The Strategic Defence Review has backed plans to expand the capabilities of the RAF’s new Protector drone fleet, including the integration of maritime surveillance systems to support operations alongside P-8 Poseidon aircraft and Royal Navy Type 26 frigates.
The review states:
“Protector should be enhanced with maritime surveillance equipment and connectivity to give it wider utility… integrated with P-8 Poseidon maritime control and reconnaissance aircraft and Type 26 frigates.”
This development would mark a significant enhancement in the drone’s role, enabling it to conduct persistent surveillance in maritime environments such as the North Atlantic and the Arctic, where the UK has increased its operational focus in response to Russian activity and climate-driven strategic change.
Previously, Minister for Defence Procurement Maria Eagle confirmed in Parliament that the UK is actively exploring a maritime application for Protector, highlighting the system’s value beyond its original land-focused intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) mission.
“The UK is working closely with the NATO Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance Force to scope options to provide Protector in support of operations in the Northern Atlantic and Arctic regions,” Eagle stated.
“Protector training has now transferred to the UK… and four Protector Air Vehicles have now been delivered to RAF Waddington, where they are being maintained by 31 Squadron engineers.”
The drone, a successor to the MQ-9 Reaper, is part of a growing international partnership involving seven participant nations and five observers. The UK’s leadership of this multinational effort reinforces its ambition to integrate Protector into NATO’s wider ISR capabilities.
The SDR’s endorsement of a maritime configuration for the platform reflects a broader trend in UK defence strategy toward adaptable and networked systems that can operate flexibly across multiple domains. By linking Protector to manned platforms such as the P-8 and the Type 26, the UK aims to increase situational awareness and decision-making speed in contested environments.
The move comes amid ongoing criticism from analysts and defence experts who argue that the UK’s current fleet of just nine P-8A Poseidon aircraft is insufficient for the scale of maritime patrol required.
The SDR makes no specific recommendation on augmenting Poseidon numbers, but the integration of Protector into maritime operations could provide a cost-effective means of bolstering surveillance coverage, particularly in low-threat or persistent ISR tasks, while allowing the P-8s to focus on high-end anti-submarine warfare missions.
Good plan. Makes sense..
Agree, seems like a no brainer, the Houthis have shown that it’s almost uselsss in its original intended role however in a low threat environment at sea its ideal.
In addition to the MPA configuration we should rapidly develop the AEW version with two under wing AESA pods to supplement the E7 especially in UK air space. We can then buy the wing kits and get them on the carriers.
This is the kind of job drones are ideal for.
Agree these large really expensive but soft target drones are best used in a benign environment that can maximise the use of their range and endurance.. that’s the maritime environment.
If anything ,due to global warming , the sea has got bigger….
I wouldn’t say they are useless in the original role, but in the Houthis case they got their hands Iranian air defence systems which has made them extremely vulnerable. Reapers did a lot of good work against ISIS in Syria and Iraq, as well as Afghanistan. Italy used them successfully in Libya too. Not all enemies are going to be as well supported as the Houthis are by the Iranians. Obviously in the Houthi case less vulnerable systems need to be used, and if a proper SEAD campaign was conducted drones could operated again.
I think this is very sensible and given the hard work of integrating a UK-built maritime radar, Seaspray 7500Ev2, has already been done, I was a little surprised they weren’t bought that way in the first place. Wasn’t the primary role of Reapers in the Middle East attacking Al Qaeda? I think that campaign is over, and the RAF bought MQ-9B specifically because it could be operated in civilian airspace out of the UK and Europe. Maritime patrol is a natural home.
Yes, that an overwatch /surveillance, which continues. Which is why I want the Reapers to remain. They cannot fly in UK airspace, and that saves Protector having to be sent to the ME to do their ongoing role, which includes SIGINT.
Hi DM .A question, if the RAF decided to keep the Reapers, can they carry heavier payloads like ASW torpedoes /sonobuoys?. If so, that would be a force multiplier, slaved to a P8 “mothership”
Hi Chris.
The Protector has long been mooted as receiving the maritime surveillance pod, so this isn’t really news.
I understand it as you describe, but think it’d be sonorbuoys and the P8s would prosecute.
Much obliged Daniele
Good idea BUT are they talking about new airframes and a reduction in the number of existing stock. We also need to do something about AEW for the carriers.
Nothing in the SDR on carrier AEW that I spotted.
Too busy launching missiles off the deck
Brings a new meaning to assault carrier 😀
Yep, V1’s launched off the ski jump…
No. Me neither but have to do something soon. As Jim says below we have the daft idea of launching miisiles but can’t find out where anything is.
Isn’t the SDR just a wish list? SHOULD does not mean it will be equipped with. HMG should accelerate existing programs then expand the forces.
The government has committed to fulfilling all 62 recommendations in the SDR. Therefore, we can expect that the MarPat drones will be ordered.
It’s a policy statement, not a wish list. Baisically the SDR directs the MoD where the Government wants it to go, the MoD then turns around with a wish list a few months later that will enable what the SDR wants, and then the Treasury gives the money (or not).
I think we all predicted that on the basis it was a no-brainer.
But given this is an additional role being given to the Protector force, will there be an increase in numbers?…
This will be a sensible use of some very costly and high risk drones.. the problem with protector is that it’s not got the resilience of a high end capability..but it’s not a cheap high numbers attrition capability.. so maritime and security work is probably the best place for it..
The problem with Protector is that all of the cost has been sunk into making it reliable and safe with the necessary endurance, so there isn’t actually much hard capability coming out of the other end.
