§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Ministry of Defence (Lord Bach)My right honourable friend the Secretary of State for Defence (Mr Geoffrey Hoon) has made the following Written Ministerial Statement.
We are pleased to announce 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.
13WSThe competition for entry into the final stage of the Watchkeeper programme has been 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 will be announced as the preferred bidder for the Watchkeeper demonstration and manufacturing phase by the Secretary of State for Defence at the Farnborough International Airshow today. Further negotiations will be required before the project is ready to pass its main investment decision. It is planned to start these negotiations immediately. Depending on the outcome of that work, we aim to make the main gate decision on Watchkeeper later this year. The intention remains to bring Watchkeeper into service as soon as possible with capability beginning around the end of 2006.