The Iran War has exposed longstanding gaps in the UK’s military capability
But it has not stopped the armed forces from deploying innovative systems and tactics, particularly in the C-UAS segment
Airforce Technology explores all known platforms, systems and equipment sent to the Near and Middle East for intercepting Iranian strikes
The UK is just as frustratingly confusing of a place as the US, in some ways the UK is backwards as hell and in other ways they are bleeding edge. Even as dysfunctional as the UK military is as an institution (Exhibit Ajax) the UK has still managed to present a diversity of practical, effective and affordable C-UAS solutions that honestly makes it one of the more wholistic, sustainable and effective air defense implementations outside of Ukraine. Maybe this has to do with the UK's closer practical working military ties with Ukraine than other nations?
The Royal Navy has deployed at least three Wildcat helicopters from which personnel fire low-cost (~£50,000) Martlet LMMs. This adaptation demonstrates the Navy’s evolving defensive tactics in the drone age, combining aerial mobility with a cost effective Thales-built missile interceptor.
Note, these Martlet missiles cost about the same or less than shaheds, so the whole idea of shaheds being "cheaper" falls apart, especially when you can mount a rack of them on a helicopter with high powered sensors (that can sense the shahed from farther away than the shahed can sense the helicopter) and EW equipment that is already useful for other tasks too, unlike a shahed which is only useful as a flying bomb optimized for uncontested airspaces.
This helicopter can in a matter of minutes erase at least 20 shaheds (if onboard machine guns or EW are used for some of the kills even more). Additionally in the aftermath of a mass flying bomb attack a helicopter like this can immediately transition to assessment of damage and then to adhoc medical evactuation if needed. Thus as I have pointed out in the past, the investment into the helicopters isn't really a sunk cost since they have civil uses as well, unlike flying bombs.
The cost of Martlet missiles is roughly equivalent to the cost of a shahed type long range flying bomb, but note that a helicopter or air defense vehicle can cary a Martlet missile until it is need to be used, which inherently presents a cost savings over a shahed that is lost no matter what whether a target is succesfully reached or found.
This is the UK designing these affordable missiles too, I am sure the price advantage of shaheds will evaporate even quicker into an illusion as more nations replicate this approach.