Arms firm drops plan to test bombs over Scottish world heritage site

A British arms manufacturer has scrapped plans to conduct live-fire testing of fragmentation bombs in the middle of a world heritage site in Scotland.
The Overwatch Group had sought permission from the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) to drop anti-personnel bombs from drones in the middle of the Flow Country on to land owned by the Liberal Democrat hereditary peer Viscount Thurso.
Last month the Flow Country became the first peat bog globally to receive world heritage status, recognising its ecological significance and role in climate change mitigation.
The bomb tests were called off after it emerged that the designated area included part of the Strathmore peatlands, a site of special scientific interest. This protected area is home to rare and endangered bird species such as dunlin, golden plover, and greenshank.
Mark Melhorn, Overwatch’s chief operating officer, expressed surprise upon learning of the area’s protected status and said that the company would cancel its application and postpone all further testing of its bombs in the UK.
“We had been put on to the area in question through the third-party provider we are using [and] at no time had it been flagged to us that the area had any protections in place, including when visiting the site for a recce,” he told The Guardian.
The CAA application was submitted by OW Energetics, a subsidiary of Overwerx Ltd, which trades under the Overwatch Group name. Overwerx, which specialises in anti-personnel bombs and military drones, is owned by former army officer Drew Michael, who is in a relationship with the model and singer Louise Redknapp, ex-wife of the footballer Jamie Redknapp.
The firm had been planning to test a fragmentation bomb, which the company’s marketing publicity claims has “exceptional kinetic effect for size and mass” and weighs about 1.5kg. Overwatch also sells a small drone that can hover over its target, known as a “static loiter” strategy.
NatureScot, a government agency, expressed astonishment that Overwatch was unaware of the area’s protected status while the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds said: “The withdrawn application to the CAA is certainly unusual, and we would have had concerns regarding the potential impacts on designated sites at the location.”
Overwatch had requested CAA approval to fly its drones and drop its bombs over a 2km-diameter safety zone on the Thurso family’s estate near Loch More.
It outlined its plans as “live-fire testing of a one-way system UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] equipped with an anti-personnel warhead targeting a designated area at the Glengolly location within the Ulbster estate,” it the CAA application.
The location in Caithness was chosen on the advice of its test-firing contractor after the Ministry of Defence denied permission to test at the Salisbury Plain live-firing range in Wiltshire.
Thurso told The Guardian he was unaware of Overwatch’s plans to use drones or fragmentation bombs and did not know the CAA application included the Strathmore peatlands. He said a quarry he owns near the peatlands had been used for various military and munitions tests for 20 years without incident.
He said he believed that Overwatch might have intended to use the quarry for detonating its device by flying the drone over the peatlands. “There is absolutely no way” he would have approved such actions, he said, adding: “Certainly we would never give permission for people to go dropping bombs in the blanket bog.”
NatureScot said: “We are surprised the provider had not engaged with us to determine any environmental considerations, including an assessment of the impact on designated nature sites. However, we are relieved to hear that the live-fire testing application has been cancelled.”