Mutable Tactics lands £1.6m pre-seed to give drones local decision-making in communications-denied environments
This article covers Mutable Tactics, a British drones startup, which has raised £1.6m in a pre-seed funding round to develop a decision layer that lets unmanned aerial, maritime and ground systems coordinate and make local decisions when communications or GPS are unreliable. The development aims to support defence deployments and the broader UK autonomy ecosystem by enabling one operator to supervise multiple platforms and for mixed fleets to operate as coordinated teams under degraded communications.
Mutable Tactics, a British drones startup, has raised £1.6m in a pre-seed funding round to accelerate development of a decision-layer that lets unmanned aerial, maritime and ground systems coordinate and make local decisions when communications or GPS are unreliable. The software aims to let one operator supervise multiple systems by translating high-level intent into locally executable actions at the tactical edge.
Why it matters
Modern defence deployments are using far greater numbers of unmanned systems, but human attention and robust communications have not scaled at the same pace. Where links are degraded, denied or jammed, platforms that depend on constant operator control become ineffective. Mutable Tactics is targeting that operational gap by enabling mixed fleets to operate as coordinated teams rather than individually piloted machines, which could change how forces manage scale and resilience in contested environments.
Inside the product
Mutable Tactics is building a decision layer that sits between a human commander and the robot platforms. The layer encodes intent and constraints so each system can make decisions locally within defined boundaries. That local decision-making is intended to preserve meaningful human control while removing the one-to-one operator bottleneck.
The company says decisions are made at the tactical edge so systems can adapt to changing conditions and coordinate with one another even when communications, GPS or other navigation aids are unreliable. The pre-seed capital will expand the engineering team in Cambridge, fund integration work with unmanned-system partners, and support development and validation in collaboration with two European governments ahead of live demonstrations.
Who are the investors?
The round was led by Seraphim Space and included participation from the UK’s National Security Strategic Investment Fund, Koro, Entrepreneurs First and Transpose. Seraphim is a specialist investor with a portfolio focused on space and related autonomy technologies; NSSIF is a government-backed fund that invests in capabilities considered critical to national security. Entrepreneurs First and Transpose have both been active in early-stage deep-tech and robotics ecosystems, providing founder support and access to technical talent networks.
In the announcement, Maureen Haverty, Principal at Seraphim Space, said:
Mutable Tactics is building drone autonomy for modern conflicts: contested, jammed, and often GPS-denied environments. Most autonomy assumes clean communications and high-end platforms. Mutable’s software lets low-cost drones operate as coordinated teams when communications degrade, giving operators faster decisions and better outcomes without upgrading every platform. As space investors, we like that the system is designed to keep working across satellite, alternative navigation, and manual modes without changing kit. Colin and Enrique bring a rare mix of battlefield insight and true robotics autonomy expertise.
In the announcement, Investor at National Security Strategic Investment Fund, said:
We are delighted to invest in Mutable Tactics, a UK company that is addressing a critical bottleneck with an approach designed for real operational constraints. Mutable Tactics’ technology ensures that the UK remains a leader in the development of resilient, explainable and strategic autonomy that can operate in the most challenging environments.
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Founder perspective
In the announcement, Colin MacLeod, Co-founder & CEO at Mutable Tactics, said:
Increasingly, the constraint is no longer hardware but human attention. We can deploy more drones than ever before, yet we still ask operators to control them one by one, often in environments where communications are unreliable. True autonomy breaks that one-to-one link, allowing humans to supervise and direct teams of systems rather than individual machines. That shift is essential for supporting modern military missions, where scale, speed and resilience matter, and where operators must remain focused on intent and outcomes rather than manual control.
In the announcement, Enrique Muñoz de Cote, Co-founder & CTO at Mutable Tactics, said:
There is no single AI technique that solves autonomy. Deep learning allows systems to operate in uncertain, real-world environments, while deterministic AI ensures their behaviour remains explainable and aligned with a commander’s intent. Combining both enables autonomy that is resilient in contested environments while preserving meaningful human control – critical for military deployments. That fusion sits at the core of Mutable Tactics, and the UK’s leadership in probabilistic inference provides an essential foundation for this work
The bigger picture
The round sits within a broader uptick in investment into autonomy and defence-focused robotics across the UK and Europe, where governments and investors are prioritising resilience under contested conditions. Mutable Tactics’ approach—fusing probabilistic and deterministic methods and emphasising human-supervised autonomy—reflects ongoing debate about explainability and control in deployed systems.
As defence organisations look to field larger numbers of unmanned systems without proportionally increasing operator teams, software that enables local, coordinated decision-making could become a practical enabler for more complex missions. The funding and planned government collaborations suggest the UK ecosystem is continuing to back startups that translate operational experience into deployable autonomy software.
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