Drones with Chinese-made components used by UK Royal Navy found sharing data with China: Report

The surveillance drones used by the UK Royal Navy were found transmitting data to China, according to an investigation carried out by The Telegraph. The K3 surveillance drones had Chinese-made components and they sent data to an internet address in China, the English daily has reported.

This package was also part of the unmanned surface vessels to be deployed in the process to secure navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, the report stated.

These cameras shared ‘heartbeat’ communication or signals, confirming that a device was online to an IP address in China, it added. Following this discovery, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) removed the system’s internet connectivity.

The Royal Navy had been using these drones, sourced through a third party by defence contractor Kraken Technology Group, since March 2026.

The MoD denied that any sensitive data had been transmitted to any country

“A routine cyber vulnerability assessment identified an issue affecting a Kraken Unmanned Surface Vessel sub-system used by the Royal Navy. A thorough investigation found no evidence of MoD data or systems being accessed, compromised or transmitted externally,” an MoD spokesperson told The Telegraph.

The British Navy had acquired 20 K3 drones for the purpose of surveillance and force protection.

A Kraken Technology Group spokesperson said the company was aware that some third-party, NDAA-compliant cameras had a small number of components from outside the United Kingdom but no “sensitive information has ever been shared outside of intended channels.”This comes months after reports of phones of aides to British prime ministers being targeted by another China-linked group.

The UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) had raised the alarm over Chinese government-linked hackers building and maintaining networks of compromised devices to support covert cyber operations.