UK Picks Ukraine-Proven Tekever AR5 Drone Over Watchkeeper
Britain's Project Corvus hands Tekever up to £400M to replace the troubled Watchkeeper UAV, with the first six of 24 drones built in Swindon.
Crown copyright / UK Ministry of Defence, Open Government Licence v3.0
The British Army has picked the Tekever AR5, a Portuguese-founded, UK-manufactured surveillance drone with a combat record in Ukraine, to replace its long-troubled Watchkeeper fleet, the Ministry of Defence announced July 25 under a Project Corvus contract worth up to £400 million over ten years.
Out with Watchkeeper, in with a combat-tested import-turned-domestic build
Watchkeeper WK450 has served the British Army since 2014, developed by Thales UK with Elbit Systems from the Israeli Hermes 450 airframe, but the program has been defined as much by its cost overruns as its capability. UK spending on Watchkeeper had reached £1.08 billion by March 2018 against an order of just 54 airframes, and the Ministry of Defence has separately estimated the cost of reaching full operational capability at around £1.2 billion, a striking figure for a fleet that size. WeaponSpecs’ own database records Watchkeeper’s specifications, a roughly 150 km range, a 14-hour endurance and a service ceiling under 5,000 meters, modest numbers by the standards of a program that consumed over a billion pounds. With that airframe reaching the end of its useful life, the MOD ran Project Corvus to find a replacement, and reporting from Shephard Media indicates the procurement process itself shifted partway through, from an open competition to a direct award to Tekever, a detail worth noting as a procurement-mechanism choice even though the MOD’s own announcement frames the outcome as a straightforward capability win.
What Britain is actually buying, and for how much
The headline figure is a contract worth up to £400 million, roughly $533 million, over a 10-year framework, covering an initial order of six AR5 aircraft that is planned to rise to as many as 24 by 2029. Tender-document reporting cited by Shephard Media adds more granular detail behind that top-line number: a roughly £336 million ($447 million) ceiling if every contract option is exercised, against a smaller committed core of about £136 million ($181 million) covering an initial five-year phase. Those figures come from different levels of the same procurement structure rather than contradicting each other outright, but they aren’t fully reconciled in public reporting, so this piece presents all three side by side rather than collapsing them into one number. The aircraft themselves will be manufactured at a new Tekever facility in Swindon, which the MOD says will sustain and create “hundreds of jobs” in South West England, and the winning bid comes with a minimum five years of in-service logistics and support from the contractor.
UK Defence Secretary Wes Streeting tied the selection directly to combat performance rather than paper specifications in the government’s own announcement:
“Proven in Ukraine and designed to protect British soldiers globally, we’ve chosen the UK-based Tekever AR5 drone to supply our personnel with kit that will keep them ahead of emerging threats,” said Wes Streeting, UK Secretary of State for Defence (GOV.UK, July 25, 2026).
Tekever UK managing director Karl Brew framed the win in terms of industrial sovereignty as much as capability:
“CORVUS represents a major step change in delivering cutting edge autonomy to the British Army,” said Karl Brew, Managing Director, Tekever UK (GOV.UK, July 25, 2026).
Why “combat-proven” is doing real work in this decision
Tekever, founded in Lisbon but now building this fleet in the UK, markets the AR5 as its most advanced medium-altitude, medium-endurance fixed-wing platform: a payload of up to 50 kg, long endurance, and the ability to operate from short or unprepared airstrips with automated takeoff and landing, engineered specifically to keep functioning in GPS-denied, contested environments. Those aren’t just spec-sheet claims for this program. The aircraft has already flown operational missions for the UK monitoring small-boat crossings in the English Channel, has been demonstrated at NATO’s REP(MUS) unmanned-systems exercise off Portugal, and, most significantly for a program built to replace a drone with a documented cost-and-delivery problem, Tekever describes the AR5 as combat-proven in Ukraine. For a Ministry of Defence emerging from a program that spent over a billion pounds on 54 airframes of uncertain battlefield pedigree, buying a system with an existing operational record, rather than commissioning another from-scratch bespoke development, is itself the strategic bet: it trades some of the customization a clean-sheet UK program might have offered for aircraft whose reliability and battlefield performance are already partly demonstrated rather than projected.
Sources
- Fleet of spy drones to equip British soldiers and back jobs in South West England and Wales — GOV.UK / UK Ministry of Defence, Jul 25, 2026
- British Army's Project Corvus selection highlights new era of drone sovereignty — Shephard Media, Jul 28, 2026
- British Army Selects Tekever AR5 in Up to £400 Million Project Corvus Contract to Replace Watchkeeper — DPRTE, Jul 29, 2026
- UK selects Tekever AR5 surveillance drones to succeed Watchkeeper — Breaking Defense, Jul 28, 2026
Systems mentioned
Every system named in this story, with its photo and, where available, a video. Tap a card to open the full spec sheet.
UAV / drone
Watchkeeper WK450Frequently asked questions
What is Project Corvus? +
Project Corvus is the British Army's program to replace its aging Watchkeeper WK450 surveillance drone fleet. On July 25, 2026, the UK Ministry of Defence announced it selected the Portuguese-founded, UK-manufacturing Tekever's AR5 as the winning aircraft.
How much is the contract worth? +
The core deal is worth up to £400 million (about $533 million) over a 10-year framework. Tender-document reporting separately describes a roughly £336 million ($447 million) ceiling if every contract option is exercised, against a smaller committed core of about £136 million ($181 million) for an initial five-year phase; the government's own headline figure remains the £400 million ceiling.
Why is Watchkeeper being retired? +
Watchkeeper has been in British Army service since 2014 but is reaching the end of its operational life after a troubled program history: UK spending on it had reached £1.08 billion by March 2018 against only 54 airframes ordered, with full operational capability estimated to cost around £1.2 billion in total.
Has the AR5 seen real-world use? +
Yes. Tekever describes the AR5 as combat-proven in Ukraine, and the UK has already used the aircraft operationally to monitor small-boat crossings in the English Channel. It has also been demonstrated at NATO's REP(MUS) unmanned-systems exercise off Portugal.
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