{"id":724583,"date":"2026-08-02T15:30:23","date_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:30:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724583\/"},"modified":"2026-08-02T15:30:23","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T15:30:23","slug":"all-british-fighter-jet-forced-to-use-american-engine-after-rolls-royce-bae-systems-bust-up","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/724583\/","title":{"rendered":"&#8216;All-British\u2019 fighter jet forced to use American engine after Rolls-Royce-BAE Systems bust-up"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph-text\">The Brontanax drone is an autonomous drone, being pitched as the only domestic candidate for the RAF\u2019s \u201cloyal wingman\u201d drone programme &#8211; machinery designed to fly alongside fighter jets to provide protection.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">However, despite a list of over 70 British firms involved in the development of the Brontanax, Rolls-Royce is notably missing from the contributors.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">It is understood that the company was excluded from the project, led by BAE Systems, after a dispute between the two companies over pricing. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">Rolls-Royce&#8217;s small demonstrator engine, Orpheus, is planned to be marketed to militaries around the world for use in loyal-wingman drones, but has been deemed to expensive by BAE Systems.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">In talks over the engine, sources also accused Rolls-Royce of not &#8220;lean[ing] in&#8221; fully to the project. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lbc.co.uk\/article\/healey-clamp-down-supermarket-price-gouging-iran-war-5HjdfRh_2\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Read more: Healey vows to &#8216;clamp down&#8217; on supermarket price gouging caused by Iran war<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.lbc.co.uk\/article\/josh-kerr-home-crowd-commonwealth-games-gold-mile-race-running-5HjdfRk_2\/\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\">Read more: Josh Kerr delights home crowd by claiming Commonwealth gold in mile race<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">Revealed just last week, the Brontanax is competing against alternatives largely made in the US. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">But sources speaking to the Telegraph are now claiming the drone will depend on a more cost-effective power system, sourced from US rival Williams International. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">BAE\u2019s decision means that while Rolls-Royce is collaborating with the US and Germany on their foreign drone programmes, it remains absent from Britain&#8217;s own flagship effort.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">The news comes as Rolls-Royce is already stuck in a dispute with the Government over funding for a new engine for short-haul planes domestically. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">Asked why his company was not working on the Brontanax, Tufan Erginbilgic, the chief executive of Rolls-Royce, said: \u201cYou should ask BAE that, but it\u2019s a demonstrator.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">\u201cI expect these two great companies to work on this. How we ended up here, I don\u2019t want to speculate. But going forward, that opportunity definitely exists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">He added that he expected Rolls to &#8220;lead&#8221; on sovereign propulsion capability in autonomous machinery as they have a capability &#8220;better than some others&#8221;.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph-text\">Despite the dispute, Mr Erginbilgic added that Rolls retained a \u201cvery close\u201d relationship with BAE.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Brontanax drone is an autonomous drone, being pitched as the only domestic candidate for the RAF\u2019s \u201cloyal&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":724584,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[84,59,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-724583","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-gb","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724583","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=724583"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/724583\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/724584"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=724583"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=724583"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=724583"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}