Instro Precision

Instro Precision Limited is a British defence electronics company based at Discovery Park in Sandwich, Kent. Founded in 1960 in Tunbridge Wells and incorporated as Instro Precision in 1964, it started out as a precision engineering contract manufacturer for the UK Ministry of Defence and moved to its current site in 2019. The company is a subsidiary of Elbit Systems UK and, according to its own figures, has a team of more than 100 engineers and experts; its products are fielded in more than 50 countries.

Its portfolio covers night vision devices, thermal weapon sights, handheld target acquisition and laser designation systems, electro-optical surveillance payloads for airborne and land platforms as well as precision tripods, motorised positioners, goniometers and north-finding systems. In 2021 it won the UK Ministry of Defence contract to deliver more than 5,000 NV33 night vision systems. It also supplies systems to the Royal Artillery and is a supplier to the British Army’s Watchkeeper unmanned aircraft programme.

Counter-UAS is a separate product line. In September 2026 Instro presented DEODE, a directed energy effector designed, developed and built in the UK that disables the electro-optical payloads of hostile drones, in vehicle-mounted and tripod-mounted configurations. Its counter-UAS range also includes the ReDrone system, a portable drone detection and jamming system and the DAiR X-band radar.