Britain finally chose replacement for failed Watchkeeper WK450 reconnaissance drones — country's defense department reported that new reconnaissance drones were chosen to ensure round-the-clock reconnaissance security of British troops, this involves AR5 from Portuguese-British company Tekever. These drones' production will be conducted at company's new production facility in British city of Swindon.
Tekever drone procurement will be conducted within Corvus project, announced last summer. It provides for procuring quite small reconnaissance UAV quantity — only 24 units. As British Defense Ministry notes, initial order will be placed for six drones, with commissioning already planned for this year.
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Worth noting project implementation may result in quite large funds — previously discussed was financing of £310 million, and now sum up to £400 million is discussed.
However what exactly is included in this sum is not disclosed — likely this should be quite large package with range of related equipment and services, and also not excluded this involves some other additional procurements. As £400 million for 24 reconnaissance drones, even in full package, is very expensive.
Tekever reconnaissance drone will replace Watchkeeper WK450 in British military, which served only seven years, although should have been in service until early 2040s. Drones literally became catastrophe — high accident rate, low combat capability level and so on. So decision on their replacement and search for another product was only matter of time.
Moreover, worth mentioning that one of possible Watchkeeper WK450 replacement variants was solution from Ukraine — at least last autumn media reported one candidate is Raybird UAV from Skyeton company, significant advantage of which is capability to remain airborne over 24 hours.
However British, as we see, settled on another solution. But should note it is unknown by what criteria specifically Britain chose reconnaissance drone, and open competition was also not reported.
But apparently one of criteria could quite possibly have been Ukraine-proven solution — as known Tekever is drone supplier to our Defense Forces including AR5. And further modifications and new models are created specifically considering this experience.
By the way, one of variants for further fate of Watchkeeper WK450, which British prematurely retired, was their dispatch to Ukraine — however they decided not to transfer them, and this is genuinely correct decision.
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