Farnborough 2026: RAF to fly Brontanax CCA demonstrator in 2027
The UK revealed its Brontanax CCA demonstrator at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026. The BAE Systems unmanned aerial vehicle will inform the RAF's future Storm Fighter programme to field an operational capability for the early 2030s. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
The UK Royal Air Force (RAF) is to fly a collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) demonstrator in 2027, ahead of plans to field an operational capability at the tun of the decade under its recently announced Storm Fighter programme. Named Brontanax (a compound word derived from Ancient Greek for Thunder King), the demonstrator is already built at BAE Systems' Warton facility in northern England.
Speaking to Janes and other defence media at the Farnborough International Airshow 2026, a senior service official who declined to be identified said that the Brontanax CCA demonstrator has been made possible by the UK government's increased funding for unmanned technologies in general and CCAs in particular, as set out in the Defence Investment Plan (DIP) published on 2 July 2026.
“We are flying a CCA capability next year - that is the Chief of the Air Staff's [CAS's] direction, and that is exactly what we are working to do,” the official said ahead of the 22 July 2026 unveiling of the demonstrator by UK Secretary of State for Defence, Wes Streeting, adding, “The volume of money that's allocated [to CCAs] in the DIP – GBP300 million [USD401 million] – is not an insignificant amount of investment.”
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