The UK MoD announced that the British Army has selected the locally developed Tekever AR5 UAV to replace the Watchkeeper in long-endurance ISR missions.
According to the announcement by the UK MoD, the ageing Watchkeeper will be replaced by UK-based Tekever’s AR5 UAV. The contract worth £400 million has a span of ten years to replace the Watchkeeper gradually.
Designed as a “sub-tactical” UAV, being considerably more compact than Watchkeeper based on the Israeli Hermes 450, AR5 has an endurance of 20 hours. It can be simultaneously fitted with an EO/IR and maritime radar. AR5 can also be fitted with ELINT payloads covering a range of 200 km.
In terms of performance, AR5, powered by a pair of piston engines, can take off from runways as short as 300 m and cover 1500 km in one sortie.
It can be understood from this acquisition that the UK wants to keep the unarmed concept for its long-endurance UAV fleet while establishing further localisation. On the other hand, Protector RG Mk1, based on the MQ-9B UCAV, forms the armed ISR fleet.
Author: Kaan Azman
Editor: Özgür Ekşi
