Russia could be preparing to target British interests in an attempt to test Prime Minister Andy Burnham, according to a UK security source, amid growing concern over the vulnerability of Britain’s expanding military supply chain.
The source told the Daily Mail that intelligence gathered over the past two weeks suggested Moscow was preparing to take action against UK interests, although no details were given about the nature or timing of any potential operation.
“The chatter we’ve been picking up over the past two weeks indicates the Russians are preparing for something.
They’re planning some sort of action against UK interests. They’re going to test Burnham,” the source said.
The warning comes as British officials and defence companies accelerate efforts to expand domestic production of drones and other equipment being supplied to Ukraine.
There is particular concern that Russia could seek to disrupt the military supply chain, potentially targeting some of the growing number of drone manufacturing and testing facilities operating across Britain.
The UK Government has worked with more than 30 companies to expand innovative drone technology aimed at meeting Ukraine’s battlefield requirements.
Andrei Fedorov, a Kremlin adviser and former deputy foreign minister, has separately warned that British factories could be targeted by “unknown sources”.
The scale of Britain’s drone industry makes the potential threat difficult to quantify. There is no definitive national tally of drone factories because production is distributed across aerospace and defence contractors, manufacturers and specialist technology firms.
Swindon has emerged as one of the country’s principal manufacturing centres, with nine drone companies either operating in the town or establishing new facilities.
Among the firms active in the area are German defence technology company Stark, Tekever, Neros Technologies, DSEI Flyby and Munin Dynamics. The town is also home to the Uncrewed Systems Centre at Panattoni Park, described as Europe’s largest indoor drone testing facility.
Elsewhere, British companies including Windracers and Malloy Aeronautics manufacture tactical, logistics and reconnaissance systems across specialised aerospace sites.
Ukrainian manufacturer Ukrspecsystems is also developing a £200 million production and testing facility in Suffolk, where it builds reconnaissance platforms including the PD-2 and Shark unmanned aerial vehicles.
The expansion reflects the growing strategic importance of drones in the war in Ukraine and the UK’s effort to increase production capacity closer to home.
Specialist defence contractors such as Callen-Lenz operate testing and development programmes for tactical uncrewed air systems at sites across southern England, while the Edinburgh Drone Company manufactures specialised fixed-wing and multi-rotor aircraft in Scotland.
The prospect of attacks on such facilities would mark a significant escalation in the risks facing Britain’s defence industrial base, although there is no public evidence that Russia has selected any particular factory or site as a target.
For the government, the warning highlights the increasingly blurred boundary between the conflict in Ukraine and the security of Britain’s own military infrastructure as domestic companies become more deeply embedded in the supply chain supporting Kyiv.
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