Thales Watchkeeper WK450 - Program
The Watchkeeper story began with the 1998 Strategic Defence Review in which a break from the Cold War was described and a move to an expeditionary strategy proposed. "Britain’s place in the world is determined by our interests as a nation and as a leading member of the international community. Indeed, the two are inextricably linked because our national interests have a vital international dimension. The British are, by instinct, an internationalist people. We believe that as well as defending our rights, we should discharge our responsibilities in the world. We do not want to stand idly by and watch humanitarian disasters or aggression of dictators go unchecked. We want to give a lead, we want to be a force for good."
At the time of the New Chapter's publication in July 2002, the MoD announced its intention to invest an additional £50 million to bring forward Watchkeeper's in-service date by two years (to 2005).[185] As part of this acceleration, the MoD would down-select the four consortia bidding for the Watchkeeper programme to two "next month", i.e. August 2002. In the event, however, this was delayed until February 2003.[187] Furthermore, at that stage, the Secretary of State put the anticipated in-service date at 2006—hardly a substantial acceleration from the original 2007 date.
The development of network-enabled capability and the New Chapter's concentration on the campaign against international terrorism had important implications for attempts to create a more rapid 'sensor-to-shooter' linkage. As the Secretary of State explained, "We need the sensor and the shooter to be better linked by a real-time network". The New Chapter highlighted a range of equipment programmes that were already in the pipeline before the events of 11 September to provide network-enabled capabilities.
The new chapter to the Strategic Defence Review set out the potential for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to significantly improve operational effectiveness. UAVs will be a key contributor to network enabled capability and their ability to provide persistent surveillance of the battlefield or theatre of operations, without putting lives at risk has been demonstrated recently by US operations in Afghanistan and coalition operations in Iraq.The central element of the UK's current plans for acquiring UAVs is the Watchkeeper programme, which will provide UK commanders with accurate, timely and high quality imagery. Watchkeeper will be an advanced system integrating air vehicles, sensor payloads and ground control facilities. It will be joined to the wider command and control network through communication systems such as Bowman, allowing information to be passed quickly, providing commanders with an improved understanding of the battle space and shortening sensor to shooter times.
Watchkeeper attracted the greatest attention in terms of its applicability to the new environment of counter-terrorism, in part because of the apparently successful use of UAVs by American forces in Afghanistan, and armed UAVs in Yemen, in tackling fleeting targets — exactly the "fleeting opportunities to strike at the enemy" that the New Chapter identified. The Secretary of State did not explain why the project had been delayed other than to say "there were technical reasons why we judged it would be better delaying the process so that we had as much information as we needed in order to…make a proper decision". Given the pace of development in the US on UAVs, including armed UAVs such as the Predator which used Hellfire missiles in Afghanistan and in Yemen, the Commons Select Committee Defence questioned MoD witnesses about why UK capabilities in this area could not be accelerated further by buying equipment off-the-shelf.
In 2004 MoD announced the selection of Thales Defence Ltd as the preferred bidder for the WATCHKEEPER tactical UAV programme. The competition for entry into the final stage of the Watchkeeper programme was run between two industrial teams led by Northrop Grumman and Thales Defence Ltd. Both submitted bids reflecting an understanding of the programme requirements, the technical complexities, the project management requirements and UK industrial participation. Following detailed consideration of the proposals, on the basis of value for money and demonstration of the best potential to deliver the required capability, the selection of the team led by Thales Defence Ltd was announced as the preferred bidder for the Watchkeeper demonstration and manufacturing phase by the Secretary of State for Defence at the Farnborough International Airshow 20 July 2004. Further negotiations was required before the project is ready to pass its main investment decision. By July 2005 MoD had negotiated an affordable solution with the company and was ready to move forward to the demonstration and manufacture phase of this important programme, subject to finalisation of a contract with Thales, worth around £700 million. MoD planned to deliver this capability incrementally from 2010.
Thales Defence Ltd is an international company directly employing some 11,000 people in the UK. It leads a strong international team including Elbit Systems Ltd, Cubic Defence and Boeing. Thales will lead on systems integration and bring considerable experience in sensors and command and control systems to the programme. Thales have confirmed their intention to complete the bulk of production in the UK, so this announcement is very good news for UK industry. The company estimates that up to 2,000 UK jobs, in Crawley, Leicester and across the UK, will be created or sustained and with export success this could rise further.
