Britain will hand Ukraine the intellectual property behind its Stone Cloak electronic-warfare system, moving their defense partnership beyond supplying weapons toward sharing the technology needed to produce them at scale.
Prime Minister Andy Burnham is set to announce the transfer during President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to a British naval base on July 27, according to Downing Street. The tablet-sized device, already supplied to Ukraine by the thousands, is fitted to drones to hinder Russian air-defense systems from tracking and targeting them in flight.
The transfer means Ukraine will be able to mass-produce Stone Cloak itself rather than depend entirely on British deliveries. Officials have not publicly disclosed its detailed operational specifications or identified the Ukrainian manufacturers and production volumes involved.
The technology is also moving back toward Britain. ITV News reported that Stone Cloak, described by Burnham as British technology “proven on the frontline,” is expected to be incorporated into the UK’s next generation of long-range strike weapons, including Project Brakestop, a program developing lower-cost cruise missiles.
Stone Cloak emerged from rapid British-Ukrainian defense innovation under the countries’ 100-year partnership signed in January 2025. Zelenskyy has separately pushed to deepen the UK-Ukraine Drone Deal, including reciprocal technology sharing and Ukrainian-linked defense production inside Britain.
That makes the Stone Cloak transfer different from a conventional military-aid package. Britain is giving Ukraine the ability to manufacture a British system domestically, while battlefield use against Russian air defenses provides experience relevant to Britain’s own future weapons.
Ukraine is increasingly becoming more than a recipient of Western military technology. Its defense industry and battlefield are becoming part of the development cycle itself – a place where systems can be produced, used against a sophisticated adversary and improved around lessons from an ongoing war.
