Elbit in the UK: Magni-X and Thor UAVs
Elbit Systems UK updated Army Technology on a range of different capabilities the company has to offer the British military and its allies in an exclusive media event.
This engagement constitutes a series of updates that will be published throughout this week.
Among them, Elbit detailed that it has approached the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) with two vertical take-off and landing uncrewed aerial systems (UAS): the Magni-X and Thor systems.
Both are portable UAS that can be neatly carried in a backpack. They meet standard military specifications, including operating in all-weather and GNSS denied envionments.
However, the two diverge in size as the Magni-X is a micro-UAS used for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) tasks while Thor is a larger ‘mini-UAS’ variant that can carry up to ten kilogrammes in payload while also being adapted for ISR missions.
Suited for various missions, the fully autonomous two-kilogramme Magni-X is primarily used for short range reconnaissance in urban areas for up to 60 minutes at a time, providing day and night intelligence imagery powered by artificial intelligence algorithms for tactical combat units.
Thor, on the other hand, is a low-altitude, nine-kilogramme, fully autonomous “tactical mule platform” with 70 minutes of endurance. The UAS can carry a communications payload and, when flown 1,000 metres in the air, enable this capability in a deprived environment. Thor can also accommodate electronic warfare, ISR, or targeting equipment in other circumstances.
Elbit confirmed that the British Army have already started using Magni-X over the last 18 months, while the MoD recently trialled Thor last month.
Notably, one of Elbit’s technical experts hinted that both of these systems will only be deployed among “more versatile units” of the Army, without discerning which ones.
Photo of Elbit Systems’ micro-UAS, Magni-X in a field. Credit: Elbit Systems UK.
Since February 2024, the UK government has pursued a new ‘Drone Strategy’ to develop and field all manner of UAS across the armed forces.
The proliferated use of drones in the Russia-Ukraine war in the last three years has informed British and allied defence policy in preparing for modern, high intensity warfare. The UK and its allies are committing to delivering more systems at the tactical level.
Early in March 2025, it was revealed that the US Army had assigned between 300-400 small UAS to company-level units in their Brigade Combat Teams as part of an effort to deliver thousands more.
Meanwhile, the UK government has composed a strategy whereby the MoD, “In close partnership with industry, will spirally and collaboratively develop platforms and components to keep up with relentless cycles of battlefield adaptation, whilst driving sovereign industrial strength.”
Elbit Systems already has a significant footprint in Britain centred at its research, development and manufacturing centre in Bristol, known as its ‘Horizon facility’, which first opened nearly two years ago.
This is timely; especially given the widespread decommissioning of legacy programmes such as the Army’s Watchkeeper programme towards the end of 2024. This tactical UAS programme ran up to £1.35bn ($1.7bn) in 2023, up from £700m. The programme has persistently fallen behind developments in drone technology.
A gap now remains wide open in the Army’s tactical UAS ISR capability, and the production of many smaller systems will provide a greater picture in an age of fogless warfare on the ground.
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