MoD drone programme is five years late and £530m over budget

Justin Bronk, senior research fellow at the Royal United Services Institute, told The Telegraph that Protector had a number of advantages over Reaper, including a “more efficient wing and greater fuel capacity so it can operate longer and go further”. He said that one of the chief advantages was that it is “certified to operate in civilian airspace, whereas Reaper is not”, allowing the RAF to deploy them for training and operations in the UK and Europe. Dr Bronk said that if the drones had been available they could potentially have been deployed to “perform additional surveillance flights along the NATO borders”.