Drone Wars carried a report dated May 12 updating the news of RAF drones one week after Keir Starmer's announcement that Britain has brought its new "StormShroud" drone into service. The report points out:

"StormShroud is a Tekever AR3 drone equipped with BriteStorm electronic jamming capability and said by the RAF, to be the first of its Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP). The idea is for the drone to jam defence radar to enable combat aircraft to get through and undertake an attack.

"216 Squadron will operate 24 StormShroud drones which will apparently 'be capable of conducting autonomous swarming operations, including by drawing on artificial intelligence technology.' Some scepticism of these inflated claims is warranted.

"While the concept of ACP drones - dubbed Collaborative Combat Aircraft by the US - is for the drones to fly alongside or ahead of combat aircraft, StormShroud drones will be deployed from the ground with the drones arrival apparently timed to coincide with the arrival of a UK combat aircraft. How (and whether) this will actually work in practice remains to be seen."

On the new Protector RG1 drone, Drone Wars says:

"The UK's Military Aviation Authority (MAA) has issued 'Military Type Certification' to the UK's new 'Protector' armed drone, meaning that it is now free to fly within UK airspace, including over populated areas.

"Previously, for safety reasons, Protector and other large uncrewed systems such as the Protector's predecessor, the Reaper, were only allowed to fly in segregated airspace, with other aircraft excluded. Although large military drones are spreading rapidly, as Drone Wars has documented, they continue to tumble out of the skies for a whole variety of reasons.

"The UK is the first country to certify a large drone to fly freely in unsegregated airspace and General Atomics, the manufacturer of the drone - which they call MQ-9B SkyGuardian rather than UK designation of 'Protector RG1'- were delighted as it has huge implications for their sales. The company's press release called it 'a seminal achievement'. A key element of the approval, alongside 'rigorous testing', was apparently the 'rigid separation' of mission software from flight critical software."

In reporting on "Protector" drone flights in Britain, Drone Wars says: "The RAF also intends to open an International Training Centre at RAF Waddington to train pilots from overseas militaries to fly large armed drones. Training courses in the US are often oversubscribed, creating a waiting list and the UK sees an opportunity to sell places on its training courses. While much of this training will be 'synthetic' (i.e. on simulators) it is likely that some flying by these overseas pilots will also be done in the UK."

For the full article, see: https://dronewars.net/2025/05/12/rafs-new-armed-drone-given-approval-to-fly-freely-over-uk/

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