Destroyer

A new AN/SPY-6(V)4 radar is now installed at the U.S. Navy’s land-based test site at Wallops Island in Virginia. This is a key step toward the first integration of the SPY-6(V)4 onto an actual warship, the Arleigh Burke class destroyer USS Pinckney.

The AN/SPY-6(V)4 is a central element of the Navy’s Destroyer Modernization 2.0 effort (also sometimes written DDG MOD 2.0) for Flight IIA subvariants of the Arleigh Burke. In addition to the radar, the full upgrade package includes a new AN/SLQ-32(V)7 Surface Electronic Warfare Improvement Program (SEWIP) Block III suite, Aegis Combat System improvements, and additional thermal management ‘chillers’ to help keep all of these systems cool. USS Pinckney was also the first to get the SEWIP Block III installation under this plan, which dramatically changed the outward appearance of the ship.

“The Wallops site, a land‑based test facility situated over an open-water environment, will support extensive testing of the radar and its power and combat system interfaces ahead of installation on USS Pinckney (DDG 91), the first ship to be backfit with SPY‑6(V)4,” according to a press release from prime contractor Raytheon today. “Initial testing will begin later this year and continue through mid‑2028.”

Land-based testing is a routine step in the development of naval radars. Work to integrate the radar onto the USS Pinckney is also set to start this year and wrap up in 2028, according to Raytheon.

“By leveraging the Wallops test site, we’ll be able to integrate SPY‑6(V)4 with its dedicated power system before it reaches the ship, reducing the amount of testing needed on DDG 91,” Barbara Borgonovi, president of Naval Power at Raytheon, said in a statement. “That means less time in the shipyard, more time dedicated to the mission, and a smoother path for future backfit ships.”

The AN/SPY-6(V)4 is also known as the Air and Missile Defense Radar Backfit (AMDR Backfit) radar. It is a scaled-down version of the AN/SPY-6(V)1 AMDR radar that is being integrated onto new Flight III Arleigh Burke class destroyers. The AMDR has four fixed-face arrays, each made up of 37 Radar Modular Assemblies (RMAs). The AMDR Backfit also has a quartet of fixed arrays, but with 24 RMAs apiece.

Raytheon – AN SPY 6V Radar Build Timelapse Video

Each RMA is a two-foot-by-two-foot-by-two-foot cube that contains an independent active electronically scanned antenna. The modules are a key building block of all four radars that currently make up the AN/SPY-6 family. The AN/SPY-6(V)2 and AN/SPY-6(V)3 versions – also known as the Enterprise Air Surveillance Radar (EASR) Rotator and EASR Fixed Face, respectively – have arrays with significantly fewer RMAs than either the AMDR or AMDR Backfit types. AN/SPY-6-series radars are set to become a fixture across the Navy’s surface fleets, with versions also being added to new Ford class aircraft carriers and set to be backfitted onto some Nimitz class types. Various amphibious warfare warships are also getting radars from this family. You can read more about all of this here.

The RMAs that make up any AN/SPY-6-series radar can be utilized individually or linked together with others to focus their energies on a specific task. This offers immense operational flexibility, as well as the ability to produce higher-fidelity tracks over extended ranges. The loss of a single RMA also does not render the entire radar inoperable, and the modules can be replaced individually for repairs and upgrades. This, in turn, translates to increased reliability and upgradability, and less downtime for the radar, in general.

Missile Defense Radars at Sea

With 96 RMAs versus 148, the AMDR Backfit radar is not as capable as its larger AMDR cousin. However, it is still a major capability upgrade for Flight IIA Arleigh Burkes, which are currently equipped with the AN/SPY-1D. The SPY-1D is an aging passive electronically scanned array radar, the development of which traces back to the 1980s. The original AN/SPY-1 entered Navy service in the 1970s.

When paired with the new Baseline 10 configuration of the Aegis Combat System, “the AN/SPY-6(V)4 will provide volume search, tracking, BMD [ballistic missile defense] discrimination, and missile communications in a wide diversity of environments and conditions,” according to a past Navy contracting notice. As noted, this Aegis upgrade is another central aspect of the Destroyer Modernization 2.0 plan.

