Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department is working with NATO allies to develop (a) joint standards, (b) data sharing and (c) operational protocols for integrated drone defence.

The UK has contributed to the establishment of the NATO Joint Capability Group for Counter small UAS (C-sUAS), which will ensure that NATO has a coherent and consistent approach to the C-sUAS challenge. In particular, it will focus on: establishing NATO training courses; ensuring common standards for equipment integration; and providing a common lexicon.

To support the integration of equipment across NATO nations, the UK has funded and developed SAPIENT, a common architecture standard that enables interoperability between autonomous sensors and effectors. It has been used operationally, for example, at the recent NATO Summit in The Hague.