DSEI 2025: Ukrainian drone aimed at British Army Watchkeeper replacement programme

Speaking to journalists at DSEI 2025, Justin Hedges OBE, executive chairman of UK-based Prevail Partners, confirmed that Skyeton Prevail Solutions would offer the Raybird uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) to the UK’s Project Corvus.

As confirmed by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD)’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) organisation in April 2025, Corvus is the initiative to replace the Watchkeeper, with the MoD valuing the project at £156 million (US$206.45 million) with estimated contract award dates in May 2026 to April 2031. 

Prevail Partners and the Ukrainian company Skyeton International announced their joint venture (JV) in July this year, called Skyeton Prevail Solutions, which would develop the Raybird towards British requirements. At DSEI 2025, Hedges called the JV a marriage of complementary capabilities, with Prevail offering knowledge of ISR operations and NATO operational culture, and Skyeton bringing the battle-proven hardware. 

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The UAV has a 28-hour endurance, 25-minute deployment time and a ceiling operational altitude of 10,000m.

According to the company, it has clocked up more than 350,000 combat hours in Ukraine, showing that it is a battle-proven, ready-now capability. Hedges believes this will set it up in good standing for Corvus and differentiate it from other possible bids. 

An alternative to fixed wing for ISR

The Raybird is currently produced in Ukraine and in Slovakia. If selected for Corvus or another UK contract, the JV will push forward with plans to produce the system in the UK and establish local supply chains. Plymouth is targeted for this plant due to the strong defence cluster there, with an estimated 160 skilled jobs to be created.

Production in Slovakia took around a year to be established. Based on the lessons learned, Hedges noted that the UK plant could be open in “six months”, a timeframe that would be “aggressive but possible”.

This news comes days after Ukrspecsystems, another Ukrainian drone manufacturer, announced a £200 million investment programme in East Anglia, which could create 500 jobs and apprenticeships. 

At DSEI 2025, Pavlo Shevchuk, International CEO at Skyeton, highlighted how the platform is being used in Ukraine. He noted that using crewed fixed-wing aircraft for ISR missions 30-40km from the front line is practically impossible, due to the strength of the air defence systems; a situation that will also likely occur in other near-peer-to-peer and peer-to-peer conflicts. 

In contrast, the Raybird has been operating 50km behind the enemy’s frontline, highlighting high-value assets with its laser designator that can be attacked with artillery. 

In addition to this ISR role, at DSEI, various other payload options were displayed, such as an IMSAR NSP-2 airborne radar for landscape image generation in darkness or bad weather and a radio frequency locator and uncrewed subsystems, such as air-launched first-person view (FPV) drones and gliding munitions. Users can swap between these multiple applications with a tool-free payload hot swap. 

Shephard’s DSEI 2025 coverage is sponsored by:

Related Programmes in Defence Insight

Project Corvus [UK]

Related Equipment in Defence Insight

Watchkeeper / Watchkeeper X

Raybird