MGI Engineering, a UK firm with extensive experience in Formula 1 racing car designs, is shifting its focus to ramp up production of its SkyShark one-way attack drone, which launched earlier this month.
SkyShark Unveiled
The self-funded uncrewed aerial vehicle was formally unveiled during a demonstration event at Enstone Airfield in Oxfordshire, England, two weeks ago. SkyShark comes in two variants: turbine engine or electric-powered propulsion.
„Compact, cost-effective and rapidly manufactured at scale, SkyShark is engineered to conduct ISR, strike, and decoy operations in GPS-denied or highly contested environments, making it a strategic asset in an era of asymmetric warfare,” MGI stated.
Formula 1 Expertise Transferred to Military Aircraft
MGI is known as a Formula 1 design authority and consultancy, collaborating with teams based on its expertise in composite, mechanical, systems, and stress engineering.
Aiming to Support UK Defense Needs
„Our drive is to support the UK MoD and the Strategic Defence Review,” Mike Gascoyne, CEO at MGI Engineering, told Breaking Defense.
The MoD has yet to place a firm order for SkyShark, but Gascoyne is positioning the company to meet what he called a „very clear” requirement for „7,000 drones, one-way effectors … to bring the UK up to speed with its modern requirements.”
Sovereign Parts and Rapid Prototyping
Gascoyne emphasized that the company is focused on meeting British requirements by exclusively utilizing „sovereign” parts for SkyShark. Influences from „rapidly prototyping and testing high-performance vehicles” for Formula One races will play a leading role in production and delivery.
„You’ve got to be able to constantly iterate and develop and put new payloads, new avionics packages, [integrate] new whatever … exactly like F1 teams have to do, because every two weeks you race it somewhere, a different track, so different configurations” are required, Gascoyne said. „Working on multiple versions of the same vehicle and iterations for one month and two months and three months time is entirely normal for us.”
Scaling Production and Cost-Effectiveness
MGI manufactures SkyShark at its Oxford facility but is considering expanding to a second site or producing additional aircraft under license with an industry partner to scale production, depending on requirements.
„The requirements for these types of things … could easily be in the high tens to hundreds [of aircraft] per month, which obviously is a large-scale production facility,” Gascoyne explained. „One of the key things that I haven’t really mentioned is low cost, because the big driver on these is cost-effectiveness.”
„You don’t want a pristine missile, a sort of [MBDA-produced] Storm Shadow, that’s £2 million pounds ($2.7 million USD) each. What you want is 10 of them [one-way attack drones costing] £100,000 each, and that’s very much the requirement” we are working toward.
Learning from Ukraine Conflict
Inexpensive systems like the Iranian Shahed family of UAVs have played a prominent role in Russian attacks against Ukraine. Gascoyne shared that MGI works with avionics suppliers from Ukraine who provide valuable insights based on their operational experiences.
Those suppliers „are working directly with operational equipment, so what they’re talking to us about is based on their experiences that are very much current [in terms of system capabilities and vulnerabilities] and looking forward,” Gascoyne added.
