U.K. MoD Developing Drone to Work alongside Apache Helicopters

The U.K. Ministry of Defence (MoD) is advancing plans for a new autonomous aerial vehicle designed to operate alongside Apache AH-64E attack helicopters in contested environments.

According to an MoD announcement, the Land Autonomous Collaborative Platform (LACP) will be a Vertical Take-off and Landing (VToL) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of carrying payloads of 200 kilograms or more. The system is intended to operate in a “highly autonomous, ‘commanded, not controlled’ manner” and perform reconnaissance, target acquisition, strike, countermeasure defeat, and integration missions.

The MoD stated the goal is to “enhance the lethality and survivability of the crewed platform and do so with a smaller logistic footprint and lower maintenance requirement relative to the crewed platform.” The British Army is seeking “innovative and novel solutions” that exploit advances in autonomy, modularity, and production scalability. This includes AI-enabled decision-making, digital twins, synthetic environments, and secure digital and data standards.

Modular payloads are expected to be a key feature, allowing the LACP to be rapidly reconfigured for different missions. The program will also prioritise cyber resilience, communications, navigation, interoperability, and compliance with both civilian and military airworthiness standards.