British jammer drone opens door to unmanned wingmen in combat
ROME — The U.K. has launched a new jammer drone it says will fly into the battle space ahead of F-35s and Typhoons and jam and bamboozle enemy radar.
The RAF StormShroud, which went into operation on Friday, is based on the 100km range AR3 drone built by British-Portuguese firm Tekever, which has been used in Ukraine.
On board, the StormShroud carries the BriteStorm stand-in jammer supplied by Leonardo UK, which is designed to block enemy radar or spoof it, creating 'ghost' jet signatures.
The new asset 'means for the first time, the RAF will benefit from high-end electronic warfare without needing crew to man it, freeing them up for other vital frontline missions,' the UK government said in a statement.
'This is a seminal moment for the RAF to maintain our advantage in air combat and national security,' said RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton.
An initial investment of £19 million ($25 million) by the RAF will see Tekever produce 'hundreds' of platforms in the UK this year, the firm said.
The rail-launched AR3, which has a maximum operating weight of 25kg boasts 16 hour endurance and a cruise speed of up to 90kmh.
Tekever's AR3 and AR5 drones have flown 10,000 hours in Ukraine.
'In a further vote of confidence in Britain's defense industry, British-Portuguese tech company Tekever, who manufacture the drones in the U.K., plan to invest a further £400 million over the next 5 years across the U.K. and create up to 1,000 more highly skilled jobs,' the British government said.
The 2.5kg BriteStorm, which is about the size of six Coke cans, including its transmit and receive modules and antenna, uses Leonardo's Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology to digitally capture enemy radar signals.
Leonardo has said that traditional, large manned aircraft carrying stand-off jammers must fly further back in the battle space and are less effective.
Operated by the RAF's 216 Squadron, the StormShroud is designed to be expendable. Describing the BriteStorm, Leonardo said, 'On its return, BriteStorm is rapidly reprogrammable for subsequent missions, but if destroyed in the defense of higher-value or crewed platforms, its loss would be tolerable.'
The drone marks a step towards the collaboration between manned and unmanned aerial platforms – an ambition of the UK-Italian-Japanese GCAP fighter program, which envisages swarms of drones flying alongside fighters.
The RAF said that it was determined to bring such technologies to the front line fast.
'Lessons learned from the war in Ukraine have boosted StormShroud's production and it's taken just a year from the Urgent Capability Requirement (UCR) being endorsed to delivering the new capability, significantly reducing program time and costs,' the service said.
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