In a 2007 memo to the Defence Select Committee, the MoD described current status: " Main Gate approval was given in mid-2005. Watchkeeper is currently expected to reach Initial Operating Capability in the second half of 2010 and to reach Full Operating Capability in 2013. The system is being developed from the Hermes 450 system currently operating in Iraq and Afghanistan. The programme is due to deliver (including attrition stock) 54 air vehicles and 15 GCS and will provide the capacity to conduct up to 12 concurrent missions (or “lines of tasking”). It will be operated by 32 Regiment Royal Artillery. Watchkeeper is intended to support Land operations and is capable of carrying simultaneously three types of sensor: electro-optical/infra-red FMV; SAR [Synthetic Aperture Radar]; and GMTI [Ground Moving Target Indication]. In addition, it will carry a laser rangefinder/target marker. It will have UK-specific data links, have an automatic take-off and landing capability and be able to use tactical landing strips. Overall, Watchkeeper provides greater capability compared to Hermes 450 and, subject to operational circumstances at the time, the intention is that it will start to take over from Hermes 450 from 2010."
Watchkeeper was initially billed as an "affordable" unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) for battlefield surveillance duties, back in the early 2000s. Instead of all 54 being ready by April 2013 as first planned, software glitches, stricter aerospace regulations and Army staff shortages have meant the latest date for 'full operational capability' was 2017 at the earliest – a delay of at least four years.
The 47 Regiment Royal Artillery, the Army unit which flies the Watchkeepers, crashed two of them in February and March 2017 into the sea off the coast of Wales. The MoD belatedly let the news slip out six months later during a talk by an admiral at a defence trade show. By March 2018 There had been four incidents involving the loss of a Watchkeeper Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). Two Watchkeeper UAVs were involved in separate incidents on 3 February and 24 March 2017 in segregated airspace over Cardigan Bay in West Wales. On both occasions, the UAVs ditched in the sea. On 16 October 2014, Watchkeeper UAV WK031, operated by a civilian crew from Thales, was involved in an accident while making a landing approach to West Wales Airport, Aberporth, during deteriorating weather conditions. A second accident involving Watchkeeper WK006, operated by a military crew, occurred on landing at Boscombe Down on 2 November 2015.
The Service Inquiry reports on these incidents contained a number of recommendations and actions have been taken, or are in hand, for all of these. The Service Inquiry panel also looked at the similarities between these incidents and concluded that, although some of the causal factors were different, the same flaw in the vehicle management system contributed to both accidents. The Equipment Standard 2 modification, which is currently being released, will update this. However, procedural mitigations had already been put in place to reduce the likelihood of re-occurrence.
It is normal practice for Accounting Officers to scrutinise significant policy proposals or plans to start or vary major projects, and then assess whether they measure up to the standards set out in Managing Public Money. In line with its Strategic Objectives, Watchkeeper is being procured by the Ministry of Defence to fulfil a gap in Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance capability. It is tactical unmanned air system capability comprising ground and air elements, collectively designed to provide imagery intelligence to commanders in the land environment within the context of Joint Operations, throughout a range of environments and across the spectrum of conflict.
The Watchkeeper programme passed MGBC approval in July 2005 and was subject to a review in June 2014. The programme is still forecast to deliver within the cost and performance approvals agreed by the IAC after this review; this Accounting Officer’s Assessment is made at a stage when the programme has successfully completed Operational Field Trials and is in the process of achieving Type Certification and a Release To Service. However, the Watchkeeper technical flying programme was delayed between 24 March and 26 June 2017 due to investigations into the cause of an incident on 24 March 2017 and the subsequent development of relevant evidence to allow the resumption of flying under a Military Flight Test Permit. Consequently, and as acknowledged by the IAC in July and November 2017, the risk of not meeting the Full Operating Capability 1 milestone in November 2017 had been realised by January 2018.
By July 2020 a total of 45 Watchkeeper airframes were in service as at 23 July 2020. 13 have flown in the past 12 months and 23 have been in storage for longer than 12 months. Of those flying, 10 have been operated by the Army from Akrotiri in Cyprus and Boscombe Down in Wiltshire, three have been used for test and evaluation. The airframes in storage are held at specific, graduated, levels of readiness. This is commensurate with practices used on other Defence capabilities and assets.
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