British drone-killer startup heads to Japan with cheap interceptors

British startup Cambridge Aerospace plans to build its low-cost drone interceptor missiles in Japan and offer them to Japan’s Ministry of Defense, with each round priced at several million yen, or tens of thousands of dollars, the Nikkei business daily reported.

The company’s interceptors cost tens of times less than conventional air defense missiles, and it already has a contract with the British military, the newspaper said. Cambridge Aerospace plans to set up production in Japan before pitching the weapon to the ministry.

The company’s first missile, Skyhammer, is built to shoot down Shahed-type attack drones and slower cruise missiles. It has a range of more than 30 km (19 miles) and a top speed of 700 km/h (435 mph). Cambridge Aerospace has said it uses an X-band radar seeker, and The Register reported that it carries a blast-fragmentation warhead that detonates near its target. The company began developing Skyhammer in January 2025 and flew it within six weeks.

A Skyhammer prototype that crashed and washed up on a British beach in August, and was collected by the company after Reddit users identified it, appeared to be built largely from off-the-shelf parts, according to UAV engineer Chris Wheat, who analyzed photos of the wreckage and called his conclusions educated guesses. He said it seemed to be powered by a JetCat P250-Pro, a commercially sold small jet turbine costing about 4,000 euros ($4,560), and built around two aluminum box-section spars inside a 3D-printed outer shell whose material he put at about £150 ($203). Wheat estimated the airframe at roughly 1.5 m (4.9 feet) long with a similar wingspan, and said he could not find hardware for the radar seeker, suggesting it may not have been fitted to that prototype.

British Defence Secretary John Healey announced on April 10, 2026, that the Ministry of Defence would buy a “significant number” of Skyhammer interceptors and launchers for British forces and Gulf partners facing Iranian-designed drones, with deliveries starting in May. In July, the company won an award under the five-nation LEAP program, and in August it raised $300 million at a $3.4 billion valuation.

Cambridge Aerospace was founded in 2024 by Steven Barrett, a former MIT aeronautics professor who now holds the Regius Professorship of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, and Chris Sylvan, who previously led business in Europe, the Middle East and Africa for U.S. defense company Anduril Industries. Former British Defence Secretary Grant Shapps chairs the company. It has also shown a second interceptor, Starhammer, and builds solid rocket motors in Britain.

Its Nightstar rocket motor is one of seven finalists in the low-cost solid rocket motor category of the U.S. Army’s xTech|Apex Intercept competition, which is looking for cheaper interceptors to work alongside the Patriot air defense system. Finalists will demonstrate their technology in October and November.

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