed to Ukraine.
04:13Since 2022, the drone has already received hundreds of upgrades, driven directly by the feedback from the units on the
04:21front line,
04:22like anti-jamming technology or camouflage and paint coatings to reduce radar detection.
04:29Tokeva also changed the engine to give the drone a steeper rate of climb.
04:34The operating environment in Ukraine has really required us to respond at a speed that is almost alien to traditional
04:44Western procurement.
04:48Where a traditional procurement might take a number of years to be brought into service, that is just far, far,
04:56far too late for the Ukrainians.
04:59That technology would be completely redundant by the time it got into service.
05:07From Wales, the drones are boxed up and sent to Portugal for final sign-off.
05:12Then it's the long overland journey to Ukraine.
05:17And that means the start of a long journey for us, too.
05:27OK, so we've done the five-hour drive from West Wales Airport to London.
05:34And now it's time for the next stage of the journey, a two and a half-hour flight to Poland.
05:55Well, as you can see, we've made it to the centre of Warsaw in Poland.
06:00Since the start of the conflict in Ukraine, Poland has played a key role in the fight.
06:05This is the centre for all logistics, humanitarian aid, and more importantly, the provision of weapons into Ukraine.
06:12Now, we travelled by air, but the drones that we saw manufactured in the west of Wales are going to
06:17be travelling overland into Ukraine.
06:20And that's where we're going to try and meet up with them.
06:22We can't fly any further. Since 2022, there have been no civilian flights into Ukraine.
06:27So, from tomorrow, we will go by train.
06:47OK, just about to get on our second train, and this one will take us across the border and into
06:52Ukraine.
07:00OK, that's us finally crossing the border into Ukraine.
07:03And ahead of us lies another nine or ten hours of train journey.
07:24So, after the drive to London, a flight to Warsaw, two trains to Kyiv, and a final long drive to
07:30south-eastern Ukraine,
07:31over 24 hours of travel time, we're finally getting close.
07:39OK, we're almost at the end of our journey.
07:43We've just met our contact from the Black Forest Brigade,
07:47and we're travelling the last few miles to the training ground,
07:51where we'll see the drones manufactured and built in the UK,
07:57and Portugal finally delivered to Ukraine.
08:06And here is the van at the end of its long journey from Portugal.
08:11The unit is part of the 15th Separate Artillery Reconnaissance Brigade,
08:15known simply as Black Forest.
08:20An appropriate name, since soldiers need forest cover to set up camp,
08:24then unbox and assemble the AR-3.
08:30Today they're doing a test flight.
08:33Tomorrow will be the real thing.
08:37This is the all-important payload,
08:40a gimbal capable of tracking and detecting enemy targets day and night.
08:45The team can also deploy sensors with infrared and thermal imaging
08:50to detect objects not visible to the naked eye.
08:53For example, this team destroyed S-400 system,
08:58a whole system that was in one field,
09:01and we destroyed it via high masses.
09:05So our priority is enemy's air defence system,
09:09counter-battery radars and enemy artillery.
09:14Once out in the open, the unit needs to work quickly
09:17to avoid becoming a target itself.
09:20This is a radio antenna for communicating with the drone.
09:23And this is the launch rail that uses compressed air to inject the AR-3 into the sky.
09:35Once in the air, the AR-3 can start its hunt for enemy assets.
09:39Data is shared in real time with Ukrainian forces for precision strikes like this.
09:48Ukraine does produce its own surveillance drones and one-way strike drones, of course,
09:53but still heavily outnumbered on the battlefield, there are never enough.
09:59The drone lands via a parachute and an airbag to cushion the impact.
10:06Members of the team recover the aircraft as quickly as they can, then it's back under cover.
10:14That is the end of the line, the end of a story that started at West Wales Airport, where we
10:20saw the drone being manufactured.
10:22It's come all the way here to southeastern Ukraine for its final tests.
10:26And then tomorrow, it'll be running a surveillance mission over the top of occupied Ukrainian territory,
10:32identifying targets and passing on that data straight onto the artillery.
10:38In the days after our visit, the Black Forest Brigade's drones recorded these images of a Ukrainian strike on a
10:44Russian-held bridge.
10:48And they provided the coordinates for artillery to strike this Russian surface-to-air missile system.
10:58TechEver wouldn't say how many of its AR-3s had been lost in Ukraine.
11:02In August, Russian state media reported that Russian forces had shot down an AR-3 and transferred it to a
11:10research institute for study.
11:12A Portuguese-British drone in Ukrainian skies shows how Ukraine still needs Western aircraft to sustain its fight against Russia.
11:21But it also shows how much manufacturers need Ukrainian combat experience to keep those aircraft relevant.
11:30To be continued...
11:32To be continued...
11:38To be continued...
11:39To be continued...
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