UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace today announced the Ministry of Defence (MOD) has signed a £65m contract for its first three Protector Remotely Piloted Air Systems (RPAS)
The UK is to field ‘swarming drones’ to confuse and overwhelm enemy air defences by the end of this year, the Secretary of State for Defence said on 11 February.
Announced at the Royal International Air Tattoo (RIAT) at Royal Air Force (RAF) Fairford in Gloucestershire, the RAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) awarded three contracts to develop a technology demonstrator, named Project ‘Mosquito’, to explore the addition of unmanned ‘loyal wingman’ capabilities onto fast jets.
The British Army is still having issues operating its Watchkeepers, despite the UAVs having received their ‘release to service’ certification
Three Watchkeeper UAVs have crashed in recent years while on UK-based training sorties