The Destroyer Modernization 2.0 effort has so far been proceeding in phases, with the SEWIP Block III, Aegis Baseline 10, and chiller upgrades being integrated first, and the AN/SPY-6(V)4 radar coming afterward. In June, the Navy had announced the completion of the SEWIP Block III upgrades on another pair of Flight IIA Arleigh Burkes, the USS Chung-Hoon (DDG-93) and USS James E. Williams (DDG-95).

As mentioned, the SEWIP III installation requires substantial changes to the ship’s physical structure, inside and out. Arleigh Burke destroyers with the new electronic warfare suite have all-new geometric structures extending off the port and starboard bridge wings that contain key elements of the new electronic warfare suite. When work on Pinckney was completed, some observers dubbed it the ‘muffin top’ destroyer and the ‘USS Thickney.’

At least as of last year, two more Flight IIAs, USS Halsey (DDG-97) and USS Sterett (DDG-104), were in line to receive the AN/SLQ-32(V)7 and the rest of the Destroyer Modernization 2.0 package. The Navy also previously said that Sterett would be the first ship to get all of the new capabilities in one single in-port availability.

“This destroyer modernization effort is the cornerstone of increasing service life and delivering decisive combat power to the US Navy via our Flight IIA destroyers,” Capt. Tim Moore, the Destroyer Modernization 2.0 (DDG MOD 2.0) program manager, said in a statement in June. “We focused on opportunities to shift milestones supporting acquisition, planning and execution left to provide these game-changing capabilities to the operators sooner. The DDG MOD 2.0 program remains a top priority as the Navy continues to build and sustain a lethal, resilient, and rapidly adaptable force.”

Destroyer Modernization 2.0 upgrade work to date has not been without challenges. The Navy previously talked about the importance of valuable lessons learned from the hurdles it had to overcome when upgrading USS Pinckney. The service has also said previously that it has several guardrails in place that were informed by experience with the deeply troubled Ticonderoga class cruiser modernization program.

How many Flight IIA Arleigh Burke class destroyers, in total, will eventually receive the full Destroyer Modernization 2.0 upgrade package is unclear. The Navy has said in the past that 20 destroyers could be brought up to this new standard. In 2025, the service said that the USS Kidd (DDG-100) would be among several ships to receive the SEWIP Block III suite, but not the AN/SPY-6(V)4 radar, according to USNI News. The Navy’s Arleigh Burke class destroyer force, as a whole, is in the process of receiving other upgrades, including new defensive capabilities, too.

The Navy currently has 75 Arleigh Burke class destroyers in service, altogether, of which 34 are Flight IIA versions. There are another 12 Flight IIA Restart and Flight IIA Technology Insertion subtypes, which feature additional improvements. Production of new ships in this class is now transitioning fully to the Flight III subvariant.

Regardless, the arrival of the first AN/SPY-6(V)4 at Wallops Island is a significant milestone that puts the Navy on track to move ahead with the second phase of its Destroyer Modernization 2.0 plans.

Contact the author: joe@twz.com

July 31 (Asia Today) — South Korea’s arms procurement agency signed a contract with Hanwha Ocean on Friday for the detailed design and construction of the first KDDX next-generation destroyer.

The agreement moves the long-delayed naval program into its full design and construction stage after nearly three years of disputes over the selection of a shipbuilder.

The lead ship is scheduled to be delivered to the South Korean Navy by the end of 2032.

The Defense Acquisition Program Administration said KDDX will be South Korea’s first large destroyer built with a domestically developed hull, combat management system, multifunction radar and other core weapons systems.

Although the vessel is sometimes described in South Korea as a Korean-style Aegis destroyer or a mini-Aegis ship, it is not expected to use the U.S.-developed Aegis Combat System.

Instead, the destroyer will combine a South Korean integrated combat system with an indigenous phased-array radar to detect, track and engage aircraft, missiles, ships and other threats.

The contract for the detailed design and lead ship is valued at about 882.1 billion won, or about $617 million.

The entire program, including five additional destroyers, is expected to cost about 7.8 trillion won, or $5.46 billion.

The government has not determined which companies will build the five follow-on ships or how those contracts will be awarded.

