Britain's £400 Million CORVUS Deal Buys Tekever's Update Cycle. The AR5 Still Has to Survive.

CORVUS replaces Watchkeeper's 54-aircraft buy with up to 24 AR5s, a contract built for service-life updates and a Swindon production line. Another 1,025 small drones hedge the question of whether the larger aircraft can survive.

16 September at DVD

Britain's CORVUS contract trades a large fleet for a smaller one whose design and support model are meant to keep changing with the battlefield. At Defence Vehicle Dynamics on 16 September, Defence Readiness and Industry Minister Luke Pollard confirmed an up-to-£400m contract with Tekever, starting with six AR5 aircraft and rising to as many as 24 by 2029. The AR5 replaces Watchkeeper, a 54-aircraft programme that entered service in 2014.

Tekever signed the contract the same day in Bristol. The company says CORVUS will begin entering service later this year and draws on more than 50,000 operational flight hours accumulated in Ukraine since 2022. The MoD had selected the AR5 in July; the signature turns that choice into a ten-year programme and anchors production at a new Tekever factory in Swindon.

The AR5 can carry 50kg of cameras and sensors, and the contract will support more than 1,000 skilled jobs by 2030 across Bristol, Swindon, Lydd, London, Southampton, Edinburgh and West Wales Airport, according to the ministry. Pollard paired it with a separate £16m purchase of 1,025 small drones: 245 sub-250g Evolve Dynamics FOXE-NATOs with infrared cameras, 670 Skydio X10 INTLs supplied by Marlborough Communications, and 110 SONORA trainers from Brigantes Consulting and Harmattan AI. He called the combination a "David and Goliath" mix.

The announcement describes a force structure, not a single replacement aircraft. CORVUS supplies persistent surveillance at range. Project Rapstone moves smaller systems from industry to the front line within 24 months, toward the government's goal of doubling Army fighting power by 2027.