West Wales Airport
Airfield at Aberporth, Ceredigion, used mainly to test military and civil drones over Cardigan Bay.
West Wales Airport is one of the UK sites named in Tekever's contract of up to £400m, awarded on 16 September 2026, for the AR5 drone that replaces the British Army's Watchkeeper.
Last refreshed: 1 October 2026
Timeline for West Wales Airport
Mentioned in: UK awards Tekever up to £400m for AR5
Drones: Industry & DefenceBackground
West Wales Airport is a small airfield south-west of Aberporth in Ceredigion, operated by West Wales Airport Ltd under the ICAO code EGFA. Its single Runway is 1,257 metres long, extended in 2008. The site served as RAF Aberporth in 1940-46 and again in 1959-84.
Its main business is drone testing through the West Wales UAV Centre, linked to the ParcAberporth technology park. Segregated airspace over Cardigan Bay lets new aircraft be flown and evaluated away from other traffic, which is why the British Army uses the field as a test base for Watchkeeper.
That airspace also drew Tekever, the Portuguese maker of the AR5, which runs drone research, test flights and flight training at the airport for UK customers and counts it among the sites behind its Watchkeeper replacement contract.
Tekever's AR5 contract names the airfield
Tekever's AR5 deal with the UK, signed on 16 September 2026 and worth up to £400m, lists the Aberporth airfield among the sites behind a fleet of six aircraft at first and as many as 24 by 2029. The ministry says the deal supports more than 1,000 jobs by 2030 across Tekever's UK sites, and West Wales Airport is one of them, alongside Swindon, Bristol, Lydd and Edinburgh.
For the Aberporth airfield the award ties its future to both ends of the swap. The Army already tests Watchkeeper there over Cardigan Bay, and Tekever opened its own research, test-flight and training site at the field in 2023, citing the segregated airspace. The drone being retired and the maker of its replacement now fly from the same Runway.