Contract ends prolonged shipbuilder dispute

Hanwha Ocean, formerly Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, completed the KDDX conceptual design.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries later conducted the basic design, leading to expectations that it would receive a negotiated contract for the detailed design and lead ship.

Hanwha Ocean instead called for a competitive bidding process, citing a military-secrets case involving HD Hyundai Heavy Industries employees.

The acquisition agency accepted that request and held a competition.

Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries were reportedly separated by less than 0.6 point in the final evaluation.

A 1.2-point security penalty imposed on HD Hyundai Heavy Industries was considered decisive.

Employees of the company had been convicted of photographing or improperly handling military secrets related to the KDDX program.

Hanwha Ocean was selected as the preferred bidder June 11. The company’s selection had previously been reported as part of a six-ship program valued at approximately 7.8 trillion won or $5.46 billion.

HD Hyundai Heavy Industries challenged the evaluation but its objection was rejected in early July. Negotiations between the acquisition agency and Hanwha Ocean then led to Friday’s final agreement.

The contract was signed before all cost data were finalized. The final value may therefore be adjusted to reflect verified construction expenses.

South Korean systems to replace foreign equipment

The KDDX is expected to displace about 7,000 tons when lightly loaded and will be larger than South Korea’s Chungmugong Yi Sun-sin-class destroyers.

It will be smaller than the Navy’s Sejong the Great and Jeongjo the Great-class destroyers equipped with the American Aegis system.

The ship will feature a low-observable design and an integrated mast intended to reduce its radar signature.

Planned armament includes a 5-inch naval gun and South Korean vertical launch systems capable of carrying surface-to-air, anti-ship, land-attack and anti-submarine weapons.

The exact number of vertical launch cells has not been officially confirmed.

The acquisition agency said major systems, including the combat management system, sonar, multifunction phased-array radar and ship-launched surface-to-air missiles, will be developed domestically.

South Korea plans to apply technologies developed since the basic design was completed, including digital-twin construction, layered counter-drone defenses and a communications environment using 5G and integrated wired and wireless networks.

A digital twin is a computerized replica of the ship that can be used to test design changes, construction procedures and equipment performance before work is carried out on the physical vessel.

The Navy is also considering integrated electric propulsion to reduce noise and improve anti-submarine survivability.

Automation is expected to reduce the number of sailors required to operate the ship compared with older destroyer classes.

Schedule remains a challenge

The KDDX basic design was completed in December 2023 and the detailed design and lead ship construction were originally expected to begin soon afterward.

Disputes between Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries delayed the program by about two years.

The acquisition agency and Hanwha Ocean will now need to shorten portions of the development and construction schedule to meet the 2032 delivery target.

Jung Jae-jun, head of the acquisition agency’s force resources division, described KDDX as a national project bringing together South Korea’s shipbuilding and defense capabilities.

Jung said the government would examine several options for the construction of the follow-on vessels while seeking to deploy the new destroyers on schedule.

He said the program could also strengthen the international competitiveness of South Korean naval vessels.

Hanwha Ocean previously said it felt a significant responsibility after being selected as the preferred bidder and would work with the government to normalize the delayed program.

Competition between Hanwha Ocean and HD Hyundai Heavy Industries is expected to continue as the government determines how to award contracts for the five remaining destroyers.

— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI

© Asia Today. Unauthorized reproduction or redistribution prohibited.

Original Korean report: https://www.asiatoday.co.kr/kn/view.php?key=20260731010011621

Evidence has emerged indicating that China’s YJ-20 hypersonic anti-ship missile is now also being fielded aboard the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s (PLAN) Type 052D class destroyers. These warships are far more numerous than the Type 055 ‘super destroyers,’ from which the missile was previously seen being fired, as we reported at the time. The new development suggests that the PLAN intends to distribute the weapon across a much broader portion of its surface fleet rather than reserving it exclusively for its largest combatants.

A new video apparently originating from the PLAN shows the launch of a YJ-20 from the cold-launch vertical launch system (VLS) on the foredeck of an unidentified Type 052D destroyer, known in the West as the Luyang III class. After being ejected from the launcher, the missile’s solid rocket motor ignites before it accelerates rapidly away. No target engagement is shown.

