The British Military’s Watchkeeper UAV, initially supposed to depart service in March 2025, has had its troubled service life prolonged to March 2027, whereas procurement for successor platforms stays within the early levels.
The Ministry of Defence (MoD) introduced in November 2024, as a part of a wider collection of cuts, that the British Military’s Watchkeeper intelligence, surveillance, goal acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR) drone could be retired from service forward of schedule. Initially this was anticipated to happen by March 2025, however continued operation of the plane from a variety of areas had already proven that deadline had been missed. A contract for the availability of upkeep providers for the Watchkeeper fleet issued in April 2025 indicated that the anticipated withdrawal date would as an alternative be March 2026.
Member of Parliament Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Trade, has now revealed in response to a written query that the presently scheduled out of service date (OSD) for Watchkeeper is ready for March 2027. The beforehand talked about contract already included a clause that allowed such an extension in sort if needed.
British Military #Thales #Watchkeeper #UAV seen over #Stonehenge. Now routinely flying over southern UK. pic.twitter.com/Yb075D3nAN
— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) June 2, 2015
Proposals for a alternative plane are being sought from the business by the MoD beneath Undertaking Corvus. The tender discover for Undertaking Corvus was launched on Jul. 31, 2025, with an anticipated contract worth of £130 million. Trade submissions had been invited as much as the deadline of Aug. 18, and a call is predicted round Mar. 31, 2026. The contract will then run from Might. 1, 2026 to Apr. 30, 2031, with an non-obligatory 5 12 months extension operating till Apr. 30, 2026.
The Watchkeeper’s major position as a part of the broader British Military stock is named Land Tactical Deep Discover, or LTDF, primarily performing as a strategy to prolong the ISTAR horizon for deployed floor forces. As such, the UAV was operated by 47 Regiment Royal Artillery. The plane’s normal intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities had been additionally employed over the English Channel to help civilian border enforcement companies.
Any alternative plane is predicted to match Watchkeeper’s LTDF capabilities whereas bettering upon survivability in contested airspace, together with areas topic to digital warfare and GPS jamming assaults. The brand new platform should be capable to be operated according to present 47 Regt staffing ranges, with minimal change to present coaching practices. It should even be simply adaptable and upgradeable to match rising threats and technological developments. A lot of firms are anticipated to have submitted bids, with one key contender considered Tekever, who’ve made enormous inroads when it comes to unmanned capabilities and have established a big presence throughout the UK.
Delivery of a #Watchkeeper #UAVNow absolutely operational in Camp Bastion #Afghanistan with #BritishArmy#Thales pic.twitter.com/cQ3IrhwBfo
— Tom Antonov (@Tom_Antonov) September 29, 2014
Watchkeeper’s Woes
Watchkeeper, a Thales product, is a by-product of Elbit’s Hermes 450 UAV, in service since 1998. Regardless of utilizing a longtime kind as its foundation, Watchkeeper’s entry into full UK army service was notoriously suffering from delays, crashes, and funds overruns. Ordered in 2007, the primary UK flight of a Watchkeeper plane befell in 2010. A certification from the Army Aviation Authority adopted in 2014, and the plane was rushed into operational service over Afghanistan alongside leased Hermes 450 drones.
Poor climate within the UK noticed coaching and trials moved to Ascension Island. By 2018, the programme was £200 million over its supposed funds, and, of the 54 plane ordered, 5 had already been misplaced in crashes. Additional losses continued to mount up over the next years.
#UK security watchdog highlights Watchkeeper #UAV shortfalls pic.twitter.com/v62GIrjBIZ
— Janes (@JanesINTEL) April 23, 2019
After the announcement of the plane kind’s early withdrawal, Vernon Coaker, Baron Coaker, Minister of State within the Ministry of Defence, instructed the Home of Lords that “that system has been in service since 2010 and, in accordance with all of the army chiefs, is old-fashioned.” He added that classes discovered from the warfare in Ukraine have signaled {that a} new functionality is required. Previous to the November 2024 announcement, Watchkeeper was anticipated to serve within the British Military till 2042.
This was echoed by voices throughout the army, who instructed reporters and ministers that the plane are “now not match for operational objective”. Although on the floor an odd remark to make concerning a platform that has solely in the previous couple of years been a readily deployable functionality, Watchkeeper’s origins within the conflicts dealing with the UK twenty years in the past reveal its age and its weaknesses. Now wanting on the prospect of peer on peer conflicts, relatively than fights in opposition to insurgencies, the British Military, and the broader British army, is making an attempt to consolidate its capabilities and make the most of new applied sciences and techniques that had been virtually unthinkable even ten years in the past.
Not like extra trendy tools, designed from the outset with modularity and upgradeability as key options, Watchkeeper’s pathways to include new programs, and even software program, would doubtless be way more costly and laborious.
These issues, for a profitable platform, may be capable to be ignored. However for Watchkeeper, which, as reported by Amelia Smith for The Conflict Zone in 2023, recorded only one,191 flying hours throughout a 4 12 months interval between 2018 and 2022 – far wanting the specified 6,000 flying hours per 12 months – they had been simply extra causes to declare the platform out of date earlier than it ever bought a real check on the frontline.
