The Ministry of Defence has published a preliminary market engagement notice under Project VANQUISH, seeking industry views on a new “Fixed Wing Short Take Off and Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform” (FW STOL ACP) for Royal Navy carriers.
The Find a Tender listing describes the effort as a technical demonstration intended to inform future procurement options for the UK’s “Hybrid Air Wing”.
The notice, identifier 2025/S 000-062294, sets out the requirement in stark terms: “Project VANQUISH seeks to deliver a technical demonstration at sea of an attritable (Tier 2) Fixed Wing Short Take Off and Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (FW STOL ACP); nominal target date by the end of 2026, with options for delivery within an 18 month window from the target date also considered.”
The MOD is explicit that the platform must be able to embark and operate autonomously from a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier. It is to be jet turbine powered, capable of high subsonic speed, and launch and recover from carriers without catapults or arrested recovery systems.
The system is expected to carry a credible payload with sufficient endurance, with a clear exploitation path for roles such as ISR, strike, and air-to-air refuelling.
The RFI highlights that this effort should “complement F-35B Lightning, as part of QEC and its Carrier Air Wing”. Officials also stress that the work must be “aligned with the principles of Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATX) and build on previous trials and demonstrations of ACPs from QEC.”
The estimated contract value is £10 million excluding VAT (£12 million including VAT), with a potential period from April 2026 to December 2027. The MOD notes that successful completion will provide the data and evidence needed to support a prospective procurement of a carrier-capable autonomous strike aircraft in the early 2030s.
The notice makes clear this is not yet a formal procurement. “For the avoidance of doubt, this notice is not informing the market of an imminent procurement. All costs pertaining to the completion of this response are to be borne by the responders.” A formal tender is expected to follow in January 2026.
Industry is invited to respond by 14 November 2025 through an online submission form. Clarification questions must be submitted by 24 October.
Great news. Yet another project. Must be dozens of them by now. Not ordering anything obviously. Just talking about talking about talking about….yawn.
*writes “planning to plan” on whiteboard and goes home*
Anyone know what happened to that last lot of class A drugs that the Royal Navy seized a while back ?
So the Navy think GA-ASI can adapt Gambit to work without cats and traps? Or perhaps even Avenger-STOL?
I can’t think who else could develop a project over that aggressive a timeframe. Helsing with their new Europa? The BAE ACP concepts? Neither of those have the aerodynamics for STOL carrier operation.
I suspect blown flaps will be involved, and big ones too.
“I suspect blown flaps will be involved, and big ones too”
Boy, you got issues !
I’m racking my brains at the moment trying to work out which innuendo reference you are making, which is not helpful as I’m supposed to be doing ESAT prep!
😁
😂😂😂
Their requirement for a decent payload plus STOL is a very tall order.
I guess that means all the work done to consider putting CATs and TRAPs on them has been skipped!!
IMHO they will live to regret not have CATO BAR on them if a shooting war starts. It will force them close to shore and therefore closer to any Carrier killing threat,
What they need is a tri-plane! 😆
Serious head on !
Time to dust off the plans for the Saunders Roe SR.A/1.
Or perhaps a miniature Martin Seamaster, if greater performance is desired?
I’ve looked at unmanned seaplanes as an idea before, but never jet-powered ones!
I honestly think “We” are missing a trick or two here though. Seaplanes/Amphibs were a great success back in the day, no need for C’s & T’s, they can land anywhere and size is not a limiting factor. I’m sure 80 years on from the SR, tech will have solved many of the issues.
I can see a role for a seaplane fulfilling an ISTAR role, folding to fit in a T26 mission bay and maybe even with internal stowage of Brimstone type weapons. Those are slow enough that the slightly odd turboprop placement and hull shaping wouldn’t affect performance too much.
If you wanted to go faster then maybe the fancy new electric fans would allow a wider range of engine placements? Making the propulsion fully hybrid you could even take off under battery power and open the generator air inlet doors in flight, which would make things easier still WRT water spray.
But I think trying to go much faster, with the requirements of water launch, is not going to be feasible.
Yeh, this is where that crane on the Rivers comes into its own. 😊
This falls into line with a previous prediction of mine that around 50% of aircraft aboard our carriers will be autonomous by 2040. All supply and refuelling should be primarily conducted by FWSTOL APCs as soon as possible, along with anti-submarine and early warning capabilities, which should have a profound impact on manning levels.
A BIG ask, however I am always drawn to using rota tilt wing whatever the yanks look like they will be using. Could we not adapt it for our carriers and other f35b navies?
tbh while it’s not as futuristic looking I’d say a compound helicopter is the way to go: the downwash is more spread out and it can still autorotate if there’s any trouble.
Intriguing.
Procurement, perish the thought, HMT would need to have a nice lie down, and they’ll be gone before any serious money is spent.
In all seriousness, will be interesting if industry can come up with anything.
My bet is a Banshee derivitive for this particular excercise.
Was there not something similar a few years ago? Project Mosquito? Also got canned before there was any danger of procurement happening, as apparently there was plenty of ‘existing alternatives ‘ that surprisingly also weren’t purchased.
The obvious candidate would be the Turkish Bayraktar Kızılelma, which has an MTOW of 6000kg, of which the payload is 1500kg. It’s been designed to operate from their LHD without catapults. Obviously as a tanker, that’s a very small amount of fuel, but it’s one of the very few options out there.
The most sensible thing would be to add arrestor gear to the carriers, which would instantly increase their flexibility, even without adding catapults. It would enable cross decking when necessary with both French and American carriers, since both Rafales and Super Hornets could potentially take off from the ski jump, albeit at a reduced takeoff weight. It would potentially also enable heavier UAVs like the MQ-25 Stingray to cross deck. Adding arrestor gear would be a fairly cheap way to dramatically improve capability, at a relatively modest cost.