Typically, the Type 052D’s VLS would be loaded with variants of the HHQ-9 surface-to-air missile, YJ-18 subsonic anti-ship cruise missile, CJ-10 land-attack cruise missile, and CY-5 anti-submarine missile.

The 7,500-ton Type 052D has 64 VLS cells, 32 forward and 32 aft. It’s unclear whether each of these is able to accommodate the big YJ-20 missile.

This compares to the Type 055’s 112-cell VLS system, which makes it the PLAN’s premier surface strike platform. However, only 10 of these ships are currently in operational service, with additional vessels still under construction. By contrast, approximately 35 Type 052D destroyers have entered PLAN service, with production continuing.

Putting the YJ-20 on the Type 052Ds would significantly expand the number of Chinese warships capable of launching hypersonic anti-ship strikes, further strengthening Beijing’s growing anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) posture across the western Pacific. On the other hand, it remains possible — although less likely — that the launch depicted is some kind of trial or experimental effort that might not lead to large-scale fielding on these hulls.

The new video follows the release of official Chinese military footage showing what the PLAN described as a “finalization test” of the YJ-20 launched from the Type 055 destroyer Wuxi, late last year. That video appeared to confirm the missile’s integration with China’s largest surface combatant, a warship design that you can read more about here.

That test from the Wuxi provided the first official acknowledgement of the ship-launched YJ-20. The missile itself had previously been unveiled publicly during China’s military parade commemorating the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II, although speculation surrounding the weapon stretches back several years before that.

A missile first observed during what appeared to be a Type 055 launch in 2022 was widely referred to as the YJ-21. Subsequent official Chinese designations now strongly suggest that weapon was actually the YJ-20, or an earlier developmental version of it.

The YJ-20 is understood to be a hypersonic anti-ship weapon employing either an aero-ballistic flight profile or potentially a boost-glide vehicle: different Chinese sources have described both concepts at various times. In either case, the missile is optimized for extremely high terminal speed combined with unpredictable maneuvering designed to defeat modern naval air defenses.

Unlike a traditional ballistic missile that follows a predictable parabolic arc, an aero-ballistic missile can execute quasi-ballistic maneuvers — including skip-glide or ‘porpoising’ trajectories — as it descends toward its target. These abrupt changes in altitude and direction make interception significantly more challenging.

Chinese state media have also described the missile as employing a conical boost-glide vehicle, which would use a rocket booster to accelerate to high altitude before gliding toward its target while conducting sustained maneuvering throughout the terminal phase.

Although many details remain murky, it is generally considered that the missile achieves speeds well above Mach 6 during cruise and may approach Mach 9 during its terminal attack. Estimated range is generally assessed at more than 620 miles.

Guidance is believed to combine satellite navigation and mid-course updates before transitioning to an active radar and/or infrared seeker during the final approach.

Weapons with these characteristics are particularly well suited to engaging high-value naval targets including aircraft carriers, amphibious assault ships, cruisers, and other major surface combatants. The missile likely also possesses a secondary land-attack capability against fixed targets.

With their combination of extreme speed and maneuverability, hypersonic weapons can dramatically compress an opponent’s decision-making timeline while reducing opportunities for interception, making them especially valuable against time-sensitive targets. They also require very high-end interceptors, if they can be intercepted at all.

The apparent expansion of the missile to the Type 052D is arguably an even more significant milestone than the Type 055 test itself.

For China, fielding the YJ-20 aboard both the Type 055 and the much more numerous Type 052D dramatically increases the number of PLAN hulls capable of conducting long-range hypersonic anti-ship attacks. Such a move represents another step in expanding the reach of its layered A2/AD strategy. Rather than concentrating hypersonic capability in a small number of flagship destroyers, the PLAN appears to be distributing it across a much larger force capable of operating throughout the First Island Chain and increasingly beyond it.

Clearly, a larger force of PLAN destroyers armed with hypersonic anti-ship missiles would complicate U.S. and allied naval operations across the western Pacific by increasing the number of launch platforms capable of threatening high-value warships from long stand-off ranges.

At the same time, it is unclear if the YJ-20 has formally entered full operational service. However, official test footage, public appearances during military parades, and, above all, launches from two separate destroyer classes all point toward the missile transitioning from a developmental program to a broader capability.

