New\u00a0Tekever\u00a0AR5\u00a0surveillance drones\u00a0chosen\u00a0to\u00a0keep\u00a0British troops\u00a0safe\u00a0through round-the-clock intelligence gathering.<\/p>\n
Up to\u00a0\u00a3400 million deal\u00a0will\u00a0support jobs at Tekever\u2019s UK sites, bolstering\u00a0Britain\u2019s\u00a0defence manufacturing base.<\/p>\n
Investment\u00a0supports re-industrialisation of\u00a0Britain, helping to strengthen national security and\u00a0create\u00a0growth across the UK.<\/p>\n
British soldiers will\u00a0be\u00a0better protected and more lethal on the battlefield\u00a0as a\u00a0new\u00a0investment\u00a0of\u00a0up to\u00a0\u00a3400 million will see the\u00a0Army\u00a0equipped with the latest spy drone technology.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The new drones will be able to carry up to 50kg in surveillance equipment, such as cameras and\u00a0sensors, and\u00a0can fly for longer than\u00a0previous\u00a0systems the Army has used, giving commanders real-time intelligence to protect troops and inform battlefield decisions.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0initial\u00a0order will be for six AR5 drones, with up to 24 delivered by 2029.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The AR5\u00a0has been selected to replace the ageing Watchkeeper drones, under\u00a0a\u00a0deal\u00a0worth up to \u00a3400 million over the next 10 years.\u00a0The\u00a0drone\u00a0will be built in\u00a0Tekever\u2019s\u00a0soon to be open Swindon manufacturing facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Defence Secretary Wes Streeting MP said:<\/p>\n
Proven in Ukraine and designed to protect British soldiers globally,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0chosen the UK-based\u00a0Tekever\u00a0AR5 drone to supply our personnel with kit that will keep them ahead of emerging threats.<\/p>\n
This investment will support our troops on deployment, while driving re-industrialisation and backing British innovation.<\/p>\n
Watchkeeper,\u00a0in service since\u00a02014, is reaching the end of its operational life. The\u00a0new\u00a0AR5 offers significantly improved endurance, sensor\u00a0capability\u00a0and reliability, ensuring\u00a0that\u00a0the Army\u00a0maintains\u00a0a battle-winning edge in surveillance and reconnaissance\u00a0systems.\u00a0The drone has been utilised by Ukraine\u2019s Armed Forces on the battlefield, as they continue their fight against Russia\u2019s unprovoked invasion.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The\u00a0full\u00a0contract\u00a0will\u00a0sustain and create\u00a0hundreds of jobs at Tekever\u2019s UK sites, reinforcing defence\u2019s important role in the UK\u2019s growing defence and technology sector. It reflects this government\u2019s commitment,\u00a0driving\u00a0defence as an engine for growth and\u00a0supporting the reindustrialisation of industry in Britain.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Tekever\u00a0UK\u2019s Managing Director Karl Brew said:<\/p>\n
CORVUS\u00a0represents\u00a0a major step change in delivering\u00a0cutting edge\u00a0autonomy to the British Army. This\u00a0isn\u2019t\u00a0about a\u00a0platform,\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0about building and sustaining sovereign capability that stays one step ahead of our adversaries.<\/p>\n
Through CORVUS, TEKEVER aims to create a new type of partnership between government and industry where we will ensure a constant cycle of capability evolution that delivers decisive advantage to our end users.<\/p>\n
Subject to contract signature and final approvals, the new capability will begin entering service\u00a0later this year, with support sustained for at least five years and options to extend.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"New\u00a0Tekever\u00a0AR5\u00a0surveillance drones\u00a0chosen\u00a0to\u00a0keep\u00a0British troops\u00a0safe\u00a0through round-the-clock intelligence gathering. Up to\u00a0\u00a3400 million deal\u00a0will\u00a0support jobs at Tekever\u2019s UK sites, bolstering\u00a0Britain\u2019s\u00a0defence manufacturing base.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":294292,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[59,57,58,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-711752","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-united-kingdom","tag-gb","tag-great-britain","tag-greatbritain","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711752","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=711752"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/711752\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/294292"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=711752"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=711752"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=711752"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}