The British Army’s Watchkeeper UAV, originally scheduled to leave service in March 2025, has extended its troubled service life to March 2027, while procurement of successor platforms remains in the early stages.
The Ministry of Defense (MoD) announced in November 2024, as part of a wider series of cuts, that the British Army’s Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) drone Watchkeeper would be retired from service earlier than planned. This was initially expected to take place in March 2025, but continued operation of the aircraft from various locations had already shown that the deadline had been missed. A contract for the provision of maintenance services for the Watchkeeper fleet issued April 2025 indicated that the planned withdrawal date would be March 2026.
Member of Parliament Luke Pollard, Minister of State for Defense Industry and Preparedness, has now revealed in response to a written question that the currently planned out of service date (OSD) for Watchkeeper is set for March 2027. The contract mentioned above already included a clause allowing for such extension in kind if necessary.
british army #Such #vigilant #UAV seen above #Stonehenge. It now flies regularly over the south of the United Kingdom. pic.twitter.com/Yb075D3nAN
—Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) June 2, 2015
The Ministry of Defense is seeking proposals from industry for a replacement aircraft under Project Corvus. He tender notice for Project Corvus launched on July 31, 2025, with an expected contract value of £130 million. Industry submissions were invited until the August 18 deadline and a decision is expected around March 31, 2026. The contract will run from May. from April 1, 2026 to April 30, 2031, with an optional five-year extension until April 30, 2026.
The Watchkeeper’s primary role as part of the British Army’s broader inventory is known as Land Tactical Deep Find, or LTDF, and essentially acts as a way to expand the ISTAR horizon for deployed ground forces. As such, the UAV was operated by 47 Regiment Royal Artillery. The aircraft’s overall intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities were also employed. over the english canal to assist civilian border control agencies.
Any replacement aircraft is expected to match Watchkeeper’s LTDF capabilities while Improve survivability in contested airspace.including areas subject to electronic warfare and GPS jamming attacks. The new platform must be able to operate in line with 47 Regt’s current staffing levels, with minimal changes to current training practices. It must also be easily adaptable and upgradable to adapt to emerging threats and technological developments. Several companies are expected to have submitted bids, and a key contender is believed to be Tekever, which has made great strides in terms of unmanned capabilities and established a significant presence in the UK.
birth of a #vigilant #UAV
Now fully operational at Camp Bastion #Afghanistan with #britisharmy#Such pic.twitter.com/cQ3IrhwBfo-Tom Antonov (@Tom_Antonov) September 29, 2014
The problems of the watchman
Watchkeeper, a product of Thales, is a derivative of Elbit’s Hermes 450 UAV, in service since 1998. Despite using an established type as a base, Watchkeeper’s entry into full UK military service was notoriously plagued by delays, accidents and budget overruns. Commissioned in 2007, the first flight of a Watchkeeper aircraft in the UK took place in 2010. A Military Aviation Authority certification followed in 2014, and the aircraft quickly entered operational service over Afghanistan alongside rented Hermes 450 drones.
Bad weather in the United Kingdom led to training and testing being moved to Ascension Island. In 2018, the program was £200 million over its planned budget and, of the 54 aircraft ordered, five had already been lost in accidents. In the following years more losses continued to accumulate.
#United Kingdom Highlights from security watchdog Watchkeeper #UAV deficits https://t.co/ijzdtyPfbU pic.twitter.com/v62GIrjBIZ
– Janes (@JanesINTEL) April 23, 2019
Following the announcement of the early withdrawal of this type of aircraft, Vernon Coaker, Baron Coaker, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence, told the House of Lords that “that system has been in service since 2010 and, according to all military chiefs, it is obsolete.” He added that lessons learned from the war in Ukraine have indicated that new capability is needed. Prior to the November 2024 announcement, Watchkeeper was expected to serve in the British Army until 2042.
This was echoed by voices within the military, who told journalists and ministers that the planes are “no longer suitable for operational purposes”. While on the surface a strange commentary on a platform that has only in recent years been an easily deployable capability, Watchkeeper’s origins in the conflicts the United Kingdom faced two decades ago reveal its age and weaknesses. Now, faced with the prospect of peer-to-peer conflict, rather than fighting insurgencies, the British Army, and the British Army in general, is attempting to consolidate its capabilities and harness new technologies and tactics that were almost unthinkable even ten years ago.
Unlike more modern equipment, designed from the beginning with modularity and upgradeability as key features, Watchkeeper’s paths to incorporating new systems, and even software, would likely be much more expensive and laborious.
These problems, for a successful platform, could be overlooked. But for Watchkeeper, who, as reported by Amelia Smith for The war zone in 2023logging just 1,191 flight hours over a four-year period between 2018 and 2022, well short of the desired 6,000 flight hours per year, were just more reasons to declare the platform obsolete before it underwent a true front-line test.