The development underscores two major issues for the U.S. military as it gears up to face the prospect of a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific. On the one hand, the PLAN is growing at an alarming rate, and Chinese shipyards are churning out increasingly capable warship designs, not to mention submarines and other naval weapons.

The latest annual Pentagon report to Congress on China’s military, released at the end of 2025, stated that “China has the world’s leading hypersonic missile arsenal and continued to advance the development of conventional and nuclear-armed hypersonic missile technologies during the past year.”

With that in mind, the case study of the YJ-20 further underscores the fact that China is investing heavily in the development of hypersonic missiles and is now apparently scaling that capability across a larger proportion of its surface fleet, something that will have a significant effect on the regional naval balance.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

Uncrewed systems will be at the heart of the UK Armed Forces in the future, under a more than $6.6-billion initiative that looks to transform all three services and the way they fight. Perhaps most dramatically, the new defense plan will see the Royal Navy sacrifice its future destroyer for a “hybrid,” distributed concept, with autonomous vessels being paired with crewed ones. But there are equally far-reaching measures set to reconfigure the British Army and Royal Air Force (RAF) around uncrewed and autonomous capabilities, some of which remain very high-risk as they are still deep or even early in development.

In a speech today, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer set out his government’s long-awaited Defense Investment Plan. The aim of this is nothing less than “keeping the country safe for years to come,” the government said, and for this, the UK Armed Forces will lean heavily on autonomous systems. Most of these don’t currently exist in physical form, at least as far as we know. At the same time, the effort stresses the rapid fielding of capabilities. This illustrates just how ambitious, and risky, the plan is.

The Defense Investment Plan provides a budget of more than £5 billion ($6.6 billion) over four years just for drones and related capabilities. This is part of a much larger overall spend on defense, amounting to £298 billion ($395 billion) over the same period. This sum also includes £15 billion ($20 billion) of additional spending on top of last year’s Spending Review.

By the end of the decade, Starmer asserted, the proportion of U.K. GDP spent on defense will be higher than at any time during the last 30 years and is in line with NATO ambitions to reach a level of 3.5 percent of GDP.

The government points to the conflicts in Ukraine and Iran, specifically, as evidence of the need for a “drone transformation.”

“Drones are rapidly reshaping warfare, with cheap systems destroying high-value targets and innovation cycles measured in weeks, not years,” the government said, in announcing the plan. “Ukraine uses roughly 200,000 drones a month to defend itself from Russia’s barbaric invasion, while at the height of the Iran conflict, 700 offensive drones were being launched per day,” it adds.

Royal Navy

The changes forecast for the Royal Navy have so far garnered the most attention.

As part of a previously announced plan to create a so-called “Hybrid Navy,” the service will receive four new types of uncrewed vessels that will operate in conjunction with crewed warships and aircraft.

Of these new vessels, the Type 91 will be an uncrewed missile platform, serving as a ‘floating magazine’ to increase the overall firepower of the fleet. A combination of air defense, long-range land attack, and anti-ship missile capabilities seems likely, although any armament fit will likely be readily changeable and highly modular. The lessons of the conflict in the Red Sea provided dramatic evidence of how quickly missile cells can be depleted in an intense air-warfare environment.

Also uncrewed, the Type 92 vessels are described as “sense platforms” and will have a primary anti-submarine warfare (ASW) tasking. As such, they will ensure the Royal Navy’s sensor reach is extended further into the North Atlantic, where the Type 92s will support previously ordered frigates in the hunt for Russian submarines.

The Type 93 is defined as an extra-large uncrewed underwater vessel and is intended as an adjunct to crewed hunter-killer submarines. They will carry both sensors and weapons (presumably torpedoes) to help search and destroy enemy submarines. This is an area in which the Royal Navy has been struggling particularly, with significant gaps in its fast-attack submarine force due to limited availability.

Finally, the Type 94 is another uncrewed sense platform, but is optimized for air defense missions. It will use its sensors to look for aerial threats on behalf of both the fleet and in support of homeland missions.

The Types 91 and 94 will eventually be tied together by at least six Common Combat Vessels, which will form part of a networked Maritime Air Defense system. Arriving in service in the 2030s, the crewed Common Combat Vessels will serve as the “brains” behind this architecture, and the overall system will eventually take over the air defense tasking currently handled by the Type 45 destroyers.

