QinetiQ launches ‘Droneworks' and plans complex UAS jamming testing
The QinetiQ project name ‘Malfy' UAS, under test with its manufacturer and 744 Joint UAS Test and Evaluation Squadron, seen at MoD Boscombe down in July 2025. (QinetiQ)
QinetiQ has revealed to Janes its new test and evaluation (T&E) framework, which it calls ‘Droneworks', to help companies developing unmanned air systems (UASs) solve complex engineering problems and provide specialist assessment.
Droneworks is provided through QinetiQ's Long Term Partnering Agreement (LTPA) with the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD). On 22 May 2025 QinetiQ announced a five-year, GBP1.54 billion (USD2.06 billion) extension to the 25-year LTPA, originally signed in 2003. The MoD said the LTPA investment supports an extensive supply chain of 825 companies, including 590 small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs). Droneworks was established by QinetiQ under the LTPA extension's Innovation Gateway, designed to make LTPA services more accessible to SMEs.
Evolving out of the Air Test and Evaluation Centre (ATEC) construct between QinetiQ and the MoD, Droneworks provides a UAS test and evaluation hub for the RAF's Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC), the RAF's Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO), QinetiQ, 744 Naval Air Squadron (which in 2024 transitioned to the Joint Uncrewed Air System Test and Evaluation Squadron (JUAS TES)), and various companies, from major defence primes to small and medium enterprises.
The UK's 2025 Strategic Defence Review (SDR), published on 2 June, called for “an initial operating capability for a new Defence Uncrewed Systems Centre established by February 2026”. Commonly referred to as a ‘Drone Centre of Excellence', Peter Barnfield, senior business development manager at QinetiQ, told Janes
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