UK's Project Vanquish sets sights on ACP carrier demonstration

GA-ASI artwork at Farnborough 2024 showing a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier equipped with the companyʼs MQ-9 Mojave and the Gambit. This is one concept depicting the Royal Navyʼs future unmanned carrier air wing plans. (General Atomics via Janes/Gareth Jennings)

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has outlined plans to test a Fixed-Wing Short Take Off and Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (FW STOL ACP) from a Royal Navy (RN) aircraft carrier before the end of 2027.

In a request for information (RFI) released on 3 October, the MoD said the technical demonstration – known as Project Vanquish – was intended to inform capability and procurement options for a carrier-capable ACP able to operate as part of a future hybrid crewed/uncrewed carrier air wing. The move comes less than a month after First Sea Lord General Gwyn Jenkins revealed the ambition to fly an ACP from a Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carrier as soon as 2026.

Under the Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATX) strategy, the RN is developing a road map for the transition of the Fleet Air Arm to a largely uncrewed aviation force by 2040. The RN's ambition is to have the bulk of airborne logistics; strike; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) roles uncrewed by this point.

Speaking at the DSEI 2025 exhibition on 10 September, Gen Jenkins set out his intention to begin the transition to a hybrid air wing by the end of this decade. “We intend to launch the first jet-powered collaborative platform drone as a concept demonstrator off a Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carrier as soon as next year,” he added.