An RAF drone has been used to track Russian warships in the Channel, marking a “step change” in the UK’s ability to monitor aggression from Moscow.
The unarmed Protector RG1 flew over the English Channel for more than 10 hours, providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance of nearby Russian vessels this month.
The incident marked the first time an RAF remotely piloted aircraft has been deployed operationally in the Channel, working alongside Royal Navy warships and helicopters, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.
Between late September and mid-October, the drone and a group of Navy assets – including a warship which The i Paper embedded on – monitored Russian naval activity in the Channel, North Sea and waters west of Scotland.
More than 170 “shadow fleet” vessels passed near or through UK waters this summer, with a Russian presence in the Channel almost every day this summer, analysis by The i Paper previously revealed.
Royal Navy monitoring of Russian movements has increased by 25 per cent during the first seven months of this year compared with the same period in 2025.
One tanker, similar to this one pictured by the drone, was seized by UK forces earlier this year as it passed through the Channel. Copyright: UK MOD CROWN COPYRIGHT 2026 The remotely piloted aircraft tracked Russian vessels, such as this one, for more than 10 hours (Photo: UK MoD)The British military is working to better integrate drones into its forces, largely in response to the war in Ukraine which has been dominated by uncrewed systems.
The shadow fleet of sanctioned vessels has been a lifeline for Russia’s war effort by allowing illicit oil supplies to be sold internationally.
As well as tracking the tankers, British forces boarded and seized a sanctioned Russian oil tanker in the Channel in the first operation of its kind this year.
The seizure was the first time Britain has led an interdiction of a shadow fleet vessel in its own waters, after months in which UK assets had supported similar operations by allies.
The Navy is currently testing out using uncrewed boats to track and monitor submarines, and adopting autonomous mine-hunting systems, while the Army is developing drones to gather intelligence.
Defence Secretary, Wes Streeting, said the recent operation showed how the forces “are constantly innovating to monitor and deter threats and irresponsible provocation”, while a defence insider said it marked a “step change” in the UK’s ability to monitor the Russian threat.
Russian tankers have been passing through the English Channel and around the UK’s shores as part of Putin’s illicit oil trade (Photo: UK MoD) The Russian navy often escorts the sanctioned oil tankers across the globe (Photo: UK MoD)Sam Cranny-Evans, an associate fellow at defence think-tank Rusi, said this could allow the forces to monitor the Channel in more cost-effective way.
“Normally, you’d have flights of P-8s, they run orbits over the area, swapping aircraft every few hours,” he said. “Using a drone provides a similar capability but potentially at lower cost.
“If you measure the area of the Channel – around 75,000 sq km – that’s an immense area to search and watch. The North Sea is far bigger. The forces currently use a bunch of different sensors to track subs, but can still lose them.
The use of a drone to monitor Russian warships, such as this one, is ‘really valuable’ when compared to manned patrol and reconnaissance aircraft (Photo: UK MoD)“So, a drone that can loiter for hours on end is really valuable – you can in theory swap out the crews to bring in fresh eyes when they’re tired, fill in gaps during other rotations and so on. It’s a good use of equipment.”
Cranny-Evans also suggested this may help boster the military’s image to the Russians – but would not solve all of the forces’ problems.
Russia is “probably aware that our anti-submarine assets are stretched thin and that the Royal Navy is struggling to cover all of its bases from several directions – crew, vessels, funding, etc,” he said.
“So, the RH1 provides a useful addition that maybe has less of a resource constraint than some other things. But the Navy is still in a pretty dire state, this doesn’t change that.”
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