Great Britain already in November this year should receive new advanced system to replace problematic Watchkeeper drones such information was reported by country's Defense Minister Luke Pollard.
So it turns out that replacement will be earlier than these UAVs will be withdrawn from service this was planned to be done in March 2027. Pollard stated that new system takes into account latest operational experience and technological innovations. UK Defence Journal reports this.
Read more: New russian Combined Attack on Ukraine: Ballistic Strikes Become a Key Feature
From Defense Express we recall that back in 2023, British started thinking about whether their military needs Watchkeeper drones at all, which in quantity of 54 units were purchased back in 2005 drones turned out expensive (1.35 billion against planned 800 million pounds sterling) and problematic (since 2014 there were constant crashes) and ultimately, since they performed only reconnaissance function, they could easily be replaced by smaller UAVs.
So last year a program started to search for replacement for this expensive UAV-disaster, and among everything it was reported that candidate could be Ukrainian solution, namely Raybird (ACS-3) from Skyeton (part of NAUDI). Among this drone's advantages ability to stay in air over a day, as well as operational experience in difficult battlefield conditions in hands of Ukrainian military.
Returning to Watchkeeper, it's worth noting that Pollard noted that Great Britain will not transfer decommissioned drones to Ukraine, instead will focus on new and cost-effective unmanned systems and will equip Defense Forces as much as possible to protect its sovereign territory and ensure its strong position for any peace negotiations.
And although at first one could say that Ukraine could figure out how to use these drones on battlefield, ultimately it's worth noting that this may be quite right decision.
Moreover, arguments in favor of such thesis can be cited practically the same as when last fall British refused to transfer or even sell us other drones MQ-9A Reaper, which at that time were already withdrawn from service and made their last flight in British military.
Because Watchkeeper is large platform, limited to reconnaissance function and vulnerable to russian air defense systems. It's unclear how much funds need to be poured in to maintain their functionality for a year or two, not to mention need to build infrastructure, train operators and technicians, etc., which will also eat up some portion of funds that can really be spent on purchasing more effective systems.
To this should be added significant number of accidents with Watchkeeper drones their use can be trivially risky due to high probability of disaster.
Moreover, when British received these drones, they had problems with training pilots, because bad weather in country significantly reduced time that could be spent on this ultimately even made decision to transfer training to one of islands in Atlantic Ocean.
Defense Express previously reported that Ukrainian Armed Forces drones made tank divisions in russian army meaningless, so where will they move next.
Read more: Ukraine's Use of Drones Is Ending Era of russian Tank Divisions — What Strategy Will Kremlin Adopt?