It would make an excellent maritime platform because it’s reliable and has impressive endurance with a whole host of different systems slung underneath it, but a combat drone it is not.
Worth doing. Jobs like this would seem to be an efficient use of resources and cost effective.
To be able to use the MQ-9B STOL in the AEW and Sea Guardian with sonar buoys from the carriers would be a very useful addition to the fleet. All the carriers would then need is a UAV that can carry out the air to air refueling task and the carriers would be sorted if or when they can have consistantly 24-36 F35Bs.
I also agree with Daniele in that we should keep Reaper for overseas deployments such as the Arabian Gulf Region, Falklands etc and keep the Protectors in the UK for Atlantic and European use.
Reaper can stay in the Middle East, at the rate they are getting shot down these days they won’t last long anyway. Protector can do everything else.
It’s always been obvious 9 P8s were never going to be enough aircraft for the ASW role
One only has to look at how many legacy platforms they replaced.. the sea has not got any smaller or ASW quicker.
Yes but there is a 90% reduction in Russian submarine levels
True but ASW is about the amount of ocean and conditions.. they could have 1 or 10 SSNs you still have to sanitise the same amount of ocean unless you have found and tracked every potential threat.
It’s a very sensible force multiplier but it has to be in addition to the existing numbers as 16 just isn’t enough. The image is interesting as it’s an altered one of a Prototype carrying a Seaspray 7500E AESA radar (step up from the wildcats) in a centreline pod. GA already did work on a navalised version called Sea-Guardian complete with reinforced undercarriage, tail hook and folding wings so who knows they may boost project Ark Royal and fit cats n traps (no full fat versions).
Now if they really want an SDR type Hybrid Carrier, then refit them with a light weight catapult for Drones but the USN AAG and an angled flight deck, that way you open up all sorts of possibilities as with the Ski jump you have a STOBAR carrier. As far as I am aware the AAG is the only catapult certified for USN Carrier aircraft and their UAVs as it has the flexibility necessary to quickly switch between the differing landing weights, speeds and stresses involved with the 2 Types.
Not quite.
There are three different versions of SkyGuardian (The base GA-ASI design) that are available to us.
The first is the Protector that we have bought, with no underslung radar and carrying Brimstone and Paveway. That’s the SIGINT, overwatch and surveillance capability that DM was talking about.
The second is SeaGuardian. That’s the same airframe as our Protector and includes all of the air traffic control and air safety modifications to our protectors from the base SkyGuardian, but has the SeaSpray radar under the fuselage, software and datalinks to carry sonobuoy pods and will be able to carry torpedoes. This is what’s being referenced above.
The third and most radical option is the STOL modification to SeaGuardian, known as Protector STOL for UK purposes. This has all of the equipment fit for the SeaGuardian, but the long “glider” wing is swapped out for a shorter, fatter, folding one with big flaps (among other modifications like a reversing propeller with shorter blades) which reduces the landing speed enough that no arrestor gear would be needed on our carriers.
All three versions could be adapted to carry a [limited] AEW fit for either extended UK coverage or carrier operations.
So your against the HMS Kiev battle carrier proposal then launching missiles off the deck 😀
Not quite I think it’s actually another blooper (like the £15 billion to be spent on warheads in this Parliament). I actually think it’s adding sponsons for VLS for TLAM (for long range Surface warfare) and something like CAMM for AAW which actually would make a lot of sense.
As for the Hybrid carrier concept it means you could cross deck with US and French carriers as their combat aircraft can use STOBAR, they all needed to prove it when they went after the Indian Navy contract.
Kerch Bridge on Fire.
Air Defence is terrified.
👍
Buy another 7 Poseidon MRA1s to bring the fleet to 16 aircraft. Drones are nice, but they can’t drop torpedoes on a submarine. Besides having better sensors, Poseidon MRA1s can launch a wide variety of weapons, including Harpoons, LRASMs, and mines.
These drones can!
GA-ASI have tested sonobuoy dispensers from SeaGuardian and are planning torpedo armament. No reason why they couldn’t be given any weapon up to JSM size, and we aren’t likely to get the only bigger one, FC/ASW, on UK P-8s.
I’ve seen some promotional imagery of a SeaGuardian with 20 sonobouys and several torpedoes. Aniti-submarine warfare is much more complex than just dropping some sonobouys in the water. And, 20 sonobouys is not that much to work with.
There’s a reason why helos have a dipping sonar. A dipping sonar allows the helo to see further in deeper water below thermoclines which can reflect sound waves. Its the same reason why surface ships that variable-depth towed sonars. Plus, many ASW aircraft and helos have a magnetic anomaly detector (MAD) to detect a submarine. If one can be fitted to a drone, so much the better. But, that would come at the cost of mounting other equipment.
They can have 4 dispensers, for either 40 A-size or 80 G-size buoys. That’s about half the capacity of a P-8, but again for much less cost and with longer endurance. 2 of the dispensers can be replaced by torpedoes.
I like the idea of a MAD boom. GA keep putting out new ideas for sensor and EW pods, so it won’t be too difficult to integrate. You’d probably only get 1 under each wing, or maybe a sonobuoy dispenser under the other one to retain other means of detection.
The P8 has a very hard time dropping torpedoes, drones are much better at this as they can fly low and slow. Sea guardian can drop torpedos as can several rotor craft drones.
Whilst I agree with you, I can’t see the will (or cash) for 7 more P8s- maybe 2 or 3 is feasible?
Whilst I agree with you, I can’t see the will (or cash) for 7 more P8s- maybe 2 or 3 is feasible?