U.K. Ditches Watchkeeper UAV for New Options
The U.K. MoD has decided to retire the 14-year-old Watchkeeper UAV from service as an “outdated military capability”.
Watchkeeper News
Unmanned Systems
Unmanned Systems
Expo and Air Show
Romania to Add Three Watchkeeper X UAVs to its Inventory
Romania will diversify its inventory by adding Watchkeeper X UAVs in service following the Turkiye, Bayraktar TB2 Armed UAV purchase.
Unmanned Systems
British Army Loses Seventh Watchkeeper Drone
A British Army drone Watchkeeper crashed into the Mediterranean Sea. The £30m army drone first entered service in 2014 in Afghanistan.
Unmanned Systems
Romania to Manufacture Elbit’s Watchkeeper Drones
Romanian Aerostar signed the agreement with British company U-TacS, a joint venture between Elbit and Thales, to manufacture the drones in Romania.
Global Defence Trend Brief
- 12:00 Italy gives conditional approval to Leonardo-Baykar drone venture - Reuters reported that Italy has conditionally approved the Leonardo–Baykar joint venture to produce...
- 12:00 USNI looks at Türkiye’s defence-industrial rise through EFES 2026 - USNI News used the EFES 2026 exercise to examine how Türkiye is linking operational military activit...
- 12:00 Reuters tracks Ankara’s goal of doubling defence exports - Reuters reported that Turkish officials want to double defence exports within two years after export...
- 12:00 Breaking Defense highlights Turkish one-way attack systems at SAHA 2026 - Breaking Defense reported that Turkish companies used SAHA 2026 to unveil multiple one-way attack sy...
- 12:00 Defense News spotlights ASELSAN’s autonomous warfare concept - Defense News reported that ASELSAN used SAHA 2026 to present a future warfare concept centred on aut...
- 12:00 Le Monde examines Türkiye’s expanding defence footprint in Mali - Le Monde reported that Türkiye has become an increasingly important security partner for Mali throug...
- 12:00 French strategic study identifies Türkiye as a rising European supplier - The Fondation pour la Recherche Stratégique assessed Türkiye as one of the most notable new entrants...
- 12:00 Middle East Forum analyses Baykar’s expansion into Europe - A Middle East Forum analysis argued that Baykar’s growing presence in Europe shows how production ca...
- 12:00 Jerusalem Post highlights Baykar’s export-heavy revenue model - The Jerusalem Post reported that Baykar generated roughly $1.8 billion in drone exports in 2024 and...
- 12:00 Foreign defence reporting keeps focus on KAAN’s next prototype phase - International defence coverage continued to highlight Turkish Aerospace’s target for the first ‘true...
- 09:00 NATO pushes allies to fill US air and naval capability gaps - Washington is pressing European allies and Canada to provide more manned and unmanned aircraft plus...
- 09:00 AI-driven drone swarms rise as a new NATO planning priority - NATO officials are warning that AI-enabled drone swarms could reshape warfare within five years, pus...
- 09:00 Counter-drone demand expands beyond battlefields into critical infrastructure - Growing drone incursions around airports, ports, oil facilities and data centres are accelerating de...
- 09:00 Europe’s loyal wingman race becomes a core airpower trend - Collaborative combat aircraft took centre stage at Berlin Airshow 2026 as European companies and air...
- 09:00 Ukraine’s drone combat know-how is becoming an export asset in Asia - Ukrainian drone firms are marketing battlefield-proven systems and swarm concepts in Japan, Taiwan a...
- 09:00 NATO accelerates live testing of counter-drone technologies - Alliance members and industry partners are expanding field trials of drone detection and interceptio...
- 09:00 Hypersonic threats keep driving demand for persistent tracking networks - The spread of hypersonic weapons continues to push Western defence planners toward integrated radar...
- 09:00 Military space resilience shifts toward larger distributed constellations - Armed forces are increasingly favouring proliferated satellite constellations over a small number of...
- 09:00 Autonomous maritime systems gain importance in surveillance and strike planning - Navies are broadening interest in autonomous surface and underwater systems for persistent ISR, infr...
- 09:00 Industrial surge capacity is becoming a decisive defence metric - Across missiles, drones and air defence, governments are placing more weight on production scalabili...
