HMS Queen Elizabeth demonstrates drone strike capability

HMS Queen Elizabeth has launched one-way attack drones for the first time during trials in the North Atlantic. Four British-built Nyan aircraft were launched during Exercise Neptune Reach B on 20th October, with all four reaching their designated strike points.

Designed and manufactured in Wiltshire by Callen-Lenz, now part of BAE Systems, Nyan is being assessed as a potential addition to the RN’s carrier strike capability. The trials examined how the system could safely operate from a large warship and contribute to a future air wing combining F-35B fighters, helicopters and uncrewed aircraft.

The trial forms part of Project VANTAGE, which brings together the RN, British Army and RAF to accelerate the testing and evaluation of maritime strike drones. It follows Nyan’s first launch at sea from the experimental vessel XV Patrick Blackett during Neptune Reach A in early June. During that trial off Dorset, a Nyan was launched from Patrick Blackett’s working deck. Its flight profile was programmed from the bridge before launch and the aircraft flew to a designated area before deliberately ditching at sea.

The June trial examined the effects of pitch and roll on launch from a moving ship. Moving to Queen Elizabeth broadens the work to a much more complex aviation environment, where drones must fit around other aircraft and established flight deck procedures. The potential application extends beyond carriers, with other vessels offering possible launch platforms wherever sufficient deck space and suitable support arrangements are available.

Nyan has a 2.9-metre wingspan and uses a pneumatic catapult for launch, with propulsion provided by a small gas-turbine engine. With a cruising speed of 220km/h and a range exceeding 250km, its modular payload bay can accommodate different equipment and operate in environments where satellite navigation is denied.

Different positions for the catapult were tested on the carrier. Operating from HMS Queen Elizabeth allows the RN to examine the practical demands of embarking these weapons, including deck handling, launch procedures and their integration with other aviation activity.

A one-way effector is an expendable aircraft intended to deliver its payload by striking the target. Such weapons could give a carrier group additional options against land targets, although these trials do not establish an operational anti-ship capability or demonstrate performance against defended targets.

There is still a substantial gap between successful trial launches and a capability that can be deployed routinely. The announcements give no date for operational carrier service, quantities to be purchased or details of the Nyan payloads used. launched alone, these weapons would be vulnerable to interception, making numbers, routing and co-ordination important considerations against defended targets. Useful combat mass will require ships to store, prepare and launch sufficient aircraft in a short period, while sustaining their other aviation tasks.

Tekever AR5 lands on HMS Queen Elizabeth. With a 7m wingspan and capacity to carry 80kg, the AR5 can support both logistics and operational missions.

The carrier also hosted Heavy Lift Challenge 3, on 17th October during which a Tekever AR5 fixed-wing uncrewed aircraft operated from an aircraft carrier for the first time. This explored how uncrewed aircraft could support logistics and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance missions alongside strike systems. The AR5 was pictured landing on the ship but the RN has not said if the aircrtaft took off from the carrier. In 2023, the RN landed a HCMC UAS logistcs drone on HMS Prince of Wales and later conducted full launch and recovery cycles of a Mojave RPAS.

Together, the trials offer another modest practical step towards the RN’s proposed hybrid carrier air wing. Surveillance aircraft could help locate and monitor targets, while expendable strike drones could provide another means of attack without committing a pilot to every mission.

HMS Queen Elizabeth returned to Portsmouth today for a short logistics stop after a month away conducting crew training, Neptune Reach and visits to Belfast and Gibraltar (Photo: Navy Lookout).

Two RAF Chinook HC6A helicopters and a detachment of 80 personnel were embarked on the carrier for the first time, as part of Exercise Hathi Pol, a longstanding joint training programme that is designed to develop interoperability between the RAF and RN. HMS Queen Elizabeth will depart again soon to resume a further phase of work-up and operations before Christmas.