Royal Navy Pursues Jet-Powered Carrier-Launched Drone to Fly Alongside F-35

DefenseNews: The UK Ministry of Defence has called for industry input on a short-takeoff-and-landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (ACP) designed to operate from the Royal Navy’s Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers.

Part of Project VANQUISH, the jet-powered drone will fly alongside the F-35B and perform a range of kinetic and non-kinetic missions, including intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, strike, and air-to-air refuelling.

The fixed-wing aircraft must be capable of launching and recovering from carriers without catapults or arresting gear, eliminating the need for structural modifications to the vessels.

This marks a scale-back from the cancelled Project VIXEN, which envisioned a larger uncrewed aircraft requiring catapult-assisted launch and arrested recovery to carry up to two 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) modular payloads.

Project VANQUISH 

Without the complex launch and recovery systems proposed under VIXEN, the VANQUISH aircraft is still expected to deliver credible endurance, payload capacity, and high subsonic speed, though specific details remain undisclosed.

The platform is classified as a “Tier 2 attritable” system, meaning it is designed to be recoverable and reusable, but its loss in combat would be considered acceptable. 

By comparison, Tier 1 systems are single-use, while Tier 3 platforms are high-value assets where losses must be avoided.

Sea Trials in 18 Months

A contract to deliver a demonstrator is expected between January and April 2026, with sea trials planned by the end of 2026 or within 18 months of contract award.

The technical demonstration phase will last around 20 months, concluding no later than December 2027.

The effort is expected to be worth at least 10 to 12 million pounds ($13 to 16 million), with the results shaping requirements for a follow-on capability projected to enter service in the early 2030s.

Project VANQUISH is part of the Royal Navy’s Maritime Aviation Transformation program, which aims to develop a hybrid fleet of crewed and uncrewed aircraft.

It builds on earlier trials of unmanned aerial systems from Queen Elizabeth-class carriers, including the General Atomics Mojave drone.