UK Royal Navy Tests Wildcat Helicopter Drone Teaming for Martlet Missile Strikes.

The British Royal Navy says it has completed Eagle's Eye trials in Cornwall, linking a Wildcat helicopter with multiple drones and ground sensors to support simulated missile strikes. The activity highlights how the service is preparing for faster, more resilient decision-making in contested maritime environments.

The British Royal Navy confirmed on 30 January 2026 that it has carried out a series of integration trials at the National Drone Hub at Predannack Airfield on Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula, testing how crewed aircraft can work more closely with uncrewed systems. During the activity, known as Eagles Eye, an AgustaWestland Wildcat HMA2 from 815 Naval Air Squadron conducted simulated Martlet missile engagements against moving targets, using live targeting data supplied by two light drones and ground-based sensors, according to a Navy statement.
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In British service, the Wildcat HMA2 is configured for anti-surface warfare and the engagement of fast threats, including light craft, mobile coastal targets, and asymmetric threats (Picture source: UK MoD)

Predannack is no longer only a helicopter training airfield, but an increasingly central site for uncrewed systems experimentation in the United Kingdom. The trials take place shortly after the maiden flight of Proteus, an autonomous helicopter programme presented as a milestone in the development of crewed-uncrewed teaming. This proximity points to a broader intent: accelerating a model in which the crewed platform is not the only relevant sensor, but a mobile command node able to receive, fuse, and redistribute data from multiple sources.

The AgustaWestland AW159 Wildcat is one of the Royal Navy’s core embarked helicopters, operated in the Wildcat HMA2 (Helicopter Maritime Attack) configuration for surveillance, armed reconnaissance, and support to naval operations. Designed to deploy from British frigates and destroyers, it combines a compact format with performance suited to maritime operations: two LHTEC CTS800-4N turboshaft engines rated at 1,361 shp each, a maximum speed of around 311 km/h, a range of 777 km (up to 963 km for ferry flights) and a standard endurance of 2 hours 15 minutes, which can reach 4 hours 30 minutes with auxiliary fuel tanks. Crewed by two pilots, the Wildcat is intended for rapid and flexible operations in support of a naval task group, with the ability to detect, identify, and track surface contacts in a complex littoral environment. This agility, combined with avionics designed for targeting, supports the concept of the Wildcat as a platform able to exploit external sensors.

In British service, the Wildcat HMA2 is configured for anti-surface warfare and the engagement of fast threats, including light craft, mobile coastal targets, and asymmetric threats. It can carry up to 20 Thales Martlet missiles (Lightweight Multirole Missile), suited to precision engagements against light targets, and up to four MBDA Sea Venom missiles, intended to disable or destroy vessels up to 1,000 tonnes. Its sensor suite includes the Seaspray 7400E AESA X-band radar for air-to-surface search and tracking, complemented by the Wescam MX-15Di electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) turret for identification and targeting. The Royal Navy operates 28 AW159 Wildcat HMA2 helicopters within its naval aviation force, organised across two squadrons, forming the backbone of its embarked light attack helicopter capability.

In this scenario, the Wildcat is not used as a passive receiver. Embarked personnel from 700X NAS, a specialist uncrewed unit operating from nearby RNAS Culdrose, directly control the RQ-20 Puma from inside the helicopter while also receiving, in parallel, a live video feed and situational data from the Providence. The different sources are integrated through a mesh network designed to combine heterogeneous inputs and present them to the crew without requiring separate interfaces. The aim is to move away from the legacy approach in which each new drone, sensor, or system comes with its own dedicated control chain, with bespoke gateways that can be slow to integrate and difficult to sustain.

The RQ-20 Puma illustrates the approach adopted. In service with the Royal Navy since 2020 and recently deployed as part of Carrier Strike Group 25, it is an operational system rather than a laboratory demonstrator. In these trials, its role goes beyond collecting imagery, as it helps build a track that can be exploited directly from within the Wildcat cabin, while also supporting the option of tactically controlling the system from the crewed aircraft. The demonstration includes simulated Martlet engagements, with Martlet described as a Lightweight Multirole Missile (LMM), a light guided weapon suited to attacks against fast and lightly protected threats. The most structuring element remains the conduct of simulated strikes in BVLOS (Beyond Visual Line of Sight) and OTH (Over The Horizon) conditions, indicating a doctrinal shift: the helicopter can engage using external sensors rather than relying solely on its own direct detection.

The mesh network is central to the demonstration. Unlike a point-to-point link, the MESH architecture relies on multiple nodes through which data can pass, with automatic rerouting if a segment is degraded. This self-healing characteristic is explicitly linked to lessons drawn from Ukraine, where communications resilience has become critical under jamming and rapid sensor attrition. In contested conditions, the value lies not only in collecting information, but in transmitting, sharing, and sustaining it over time without a single node failure breaking the chain.

The trial brings together a broad ecosystem, reflecting British choices in open integration. Alongside 815 NAS, 700X NAS and support from 847 NAS, several industry partners are involved: MarWorks, TeleplanForsberg, General Dynamics, C3IA, UAV Aerosystems and Collins Aerospace. This composition reflects a pragmatic approach in which capability development is not limited to acquiring additional drones, but includes industrialising a data-sharing architecture compatible with existing platforms. At this stage, the priority is establishing initial tactics and then progressively expanding the number of sensors and participants connected to the network.

The Wildcat and Martlet combination is already oriented toward countering fast threats, including fast attack craft (FAC) and moving targets in constrained environments. By placing drones forward to observe without exposing the crewed platform, the helicopter can approach with a lower signature, maintain its preferred altitude and tactical profile, and engage based on a consolidated track. The cognitive burden of search is reduced while decision speed increases. Within a distributed combat approach, the Wildcat becomes a coordination and action node, orchestrating multiple sensors rather than relying only on its own perception.

Lessons from Eagles Eye are intended to feed into upcoming exercises. Further trials are planned when Wildcat crews deploy to Norway for Exercise Tamber Spring in the coming months, in the demanding environment of the fjords. This theatre, where terrain can fragment lines of sight and where asymmetric threats are central, is well suited to assessing mesh network robustness and refining distributed targeting procedures in a constrained littoral environment.

The expansion of the National Drone Hub, reflected in the construction of two larger new hangars, is intended to support testing of larger drones, with released renderings referencing platforms such as the MQ-9 Reaper. In December 2025, an agreement was concluded between the National Drone Hub, operated jointly by WholeShip Ltd and the Royal Navy, and Spaceport Cornwall at Cornwall Airport Newquay, to expand the segregated test areas off the Cornish coast. New airspace zones off the north coast are intended to enable testing from Newquay, whose 9,000-foot runway offers potential for larger and higher-speed uncrewed aircraft beyond the optimal scope of Predannack’s shorter runways. A Specific Operations Risk Assessment (SORA) is being established to support the development of this testing area.

The Hybrid Air Wing concept aims to turn the Queen Elizabeth-class aircraft carriers into hubs for crewed and uncrewed aircraft, increasing ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) depth while preparing for integrated kinetic missions. In a context where Russia, among other strategic competitors, invests heavily in electronic warfare and layered defences, maintaining resilient links and distributing sensors becomes a factor of operational credibility. For NATO, the implications are also political: the more advanced network interoperability becomes, the more the coalition can share sensors and compress decision cycles. Over time, a Wildcat connected to a flotilla of drones represents not only a technical evolution, but a model that complicates disruption through jamming, reduces the exposure of crewed platforms and supports deterrence in increasingly contested environments.