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The U.K. Royal Air Force has launched a new collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program, named Storm Fighter, reviving a British push into the autonomous ‘loyal wingman’ arena as the service seeks to build what officials describe as “Europe’s first sixth-generation air force.” The announcement, made by a senior government official today, marks a renewed effort to field uncrewed combat aircraft designed to operate alongside crewed combat jets after earlier British CCA initiatives lost momentum.

Storm Fighter forms part of a much broader U.K. push to introduce uncrewed and autonomous systems across the armed forces under a defense modernization effort backed by around $6.6 billion over the next four years. You can read more about this Defense Investment Plan (DIP) here .

In his keynote speech at #GlobalAirSpaceChiefs @LukePollard MP, set out a warfighting-focused vision for UK air and space power. Defence has a single mission: to become ready for warfighting against a peer adversary. Read his speech here: https://t.co/PGLoO9HPfv pic.twitter.com/uMDEknjgL2

— Air Power Assn (@airpowerassn) July 16, 2026

Speaking at the Air Power Association Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in London today, Luke Pollard, the U.K. minister for defense readiness and industry, said that Storm Fighter will be funded using the $406 million investment in CCAs included in the DIP published earlier this month.

“We are maximizing our air power in the eye of the storm of future combat, that will be swarming with drones, sixth-generation fighter jets and ever evolving EW [electronic warfare] capabilities,” Pollard said, adding, “I am delighted to reveal that our new autonomous CCA program will be named Storm Fighter […] to deliver guardian angel and attack dog drones to fly into combat with the Typhoon , F-35 , and Tempest . Storm Fighter will make the RAF Europe’s first sixth-generation air force.”

The Storm Fighter nomenclature is in line with a set of ‘Storm’ programs in the air warfare domain. Previous ones include Storm Shroud , which will provide the Royal Air Force with a new uncrewed electronic warfare drone , which will enter service this year. Meanwhile, the Royal Air Force today also announced a new EW drone, named Storm Chrome, as well as Storm Fire, a 1,000-mile-range one-way attack drone.

A Storm Shroud drone during trials. Crown Copyright

As an example of the experimental programs that could feed into Storm Fighter, Pollard highlighted Project Vanquish, which is intended to demonstrate a fixed-wing, short takeoff and landing autonomous collaborative platform (ACP) from a Queen Elizabeth class aircraft carrier before the end of 2027. The ACP terminology has been used in the United Kingdom in the past and is broadly equivalent to CCA.

The Royal Navy has explored various drone options for its carriers in the past. It has tested the General Atomics Mojave short takeoff and landing (STOL) drone from HMS Prince of Wales class , as well as catapult-launching smaller, jet-powered drones.

Pollard referencing the Royal Navy Vanquish ACP program is noteworthy and reflects the struggles that the Royal Air Force has faced in getting similar efforts off the ground.

The Royal Air Force had been working on the Project Mosquito as part of the broader Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) initiative. Project Mosquito called for a prototype “uncrewed fighter aircraft” flying by 2023, and in 2021 a contract for the aircraft was awarded to Spirit AeroSystems. Mosquito was canceled in 2022 for reasons that are not entirely clear, although it may well have become clear that the ambition couldn’t be realized with the relatively tiny budget, just $41 million across three years.

Speaking at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference, a Royal Air Force official stressed that Storm Fighter should result in a vehicle “that is good enough, that is cheap enough, that can be produced fast enough, and we need enough of them.” The official added: “If you’re building something that takes 70 percent of the build time of an F-35 and costs three-quarters of it, then rip up your CCA program and start again.”

On #StormFighter , @RoyalAirForce official at #GASCC26 today – "You want something that is good enough that is cheap enough that can be produced fast enough, and we need enough of them. If you're building something that takes 70% of the build time of an F-35 and costs… pic.twitter.com/0U9ISpGHgT

— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) July 16, 2026

Clearly, however, the Royal Air Force still needs a loyal wingman-type platform. This is the same ambition outlined by the U.K. Ministry of Defense in the past, when it described drones that would “fly at high speed alongside fighter jets” and would carry “missiles, surveillance and electronic warfare technology.”

