UK defence plan confirms early retirement of Shadow spy planes linked to Broughton jobs
The UK Government has confirmed the early retirement of the Shadow R1 spy plane fleet, ending a programme that supported hundreds of jobs at Raytheon UK’s facility in Broughton.
The confirmation appears in the UK Defence Investment Plan published on Tuesday, which sets out how £298 billion of defence spending will be allocated over the next four years.
The accompanying 81-page Strategic Defence Review document contains a single line on the subject: the Shadow R1 intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft will face early retirement as part of a reset of the programme.
The MoD cancelled the Shadow Mk2 upgrade programme in November 2025, citing cost overruns, schedule delays and a failure to meet armed forces requirements.
The upgrade work was being carried out by Raytheon UK at its Broughton site.
The Broughton facility had been central to the Shadow programme for years.
In 2019, Raytheon UK won a £250 million MoD contract to provide 11 years of support and sustainment services to the Shadow fleet at the site.
The contract was said at the time to create 200 full-time jobs in north Wales and sustain a further 250 in the supply chain.
A further £110 million contract followed in 2021 to upgrade the fleet from six airframes to eight and fit an improved defensive aids system.
In March 2023, Raytheon UK announced it had passed a critical design review on that work, on schedule and on budget.
The company said the contract had helped secure 150 skilled jobs at Broughton.
Less than three years later, the programme was cancelled.
The first upgraded aircraft had originally been due by June 2023.
Delivery slipped to 2024, then 2025, then into 2026. Defence Minister Luke Pollard cited late delivery and what he described as unacceptable cost escalations.
Two partially converted aircraft at the Broughton facility were not expected to return to service and are to be used for parts.
The Defence Investment Plan says the MoD intends to replace manned ISR aircraft with uncrewed drone platforms for long-term intelligence gathering.
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