UK refuses to detail Outdragon spy pod capability

The Ministry of Defence has declined to describe the capability of the Outdragon signals intelligence pod carried by the Royal Air Force’s uncrewed aircraft, citing operational security.

The refusal came in a written parliamentary answer from Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard on 3 July, responding to a question from Ben Obese-Jecty, the Conservative MP for Huntingdon, who asked what the capability of Outdragon is on the MQ-9B. “I am withholding this information for reasons of operational security,” the minister said.

The question follows reporting last month that a Royal Air Force Protector RG1 had been photographed at RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus carrying what appears to be the Outdragon pod, in imagery published by the Ministry of Defence itself. The Protector, the RAF’s designation for the MQ-9B, replaced the MQ-9A Reaper in service and began operating from Akrotiri in the second half of 2025, flying missions over the Middle East as part of Operation Shader.

Outdragon is understood to be a podded airborne communications intelligence system, with a primary role of detecting, locating and tracking persons of interest through their electromagnetic emissions, such as signals from mobile phones and wireless routers. The system’s existence was first reported in April 2024 by Drone Wars UK, which established through a Freedom of Information request that the MOD had procured Outdragon from General Atomics as a US Foreign Military Sale in April 2018 for around five million dollars, with a further contract worth 2.2 million dollars awarded in April 2019 to modify and integrate the system onto the RAF’s then-in-service MQ-9A Reaper fleet. Beyond those contracting details, the department has consistently declined to confirm or deny the system’s existence, citing national security.

RAF maintenance documentation that briefly appeared online has previously listed Outdragon among the Protector’s payload options, carried on an underwing station, with earlier Reaper loadout information indicating the pod could be flown alongside Brimstone missiles and Paveway IV bombs on armed surveillance missions or carried alone for surveillance-only sorties.