The Maritime Air Defense system and the Common Combat Vessels, which are widely assumed to be roughly frigate-sized vessels, supersede earlier plans for the new Type 83 destroyer. This was previously expected to replace the Type 45 in the late 2030s, although for some time now its future had appeared threatened by increasing Admiralty interest in ‘arsenal ship’ concepts like the Type 91.

The Hybrid Carrier Air Wing outlined in the Defense Investment Plan is something we have discussed before.

In its last Strategic Defense Review, the U.K. Ministry of Defense introduced it as follows:

“The Royal Navy must continue to move towards a more powerful but cheaper and simpler fleet, developing a ‘high-low’ mix of equipment and weapons that exploits autonomy and digital integration. Carrier strike is already at the cutting edge of NATO capability, but much more rapid progress is needed in its evolution into ‘hybrid’ carrier air wings, whereby crewed combat aircraft (F-35B) are complemented by autonomous collaborative platforms in the air, and expendable, single-use drones. Plans for the hybrid carrier air wings should also include long-range precision missiles capable of being fired from the carrier deck.”

While there is no further mention of the deck-launched long-range precision missiles at this point, the Defense Investment Plan does note that Project Pantheon will serve as the development effort for the Hybrid Carrier Air Wing and will include trials of unnamed jet-powered drones alongside the F-35B.

While not referred to specifically, the Royal Navy has already outlined its ambition for ‘cat and trap’ drone operations aboard U.K. carriers, which is known as Project Ark Royal.

If realized, the project will see the two Queen Elizabeth class carriers start to operate drones that can undertake a variety of missions and then increasingly heavier, complex, and higher-performance ones. Later on, full catapult-assisted takeoff but arrested recovery (CATOBAR) capability could also add fixed-wing crewed aircraft, as we have explored in the past.

Larger fixed-wing drones are an aspiration that the Royal Navy is already working toward under Project Vixen, which you can read more about here.

As we have discussed in the past, there are many technological hurdles ahead as the Royal Navy looks to introduce carrier-capable drones. Beyond the launch and recovery systems, it will also need to develop control stations, datalinks, unique procedures, and much more to ensure the drones can be safely and effectively integrated within the carrier air group, for example. Even working out the intricacies of deck handling and flow integration involving drones combined with crewed fixed-wing jets and helicopters will be a considerable effort.

Project Pantheon certainly looks like it will move all of this ahead, although it should be noted that the size of the jet-powered drones for the program has not been stated. Already, the Royal Navy has conducted trials involving smaller, jet-powered drones, with the QinetiQ Banshee Jet 80+, best known as a target drone, being launched from HMS Prince of Wales in 2021. Even the Banshee could provide a suitable platform for a rapidly introduced decoy or one-way attack munition.

The Royal Navy’s elite amphibious and special operations-capable light infantry force, the Commandos, are also earmarked for further investment including “new high-speed boats and the latest drone and autonomous technology.”

Less surprising was the government’s commitment to strengthen the U.K.’s nuclear deterrent, including allocating more than £63 billion ($83 billion) over the next four years to fund the four Dreadnought class ballistic missile submarines and the SSN-AUKUS nuclear attack submarines, as well as a new warhead for British Trident submarine-launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs).

‘£64bn will be invested into renewing the UK’s nuclear deterrent’

The money will go into building new submarines, developing a new sovereign warhead, and buying 12 F-35A fighter jets, to guarantee “British and European security”, Starmer says
https://t.co/vzwgATWaj2 pic.twitter.com/9tf0Wc2mFG

— Sky News (@SkyNews) June 30, 2026

British Army

Moving on to the British Army, this service will benefit from more investment into “inexpensive expendable autonomous systems and loitering munitions.” This will include around $66 million boost over the next 12 months for the Army’s Rapstone program, which will pay for additional first-person view (FPV) and interceptor drones.

The British Army gets a new uncrewed ground vehicle (UGV) program, as yet unnamed, which plans to rapidly develop and produce uncrewed vehicles and associated mission systems via U.K. industry.

