RFI released for Project Vanquish: the UK’s search for a carrier-capable ACP

On 3 October 2025 the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) issued to industry a request for information (RFI) related to Project Vanquish: an initiative designed to explore concepts for a UK carrier-borne autonomous collaborative platform (ACP).

“As part of the route to the Royal Navy’s Hybrid Air Wing, Project Vanquish seeks to deliver a technical demonstration at sea of an attritable (Tier 2) Fixed Wing Short Take Off and Landing Autonomous Collaborative Platform (FW STOL ACP),” the MoD stated. It added that a nominal target date for this technical demonstration is by the end of 2026, but added that options for delivery within an 18-month window from the target date would also be considered. The technical demonstration is intended to inform future capability development and procurement options.

The RFI further stipulated that the air vehicle “must be able to embark and operate autonomously from a Queen Elizabeth-class (QEC) aircraft carrier and is to be jet turbine powered and capable of high subsonic speed”, adding that it “should be able to launch and recover to QEC without catapults or arrested recovery systems and with a credible payload and endurance”.

The MoD stated that, as a complementary platform to the UK’s fleet of F-35B Lightning short take-off/vertical landing Joint Strike Fighter, the Project Vanquish ACP must feature “an exploitation pathway to the delivery of a wide range of maritime mission sets in support of UK Carrier Strike in due course (ISR/strike/air-air refuelling)”.

With regard to the RFI specifically, the MoD said that it “will inform the capability of the industrial base in support of this requirement” while cautioning that the RFI “is purely to gain market knowledge and is not the launch of a new procurement”. Responses to the RFI are due by 17:00 on14 November 2025.

On 15 November 2023 a General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) Mojave became the largest uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) ever to be operated from a UK Royal Navy aircraft carrier when one took off from and landed back on the carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The Mojave, however, is powered by a turboprop and the jet-powered ACP envisaged by Project Vanquish is likely to be an even larger airframe.