- The RAF’s Shadow fleet plays a key, but hugely secretive, role in the gathering of electronic intelligence
- It was planned that the fleet was to be upgraded from six airframes to eight, and new defensive aid suites added
- Hundreds of jobs had been secured at Raytheon UK’s Broughton site as a result of the £110m contract
Delivery delays and an estimated increase in uncontracted costs have been given as key reasons behind the UK Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) decision to cancel the Shadow R Mk2 upgrade programme.
Initiated in 2021 by the then Conservative government with a £110m (145.6m) contract award to Raytheon UK, the programme was intended to see the current fleet of six electronic intelligence (ELINT) Shadow aircraft increased to eight, and integration of an improved Defensive Aids System (DAS) to bring the fleet up the Mk2 standard.
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The contract was said to have secured 150 jobs at Raytheon UK’s Broughton site, with hundreds more sustained in the UK supply chain.
Based at RAF Waddington and flown by 14 Squadron Royal Air Force (RAF), Shadow forms a part of the RAF’s Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) force by gathering intelligence via its high-definition electro-optical and electronic sensors.
Once the data is gathered, satellite communication links enable the information to be assessed while the aircraft is airborne during a mission.
However, the programme was cancelled in early November 2025, with a written UK parliamentary response on 27 November provided official reasoning behind the decision.
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By GlobalDataLuke Pollard, Minister for Defence Readiness at the MoD, said the decision to cancel the Shadow Mk2 upgrade was driven by delays in delivering the required capability and an “assessment of increased costs” for uncontracted work.
“As a result, no direct in-year savings were realised from this decision. However, allocated sustainment funding continues to support the operational output of the existing Shadow R Mk1 fleet,” stated Pollard.
It was forecast in 2021 that the first upgraded aircraft would be delivered to the RAF in June 2023, with the arrival of the final Shadow R Mk2 aircraft before the end of 2025.
Raytheon stated in 2023 that the Shadow R Mk2 programme had completed its Critical Design Review (CDR) phase, a key milestone in military procurement, and anticipated handing over the first three upgraded aircraft through 2024.
However, subsequent slips to delivery timelines saw this pushed out to 2025 and into 2026.
It is thought that the first two partially upgraded aircraft are unlikely to fly again and could be used for spare parts to sustain the remaining Mk1 fleet.
