A Ministry of Defence press release published on 25 July 2026 said the Army has selected Tekever’s AR5 under Project Corvus, the programme intended to replace the ageing Watchkeeper surveillance system. The department said the agreement is worth up to £400 million over 10 years, with an initial order for six drones and a pathway to as many as 24 by 2029. (gov.uk) The same release said the new capability is expected to begin entering service later in 2026, subject to contract signature and final approvals. In practical terms, this is an acceleration measure as much as a procurement announcement: the Army is moving from a legacy platform into a newer intelligence and reconnaissance system on a compressed timetable. (gov.uk)
The operational requirement is broader than buying a new airframe. In market engagement notices, Defence Equipment and Support described Corvus as the Army’s Land Tactical Deep Find 24-hour persistent surveillance requirement, which points to a need for long-endurance sensing rather than short, episodic collection. (find-tender.service.gov.uk) The Ministry of Defence said the AR5 can carry up to 50kg of surveillance equipment, including cameras and sensors, and can stay airborne longer than earlier Army systems. The wider drone transformation announcement published on 30 June 2026 places Corvus in the intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance role, which makes it a command-support capability as well as a force-protection tool. (gov.uk)
The timetable reflects the pressure on the outgoing fleet. The Ministry of Defence said Watchkeeper has been in service since 2014 and is reaching the end of its operational life, while a Commons written answer published in February 2026 said the system had been due to leave service in March 2025 but was kept in use until March 2027 to allow for Project Corvus to arrive. (gov.uk) That bridging decision is not cost-free. The same parliamentary answer put the cost of keeping Watchkeeper in service for the additional two-year period at £95,659,000, and another answer said Corvus was then scheduled to deliver a minimum deployable capability in late 2026. For policy readers, the point is straightforward: delay in the replacement programme directly feeds into the cost of sustaining the legacy system. (questions-statements.parliament.uk)
The spending picture is best read in layers, because official documents describe different parts of the programme rather than a single identical contract value. The July 2026 press release uses a ceiling of up to £400 million over 10 years, while the July 2025 tender notice described a core contract estimated at £130 million excluding VAT, running from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2031 with a possible extension to 2036. (gov.uk) The Defence Investment Plan published on 30 June 2026 separately described Project Corvus as £310 million of additional investment and said up to 24 new surveillance drones would be delivered by 2029. Taken together, those papers suggest the headline figure covers more than the initial purchase and is likely to include support, options and later capability enhancement through spiral development. (assets.publishing.service.gov.uk)
Industrial policy is central to the government’s framing of the deal. The Ministry of Defence said the AR5 will be built at Tekever’s soon-to-open Swindon manufacturing facility and that the full contract will sustain and create hundreds of jobs across the company’s UK sites. (gov.uk) A separate government announcement in September 2025 said the Swindon site would be Tekever’s fourth UK location and its largest, at 254,000 square feet, and that it would bring core AR5 production to the UK for the first time. That statement also linked the expansion to Tekever’s acquisition of West Wales Airport, which helps explain why ministers are presenting Corvus as both a capability decision and a domestic manufacturing measure. (gov.uk)
Corvus also sits inside a wider rewrite of defence priorities. On 30 June 2026 the government said the Defence Investment Plan would commit more than £5 billion to drones and autonomous systems, with Corvus listed alongside Project Nyx, the Army’s RAPSTONE activity and a series of naval uncrewed programmes. (gov.uk) That matters because it places surveillance drones inside the mainstream force design and budget settlement, rather than treating them as a niche add-on. The same announcement said the plan would also fund the new Uncrewed Systems Centre in Swindon and a dedicated taskforce intended to speed development and fielding with industry. (gov.uk)
For the Army, the immediate effect is a clearer route out of the Watchkeeper era and into a system the Ministry of Defence says offers better endurance, sensor performance and reliability. The department also stressed that Tekever platforms have been used by Ukraine’s armed forces, which is part of the official case for selecting a design already associated with current operational use. (gov.uk) The next test is delivery discipline rather than announcement value. The July 2026 release said service entry should begin later in 2026 once contracts and approvals are complete, while the tender notice allowed for additional equipment, extra years of support and spiral development during the contract term. In policy terms, the key measure will be whether the Army receives a dependable surveillance capability before the present bridging window closes in March 2027. (gov.uk)