In the air, Project Nyx will provide the British Army with up to 24 autonomous armed drones that will operate in a crewed-uncrewed teaming arrangement with the service’s recently upgraded Apache attack helicopters. Planned to be operational by 2030, the drones will be outfitted for reconnaissance, precision strike, and electronic warfare.

Lastly, under Project Corvus, up to 24 surveillance drones will replace the British Army’s much-troubled Watchkeeper drone system, carrying out intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition, and reconnaissance (ISTAR).

Royal Air Force

While standout announcements for the Royal Air Force are fewer than for the other services, the flying branch does secure around $10.6 billion for the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) over the next four years. This should drive forward the effort to a next-generation stealth fighter for the Royal Air Force, alongside Japan and Italy. 

More intriguingly, the Defense Investment Plan mentions a “new, national Collaborative Combat Air program,” which would appear to supersede various earlier ‘loyal wingman’-type programs. The Collaborative Combat Air program aims to develop “new autonomous fighter jets which will fly alongside crewed jets,” and a demonstrator is expected to be in the air by at least 2030.

As part of the nuclear deterrence budget, the Royal Air Force will also receive the 12 F-35As that will be armed with U.S.-owned B61-12 tactical nuclear bombs, allowing them to join NATO’s nuclear mission. You can read more about that plan — and questions about its feasibility — here.

Finally, the Storm Shroud system will provide the Royal Air Force with a new uncrewed electronic warfare drone, which will enter service this year. The Storm Shroud has already been trialed in exercises and is equipped with the Leonardo BriteStorm stand-in jammer, which you can read more about here.

All three services will benefit from an initiative to boost munitions and weapons stockpiles, a growing concern for militaries across the board, which has been highlighted by depletions through transfers to Ukraine and conflict in the Middle East.

The United Kingdom will spend £11 billion ($14.5 billion) to increase U.K. stockpiles, including long-range strike weapons, low-cost cruise missiles, and one-way effectors. Conceivably, a lot of these efforts will be kickstarted by separate projects originally launched to provide Ukraine with U.K.-made weapons. By 2030, there is a plan to build at least six new energetics factories as part of an overall increase in national munitions production capacity. 

Less obvious are the cuts that the British Armed Forces will face in some areas.

The government says it will phase out its Storm Shadow air-launched cruise missiles, many of which have already been transferred to Ukraine. The plan says that “We are now pivoting to the next generation of low-cost cruise missiles,” without providing further details.

Also facing the axe are more than 30 Wildcat and the oldest (Mk 6A variant) Chinook helicopters, as well as plans to upgrade a satellite communications system.

A drone-based defense plan

By putting drones squarely at the forefront, Starmer’s long-delayed Defense Investment Plan is certainly eye-catching. It also comes with immense developmental risk, involving many concepts that remain unproven in the real world.

However, there are still plenty of stress factors, not least the demands of senior officers from all three services for additional funding.

Tensions around the Defense Investment Plan have already led to fierce discussions between the Ministry of Defense and the Treasury. These came to a head when John Healey resigned as defense secretary earlier this month.

In an effort to placate criticisms, Starmer added another £1 billion ($1.3 billion) to the defense budget after Healey walked. However, Healey had reportedly been pushing the Treasury for a total rise closer to £18 billion ($23.8 billion).

I want the Defence Investment Plan to be a success. And I thank the MOD officials who’ve worked so hard over many months on it. I welcome the extra funding and focus the Treasury has ceded over the last couple of weeks. (1/6)

— John Healey (@JohnHealey_MP) June 30, 2026

The government has also responded to criticism that it is moving too slowly to address emerging threats and changing security demands.

“The Defense Secretary [Dan Jarvis] has spent the last two weeks refocusing the Defense Investment Plan so that it prioritizes getting the latest kit into the hands of military personnel,” the MoD said.

So, there we have it. The U.K. government has injected $6.6 billion into a defense plan that aims to do no less than reconfigure the British Armed Forces as “a flexible, integrated force with attack drones flying alongside Army helicopters, RAF jets made invisible from enemy detection with new drones, and a hybrid Royal Navy made up of crewed and uncrewed vessels.”

It is a bold vision and one that will face further challenges, not just in terms of cost and technological hurdles, but also from senior officers who will still question whether traditional crewed platforms — as well as all other military requirements — are adequately funded.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com