Tekever AR5 drones chosen for British Army Watchkeeper replacement
The UK MoD plans to spend up to £400 million on AR5 surveillance UAVs after moving to retire the troubled Watchkeeper fleet.
By Dominic Okoye · Staff Writer
· 3 min read
The UK Ministry of Defence has selected Tekever AR5 drones for a British Army surveillance fleet worth up to £400 million, replacing the Watchkeeper UAVs that are being retired far earlier than planned. The initial order covers six aircraft, with as many as 24 expected by 2029, giving the Army a new medium-endurance platform for real-time intelligence, troop protection and battlefield decision support.
The procurement, run under Project Corvus, is subject to contract signature and final approval. If it clears those steps, the AR5s are expected to start entering service later this year. Support is planned for at least five years, with options to extend. The MoD did not disclose a per-aircraft price or the full split between aircraft, support and other services within the £400 million ceiling.
Tekever is a Portuguese aerospace and defense company with several manufacturing and test sites in the UK. The AR5 fleet is due to be built at a new manufacturing facility in Swindon. The company already has a UK military foothold: another Tekever product has been adopted by the Royal Air Force as the basis for the StormShroud electronic warfare drone.
What is the Tekever AR5 drone?
The AR5 is a medium-endurance uncrewed aircraft that looks closer to a small conventional light aircraft than a quadcopter. It is 4 meters long, has a 7.3-meter wingspan and uses two 170 cc two-stroke boxer piston engines.
The aircraft can carry a 50 kg payload, remain airborne for up to 20 hours and operate from rough ground, according to the MoD’s selection details. Payload options include electro-optical and infrared sensors, maritime radar, signals intelligence equipment and search-and-rescue capability. The MoD said the AR5 offers better endurance, sensor capability and reliability than the system it is replacing.
Defence secretary Wes Streeting said the AR5 has already been used by Ukraine’s military and framed the selection around speed of adaptation. He said the MoD had chosen a UK-based Tekever AR5 drone because it was “proven in Ukraine” and designed to protect British soldiers against emerging threats.
Why is Watchkeeper being replaced?
Watchkeeper entered British Army service in 2014 and had been expected to remain in use until 2042. Former defence secretary John Healey announced in 2024 that the system would instead be retired, after the war in Ukraine accelerated expectations for battlefield drone capability and exposed the limits of older UAV programs.
According to Janes, Watchkeeper had only limited operational use near the end of the Afghanistan conflict and was later used in 2020 to monitor refugee boats in the English Channel. Otherwise, it was largely used for training. At least seven Watchkeepers are known to have been lost in incidents, a record that shaped the program’s reputation inside and outside defense circles.
Tekever UK managing director Karl Brew said the company wants a government-industry partnership built around continuous capability upgrades. That is a familiar promise in defense technology procurement, where software, sensors and autonomy are now expected to improve during a system’s service life. The test for the Army will be whether AR5 procurement can avoid the reliability and relevance problems that made Watchkeeper obsolete well before its planned retirement date.
This story draws on original reporting from The Register.
