British firm supplying engines for Israel's killer drones: Report
A leading British media organization has revealed that the UK engineering company RCV Engines is supplying engines for Israel’s newest generation of killer drones, in yet another evidence of London’s complicity in the occupying regime’s genocide of Palestinians in the besieged Gaza Strip.
According to a report published by Declassified UK on Monday, RCV Engines has been identified as the manufacturer of the propulsion system for the APUS 25 drone, developed by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), which is an Israeli manufacturer of fighter aircraft and drones.
The report said images published by IAI show the APUS 25’s engine bearing the RCV Engines’ logo.
Marketed as a “revolutionary TactiQuad,” the APUS 25 is designed for long-endurance and combat operations, capable of carrying weapons and conducting surveillance missions, including in Gaza.
It is “set to redefine tactical drone operations for ground and maritime forces worldwide” given that it can fly for longer and hold a range of payloads, according to IAI.
The drone’s versatility extends to “offensive operations,” meaning it can “effectively deploy… weapons systems, adding a new dimension to tactical air support in combat scenarios.”
The connections of the Dorset-based engineering firm to Israel’s arms industry “have remained hidden from public view until now,” according to Declassified UK.
Established in 1997, RCV Engines produces internal combustion engines and describes itself as a “specialist in multi-fuel engine technology.” The firm’s director, Lawrence Gould, is the brother of Britain’s former ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould.
The revelation offers further evidence that UK-made drone components are being exported to Israel to be used to commit war crimes in Gaza.
Over recent months, Israeli remote-controlled quadcopters – which are small unmanned vehicles with four rotors – have been filmed dropping bombs and firing on Palestinians in the besieged territory.
“The drones would come down and pick off civilians – children,” retired surgeon Nizam Mamode told British MPs in November.
“We [were] operating on children who would say: ‘I was lying on the ground after a bomb had dropped and this quadcopter came down and hovered over me and shot me,’”, he added.
At a conference in Tel Aviv, IAI’s head of multi-domain systems, Eli Neeman, said the drone would be “especially valuable for ground forces, providing immediate support without requiring air force assistance, as demonstrated in the recent drone strike on Yahywa Sinwar,” referring to the Hamas leader who was killed by Israel last year.
Moreover, Israeli drones have reportedly been used to broadcast the sound of crying babies to lure Palestinians into open spaces, where they are then targeted.
RCV Engines admitted in 2022 that it had been granted an export license exemption to ship its equipment worldwide, suggesting that its exports to Israel might not be subject to the Labour government’s arms restrictions.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) condemned the exemption as a dangerous loophole, warning that arms companies exert disproportionate influence over UK policymakers.
“Labour urgently needs to reverse this decision and close this loophole. It’s beyond time it ended its complicity in genocide and prioritized Palestinian lives over the profits of the arms industry,” CAAT’s Emily Apple told Declassified UK.
The Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, an international human rights organization, rejected on Monday Israel’s claim that its forces are fighting Hamas fighters in Gaza, stressing that at least 94 percent of the victims of the regime’s fatal attacks are civilians.
The monitor said Israeli occupation forces killed 345 Palestinians and wounded 770 others in just seven days (April 20-26), adding that more than half of the Palestinians killed in the period were children,16 percent of them were women, and 8 percent of them were elderly.
The monitor also condemned the international silence on the mass killings of Palestinians by Israel, calling it a moral failure and a serious breach of the legal obligations of states and the international community.
Israel launched the war of genocide in the Gaza Strip on October 7, 2023.
Last January, the Israeli regime was forced to agree to a ceasefire deal with Hamas, given the regime’s failure to achieve any of its objectives, including the “elimination” of the Palestinian resistance movement or the release of captives.
However, Israel cut off food and medical supplies and other aid to the 2.3 million residents of the Gaza Strip on March 2, just two weeks before breaking the two-month ceasefire and prisoner-captive exchange agreement.
In total, 52,314 Palestinians have been killed and 117,792 others injured since October 7, 2023, according to the Palestinian health ministry.
