Royal Air Force

The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air warfare service, founded on 1 April 1918 as the world's first independent air force. With approximately 31,000 regular personnel and a fleet including Typhoon FGR4 multirole fighters, F-35B Lightning II stealth jets, and Voyager tankers, the RAF operates from bases across the UK, Cyprus, and the Falklands. In May 2026, 9 Squadron RAF Typhoons operationally deployed the APKWS laser-guided rocket system for counter-drone missions in the Middle East, flying from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and Al Udeid Airbase in Qatar at approximately GBP 20,000 per shot, marking one of the first confirmed uses of rocket-based C-UAS by a European NATO ally.

The RAF has been forward-deployed to the Gulf region under Operation Shader and related frameworks since 2014. Its Typhoons are among the most capable multirole platforms in NATO, carrying the ASRAAM, Meteor, and Brimstone missile families alongside the APKWS integration announced in 2026. The APKWS system, originally developed for US platforms, was adapted for the Typhoon under a UK-US integration programme managed with BAE Systems. At GBP 20,000 per shot, APKWS is cost-effective against drone threats compared with Meteor or Brimstone missiles that cost hundreds of thousands of pounds each.

The Gulf deployment is operationally significant beyond the hardware: it establishes the RAF as one of the first NATO air forces to generate a counter-drone combat record using a rocket-based rather than missile-based system. That operational data will feed directly into the UK's broader C-UAS doctrine and the GBP 115 million Hormuz drone procurement package committed in May 2026. The RAF is also embedded in the Project NYX Apache loyal-wingman assessment phase through BAE Systems, which holds one of the four development slots.