London, May 3 (UNI) UK troops are unable to undergo sufficient training for drone warfare, since they are prohibited from flying unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) over each other's heads and cannot test the use of signal-jamming equipment, The Financial Times reported.
The UK Ministry of Defense's safety and data protection rules ban drones weighing more than 250g (8.8 oz) from being flown over the heads of people during training, even if they are sitting in a tank, the newspaper said on Friday.
"British soldiers who are deploying as part of a deterrence force to places like Estonia and eastern Europe are going out without the kind of training and capability that is completely bog-standard in warfare now, whether it is in the Middle East or in Ukraine," UK parliament member Fred Thomas said, as quoted by The Financial Times.
The newspaper said that during training on Salisbury Plain, "British troops preparing for a future war with Russia" were not only prohibited from flying drones, but were also not allowed to use signal-jamming equipment, according to two members of parliament who witnessed the exercise.
In March, media reported that French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer were trying to attract 37 countries to create a so-called "coalition of the willing" - a group of states ready to send "deterrent forces" to Ukraine and provide security guarantees to Kiev.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova has said that any foreign military presence in Ukraine would be considered a threat to Russia and carried the risk of a direct military clash.
In 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson that Moscow would not attack NATO countries. Putin said that Western politicians regularly intimidate their populations with an imaginary Russian threat to distract them from domestic problems.
Russia has repeatedly said that Western arms supplies to Ukraine hinder the peace process in Ukraine and make NATO countries a party to the conflict.
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