When Project Mosquito was still active, the U.K. Ministry of Defense also stressed that its future loyal wingman would be expected to target and shoot down enemy aircraft and “survive against surface-to-air missiles.”

A rendering of a Project Mosquito loyal wingman drone. U.K. Ministry of Defense

While Pollard’s words today were ambiguous, his reference to providing “guardian angel and attack dog drones” suggests that both aerial combat and strike missions could be covered. On the other hand, this might also describe both offensive and defensive counter-air missions.

It’s notable, too, that the new CCA should fly into combat with the F-35, Tempest, and Typhoon. The last of these is currently planned to be withdrawn from service by 2040 , so the drone would have to be in operational use ahead of the arrival of the sixth-generation Tempest.

A Royal Air Force Typhoon fighter lands at RAF Akrotiri following a mission in the Middle East. Crown Copyright

As to who might build the Storm Fighter, Janes reports that “several contractors have already indicated their interest, most prominently BAE Systems and Boeing,” although a formal set of requirements is yet to be published.

In the case of Boeing, the company’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat has already attracted some official interest in the United Kingdom. In 2023, Rear Adm. James Parkin, Director Develop for the Royal Navy, gave a presentation that included a slide with a Boeing rendering showing a variant or derivative of the MQ-28 with a visible tailhook landing on a Queen Elizabeth class carrier.

. @RoyalNavy briefing on future unmanned rotary capabilities at #IMHelicon , but note the carrier landing MQ-28 Ghost Bat… #drone #drones pic.twitter.com/RQhjMAzNRx

— Gareth Jennings (@GarethJennings3) February 21, 2023

TWZ has also made the case for the Australia-United Kingdom-United States defense cooperation agreement, or AUKUS, to be extended to cover the MQ-28 and other uncrewed technologies.

Meanwhile, BAE Systems is also involved in the MQ-28 program, providing the autonomous Vehicle Management System (VMS) and elements of the Ground Control Station (GCS) that monitor and control the drone. The company has also presented a rendering of a notional stealthy CCA, as seen at the top of this story. This has some features reminiscent of renderings of the Tempest crewed combat jet, including large-area trapezoidal wings and cropped outward-canted tailfins. The drone has a wedge-shaped nose intake, partially shrouded by a prominent ‘lip.’

An MQ-28 Ghost Bat. Australian Department of Defense U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Adrien Tran

In its work on CCAs, BAE Systems is also working in collaboration with Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division , which is also heavily involved in this field. This includes a higher-end stealthy CCA-type drone named Vectis. The uncrewed aircraft is designed to be highly adaptable to an operator’s requirements, which would appear to place it particularly well for the U.K. Storm Fighter initiative, especially if paired with BAE Systems.

The Vectis CCA. Lockheed Martin

When it comes to stealthy drones, BAE Systems’ experience dates back far longer, including a proof-of-concept UCAV testbed called Taranis .

Apart from the two contractors mentioned, the Royal Air Force CCA effort is likely to attract attention from others, too.

General Atomics has pitched to the United Kingdom a carrier-capable member of its Gambit drone family, which is based around a common modular core ‘chassis’ concept , and which could fit into a future air wing aboard the Queen Elizabeth class. The company already provides the Royal Air Force with Protector drones.

A rendering featuring a catapult-equipped HMS Prince of Wales with a Gambit-series drone ready to launch. GA-ASI

Other U.S. pitches could come from Northrop Grumman or Kratos , while there is also a growing pool of potential European players .

For now, Storm Fighter remains little more than a name attached to an emerging requirement, with no design, contractor, or acquisition timeline yet formalized — as far as we know. Even so, today’s announcement signals that the Royal Air Force is once again serious about fielding a loyal wingman capability after the demise of Project Mosquito. This comes as other European nations are already firming up their CCA requirements and setting in-service goals, while more major players are now deeply involved in proving out operational concepts .

