BELFAST — The United Kingdom has learned from watching Ukraine that its Watchkeeper unmanned aerial vehicle is “no longer fit for operational purpose,” but the ministry of defense is committed to protecting funding that will go towards its replacement, according to a senior official.
“We are working really hard with the army and ensuring they’re funded to deliver the sorts of drone capability in 2025 to replace the drone [Watchkeeper] that’s being retired,” Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff (Military Capability) Lt. Gen. Robert Magowan told lawmakers from the UK Defence Committee on Tuesday.
In November, London said it had decided to scrap 46 of the British Army medium-altitude, long-endurance intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR) drones as part of sweeping equipment cuts aimed at delivering savings of £500 million ($632 million) over the next five years.
Magowan’s comments on the lack of operational utility offered by Watchkeeper are in keeping with those of John Healey, UK Secretary of Defence, who justified the early retirement of the aircraft on grounds that “technology has overtaken” it.
Magowan did not elaborate further on the replacement effort but did note that the Watchkeeper retirement will allow the MoD to still save “quite a lot of money” that would otherwise go toward support costs for the aircraft.
As previously reported, the Watchkeeper program has suffered years of delays, cost overruns and a series of test and operational crashes. As of September 2022, the UK had spent £1.31 billion on the program, according to a lawmaker statement. It initially entered service in 2014, supporting Afghanistan force protection efforts, but has rarely been deployed on military operations since that conflict. In October, Watchkeeper was operated with upgraded sensors in Estonia, as part of Exercise Athena Shield, according to a British Army statement. (Thales UK, manufacturer of the Watchkeeper, told FlightGlobal in November that while London’s decision to cut the platform was “disappointing,” the company said it was “proud of Watchkeeper’s success in Afghanistan, support to Border Force and, most recently, being deployed in Estonia.”)
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Elsewhere in Tuesday’s hearing, lawmaker questions prompted additional revelations from Magowan across a number of other key programs, including plans to replace 17 Royal Air Force-operated Puma medium lift helicopters, also axed under the latest round of military cuts.
He said that a “range of capabilities” are currently being explored that could “plug gaps” when the rotorcraft, which are permanently based in Brunei and Cyprus, are retired in March 2025. The UK has already committed to the acquisition of six Airbus H145 Jupiter helicopters to replace the Puma’s in 2026, so it appears that Magowan is suggesting an interim or stop-gap acquisition could be approved. He did not share additional details.
The Puma’s premature withdrawal from service from Brunei and Cyprus has previously drawn concern from Airbus. In November, the company noted in response to the move that, though it welcomes the H145 business, “we regret the likely impact on the UK’s defence industrial base, with the potential loss of skilled engineering roles and wider consequences for the aerospace supply chain.”
Magowan also said that the £1 billion ($1.3 billion) New Medium Helicopter (NMH) program, designed to source a successor for a separate fleet of Puma aircraft, is “playing out now,” adding “there’s one bidder left and that bidder has significant investment in the in the UK.”
The single bidder is presumably a reference to Leonardo, the only manufacturer to put forward a bid after Airbus and Lockheed Martin both walked away from the competition in August because of requirement problems and fears linked to not receiving “adequate long-term returns.”
In a program update last week, Maria Eagle, UK minister for defence procurement, said that “there are no plans to change the extant New Medium Helicopter procurement process.”
She added, “The New Medium Helicopter competition remains sensitive, and the evaluation and approval process must complete before further details, including aircraft numbers, can be confirmed.”
The previous Conservative government had said the procurement could be “up to” 44 airframes, but Breaking Defense has reported industry expects the real number to be around 30 platforms, and FlightGlobal recently reported it could be as few as 23.
NMH contract award is set for next year, but the UK’s Strategic Defense Review (SDR), due for release in mid-2025, could complicate matters because it has been designed to evaluate national defense priorities and equipment planning.
Also in the hearing Magowan said that the BAE Systems Bofors Archer, an interim self-propelled howitzer, is set to enter service with the British Army in “early 2025,” while the UK and Germany are in “close negotiations” on the longer term solution, expected to be the KNDS Remote-Controlled Howitzer 155mm (RCH 155) 52 cal. Wheeled Artillery System.