Britain’s Royal Air Force officially named its collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) program Storm Fighter on July 16, 2026. Minister for Defence Readiness and Industry Luke Pollard announced the name at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, while Chief of the Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth separately unveiled two new supporting uncrewed designs.
These include StormChrome, a dedicated electronic warfare jamming platform, and Storm Fire, a 1,000-mile long-range one-way attack drone.
The program draws from a £300 million (approximately $406 million) investment in the UK’s Defence Investment Plan, published July 2. “Today, I’m delighted to reveal that our new autonomous CCA programme will be named Storm Fighter,” Pollard said. “Storm Fighter will make the RAF Europe’s first sixth-generation air force.”
Today I spoke at the Global Air and Space Chief’s Conference in London about how the RAF will become Europe’s first sixth-generation air force.
I also unveiled the name of our new Collaborative Combat aircraft programme: Storm Fighter. pic.twitter.com/Zc012UZAwK
— Luke Pollard MP (@LukePollard) July 16, 2026
The announcement makes Britain the only European nation with both a named, funded CCA program and a signed sixth-generation crewed fighter contract, pairing Storm Fighter with the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), a next-generation fighter under joint development with Japan and Italy.
Pollard described Storm Fighter drones as both a “guardian angel and an attack dog” for RAF Typhoons, F-35s, and future Tempest jets.
Air Chief Marshal Harv Smyth, the RAF Chief of Air Staff, told the conference the service is targeting an operational CCA capability before the end of the decade, Aviation Week reported.
BAE Systems, whose Autonomous Collaborative Platform concept is among the leading CCA designs under consideration, is expected to compete for Storm Fighter contracts, Janes reported. The announcement revives British CCA ambitions after earlier efforts lost momentum, The War Zone reported.
Storm Fighter’s launch follows the UK’s GCAP contract signing in June and the July 2025 debut of a crewed supersonic combat demonstrator built by BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, and MBDA. In June, Airbus Defence and Space launched its competing U760 Ravenstorm, a European uncrewed CCA concept targeting a 2032 service entry.