With autonomous aircraft now central to the broader U.K. defense strategy and the Tempest program steadily advancing, the pressure will be on to turn Storm Fighter into an operational capability.

Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com

The post UK Unveils Storm Fighter Loyal Wingman Program appeared first on TWZ .

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KYIV — There could not be a worse moment for an internal brawl, but that is exactly what’s unfolding in Kyiv, with a hasty reshuffle underway to make spy chief Yevhenii Khmara Ukraine’s new interim defense minister.

Instead of talking about how to maintain the wartime initiative it has enjoyed over Russia this year, Ukraine is seething over President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s decision to oust 35-year-old tech prodigy and reformer Mykhailo Fedorov , adored by Ukraine’s partners and people, from the defense brief.

The reason — Fedorov’s acrimonious relationship with Ukraine’s Army Commander Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

“Those two could not work together. A wartime president must not face such choices, honestly. I want unity, but the sides did not find it. I respect both,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

“They even refused to sit at the same table without me,” he added. “I had to make a choice.”

That choice, to get rid of rogue reformer Fedorov, who in his six months in office launched major positive changes in the army, shocked many prominent Ukrainian service members and watchdogs, and surprised foreign partners.

Ukrainians held another cardboard protest on Thursday, demanding that Zelenskyy return Fedorov to the ministry. In the evening, Zelenskyy announced that Khmara, who is acting head of Ukraine’s SBU intelligence agency, will fill the vacancy — but only in an acting capacity, until he can formally resign from the military to take up the civilian role.

Fedorov vs Syrskyi

Fedorov said that Syrskyi forced Zelenskyy’s hand into pushing him out. Though Fedorov was also reportedly pushing for Syrskyi’s removal for a long time. The general has a reputation as a butcher and as a Soviet general, rewarding loyalists and destroying the initiative of field commanders.

“When the president said he has no plans to fire [Syrskyi], I accepted and was ready to learn how to work with him, because we both have one goal — to serve the Ukrainian people. But what we faced was that all our initiatives were blocked. Syrskyi was not ready to openly discuss problems, but was instead plotting against us and finally set an ultimatum for me to be out,” Fedorov said at a press conference in Kyiv on Thursday.

“Instead of figuring out how to asymmetrically defeat Russia, which is the task of the commander-in-chief, he figured out how to split the country,” Fedorov added.

He praised Syrskyi’s military talent but said the general wants to keep fighting the old ways while war is rapidly changing and becoming more technological every day.

Syrskyi reacted with a condescending remark, saying that it is only because of his past successful operations, such as the battle for Kyiv in 2022, that Fedorov can now speak freely in the Ukrainian capital.

Oleksandr Syrskyi speaks to journalists during a training exercise at an unspecified location in Ukraine in June 2023. | Ed Ram/Getty Images

“We managed to defend our capital, and now briefings can be held in this city, visions can be formed, decisions can be made. I will make every effort to ensure that similar events can take place in a free and independent Ukraine. To do this, we need to focus on the war and on an effective strategy that is now demonstrating concrete results,” Syrskyi said in a social media post .

He also thanked Fedorov for his work and expressed hope “he would stay in Team Ukraine.” There’s no news yet on where Fedorov will end up.

An official of the General Staff of the Ukrainian army refused to give any more reactions, saying the military “can’t comment on presidential decisions and politically charged statements.”

Positive aura

In the six months he was in office, Fedorov persuaded Elon Musk’s SpaceX to switch off Starlink terminals being used by the Russian military, creating chaos for the Kremlin’s forces. He also helped push the mid-range strike campaign that uses drones to hit targets up to 100 kilometers behind the front lines, disrupting Russian logistics and slowing enemy territorial gains.

Zelenskyy hired Fedorov because he had a strategic vision of war, while the army prefers tactics over strategy, Fedorov claimed on Thursday.

