Britain has developed a homegrown StormShroud drone that will complement its American-made F-35 fleet.
As Duke Buchan III, Gabriel Elefteriu, and Dan Negrea wrote in the opening paragraph of their October 3, 2024, article for The National Interest titled“Make the U.S.-UK Special Relationship Great Again,” “The Special Relationship between the United States and the United Kingdom is built on a common history of defending freedom, extensive economic ties, and close security collaboration—and it is flourishing. Still, it is in the interest of both countries to further expand it.”
Those authors should take heart in the new U.S.-U.K. trade deal that the Trump White House and British prime minister Keir Starmer reached on May 8, 2025 (which coincided with the 80th anniversary of V-E-Day). This trade deal includes an aerospace component that “maximizes the competitiveness and secures the supply chain of U.S. aerospace manufacturers through preferential access to high-quality UK aerospace components” (as per the official White House Fact Sheet).
Speaking of aerospace, we now bring you a story of a new development in the symbiosis between U.S. and UK aerospace technologies manifesting itself in the military realm.
StormShroud Drone and F-35 Fighter Jet: A New Dynamic Duo?
In spite of all of the controversies surrounding the U.S.-made Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II fifth-generation fighter, it remains an extremely popular foreign military sales (FMS) platform, and among the warbird’s chief FMS customers is Great Britain (as is fellow Commonwealth nation Australia). According to the World Directory of Modern Military Aircraft (WDMMA), the Royal Air Force (RAF) has thirty-three F-35Bs in its fleet.
Now Britain has developed a homegrown drone that will complement its American-made F-35 fleet. An article for Army Recognition titled “UK Royal Air Force Deploys New British-Made StormShroud Drone to Jam Enemy Radars Alongside F-35s” describes the drone:
“On 2 May 2025, the United Kingdom marked a pivotal moment in the evolution of its military airpower with the official entry into operational service of the StormShroud drone. This new autonomous aerial platform is designed to operate in coordination with the Royal Air Force’s (RAF) crewed combat aircraft, such as the F-35B Lightning and the Typhoon FGR4. As the first in a new generation of Autonomous Collaborative Platforms (ACP), StormShroud embodies a strategic shift in the RAF’s operational doctrine—prioritising manned-unmanned teaming to enhance the survivability and effectiveness of air assets in increasingly contested environments.
The article adds that StormShroud is based on the AR3 platform, developed by British-Portuguese company Tekever, whose systems have already been used extensively by Ukrainian forces in the field, with over 10,000 flight hours accumulated in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance roles.
Building upon the lessons learned from the Ukrainians’ operational experience, the RAF has adapted the AR3 into a dedicated electronic warfare asset by integrating Leonardo UK’s BriteStorm, which is a lightweight, modular “stand-in jammer” designed to wreak havoc upon integrated air defense systems (IADS) by using advanced digital jamming and radar deception techniques.
In other words, it’s a force multiplier: the F-35 stealth technology’s (relative) invisibility to enemy radar combined with the StormShroud’s knack for jamming enemy radar.
StormShroud’s Positive Economic Impact
Besides the obvious boon to the RAF’s warfighting and survivability capabilities, the StormShroud program will also have a positive impact on Britain’s civilian workforce. The program already supports 200 highly skilled engineering and technical jobs across several regions of the U.K., including West Wales, Somerset, and Southampton; meanwhile, Leonard UK employs over 1,200 people in the British Isles.
“Furthermore,” as the Army Recognition article points out, “Tekever has announced a planned £400 million investment over the next five years, aimed at expanding its UK operations and potentially creating up to 1,000 additional jobs.”
Manned Combat Aircraft and UAVs: The Way Forward
In sharp contrast to the “special relationship” between America and Britain, most military airpower analysts would characterize the relationship between human combat aviators and UAVs as “adversarial,” rather than “special.”
“Adversarial” in terms of fighter pilots being tasked with killing hostile drones; just ask the U.S. Air Force F-15E and F-16 fighter jocks who shot down Iranian drones in defense Israel in April 2024, or the Israeli Air Force F-35I “Adir (Mighty One)” drivers who downed two Iranian UAVs back in March 2022. Of course, the use of manned fighter planes to fight hostile unmanned aircraft is nothing new; back in World War II, Gloster Meteors (Britain’s first operational jet fighter) defended London against the menace of Nazi Germany’s V-1 “buzz bombs.”
“Adversarial” also in terms of fears that UAVs will completely replace flesh-and-blood fighter pilots, which in turn is one element of ethical concerns about artificial intelligence (AI) eliminating human jobs on a global scale.
But in the meantime, the StormShroud/F-35 pairing proves that the relationship between fighter pilots and drones need not be completely adversarial but can actually be mutually beneficial on occasion.
About the Author: Christian D. Orr
Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.
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