Fedorov could strongly communicate Ukraine’s strategy and vision of war both internally and externally, with partners and had good relations with private defense producers from his time at the digital transformation ministry, said Mykola Bielieskov, a defense analyst based in Kyiv.

He also used his tech background to introduce an after-action review after Russian attacks, something that helped the Ukrainian air force improve its drone interception rate.

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius praised Fedorov, crediting him for Ukraine’s recent success, and Romanian Deputy Defense Minister Sorin Moldovan commended Bucharest’s “good cooperation with Mr. Fedorov.”

“He seemed very effective,” said a senior European defense official, granted anonymity like other individuals in this article to speak freely, describing him as “a digital guy in a mostly mechanical world.”

One NATO diplomat said they were “very surprised” by the dismissal, arguing the move was not a smart decision.

“We loved him; he did great,” the diplomat said. “I did not see this coming.”

Some top Ukrainian military commanders, too, have expressed solidarity with Fedorov, crediting him with the Ukrainian army’s success of the past year. Colonel Pavlo Yelizarov, an architect of a new system that improved Ukrainian air defense performance against killer drones, filed for resignation from his post as a deputy commander of the air force after Fedorov’s ousting. He said : “Fedorov’s dismissal is a very big harm for Ukraine’s defense during wartime.”

Fedorov participates in a press conference in Kyiv on May 11, 2026. | Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP via Getty Images

This is not to say everything Fedorov did was successful. Key reforms that improved pay for frontline troops and made it easier for foreign volunteers and previous draft dodgers to fight for Ukraine fell well short of expectations.

And while the former defense minister admitted the reforms were poorly communicated, he said they were stalled by the army command, like many of his other initiatives.

Houston, we have a problem

Whatever positives emerged from Fedorov’s tenure, experts agree that the conflict between the defense ministry and the army command was a serious problem.

“If the head of the defense ministry starts behaving not as a supplier fulfilling the orders of the general staff, but starts asking questions and getting into strategic management of war, that’s when the conflict appears,” Bielieskov said.

“The military has a very wary attitude towards civilians when it comes to strategic war management — they perceive attempts to be involved in this as a violation of their prerogatives,” he continued. “Therefore, if this problem is not resolved, the tension will remain — only its degree may change.”

It’s perhaps with an eye on healing the rift that Zelenskyy has tapped Khmara, an experienced combat special service officer behind many of Ukraine’s bold long-range drone strikes inside Russia, to replace Fedorov. Yet Khmara can’t be appointed to a defense minister’s post without resigning from service, as it is a role for a civilian.

Khmara also reportedly maintains close ties with many Western intelligence agencies, which could assuage uneasiness among partners currently keeping Ukraine afloat. Nonetheless, the EU, which is set to pour further billions into Ukraine’s defense industry , will now have to wait to see reforms enacted and reorganizations take place under a new minister.

And the war is not standing still.

“People think there is a risk that all the advantages that we have shown recently may simply be lost,” Bielieskov said. “Russia is adapting while we have such changes and uncertainty.”

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Little is known about the tens of thousands of liberated Africans who were buried on the remote Atlantic island of St. Helena in the 19th century. But now, a new chemical and dental analysis reveals where more than 150 of these individuals spent their childhoods in Africa.

About 27,000 liberated slaves ended up on St. Helena after the British Empire outlawed slave trading in 1807, with the Royal Navy enforcing the ban. St. Helena was used to drop off enslaved people whom the navy had liberated. However, about 8,000 of these newly liberated people, who were malnourished and in poor health, died on the South Atlantic island not long after landing there.

These burials were forgotten until they were found ahead of an airport construction project centuries later. The dig, carried out in 2007 and 2008, found the buried skeletons of the liberated slaves, according to a new study published Thursday (July 16) in the journal Science .

To determine the origins of the liberated slaves, scientists studied the teeth of 152 individuals, measuring the ratio of strontium isotopes, which are atoms of the element strontium that have a different number of neutrons in their nuclei. When a person's teeth grow during childhood, the strontium isotopes in the food they eat and the water they drink are incorporated into their tooth enamel. By studying the unique strontium ratios in a person's enamel, researchers can determine where individuals lived as children.

The study found that many of the liberated slaves lived near the coast of West Africa, although some lived farther inland.

"Most individuals likely came from coastal or near-coastal regions in western Central Africa, [and] others appear to have originated much farther inland, implying forced displacement over hundreds to thousands of kilometers before embarkation," the team wrote in the study.

In one case, a man who died between the ages of 19 and 25 had been moved from inland Angola to the coast as a child, between the ages of 7 and 9. The scientists detected this movement by comparing the isotope signatures of his teeth that grew when he was around 7 to those that grew when he was around 9. He may have been trafficked as a slave when he was between those ages, the team wrote in their paper.

It's "possible that their displacement during childhood was connected with their enslavement," study co-author Hannes Schroeder , an associate professor of molecular ecology and evolution at the Globe Institute at the University of Copenhagen, told Live Science in an email. Unfortunately, we don't know much else about this individual, Schroeder said.

In addition to this man, the study found evidence that at least 10 of the liberated slaves had been transported as children or early adolescents.

Schroeder said it's not clear if any of the people in the study have living descendants on St. Helena but it's unlikely given that these people probably died not long after landing on the island.

The team also used historical records and DNA analyses of 20 of the individuals to help determine where they were from. The DNA analysis "revealed affinities with present-day populations from Gabon and northern Angola, while also showing considerable diversity," the team wrote.

"These results are consistent with eyewitness accounts by Royal Navy personnel on the island, who reported multiple languages among the captives, including Congo and Benguela dialects," the team wrote, noting that the findings also align with historical records from Angola, Cuba and Brazil.

The reburial ceremony for the liberated slaves on St. Helena, a remote island in the Atlantic. (Image credit: Photo courtesy of the St Helena Museum) "The tragedy of enslaved children"

The new study sheds much needed light on the lives of enslaved people, researchers told Live Science.

"This study is especially impactful because it investigates instances of slavery, where knowledge of individuals' ancestors and descendants have been erased from history," Steven Micheletti , a geneticist who has studied the trans-Atlantic slave trade but was not involved in the new research, told Live Science in an email. However, he said the study would have benefited from analyzing the DNA of more people.

David Head , a historian at the University of Central Florida who was not involved in the study, praised the study. We "know a lot about the embarkation/disembarkation of enslaved people, thanks to slave traders keeping records of their business but less about where people originate from and how they got to the ports," he said in an email. "It's not surprising that the study found most people came from relatively close to the coast but that there were cases of people who came from much farther inland as well."

What "seems most interesting to me is the promise of learning about individuals, which is often very hard to do since the slave traders kept the records," and records kept by slave traders tended not to include a lot of information on the lives of their slaves, Head added.

He was also struck by the study's findings that many of the enslaved people were moved at a young age. "It makes sense that slave traders wanted younger people, with the potential for many years as laborers, but to have [this] reinforced through their [teeth] reveals the tragedy of enslaved children."

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Alex Bentley , an anthropology professor at the University of Tennessee who wrote an article discussing the study in the journal, praised the research, noting how it combined the isotope data with historical records and some DNA analysis.

This is important because "although strontium isotope ratios in human tooth enamel ultimately reflect local geology, they record a biologically available mixture of foods and water consumed while the tooth was forming during childhood," Bentley told Live Science in an email. "So it's rarely a unique geographic fingerprint." It's possible that similar approaches could be used to study the origins of enslaved people in the United States, Bentley added.

The remains were reburied in 2022. The scientists and members of St. Helena's community looked into the possibility of repatriating the remains to countries in Africa where the people came from, but no agreements were reached. In some cases, it would have been difficult to determine which country to return them to, the team noted in their paper.