UK MoD reveals Watchkeeper spy-drone numbers

The UK's MoD, after a sustained campaign of nagging by the Reg defence desk, has revealed how many robot surveillance planes the UK forces will receive under the Watchkeeper programme.

The original MoD position was that the number couldn't be released "for operational reasons", and indeed the project webpage is still sticking to that at the time of writing.

However, the Reg pointed out that this line of reasoning could just as well apply to jet fighters, personnel numbers, or indeed almost any military information at all. Theoretically, that would be great, as the UK's enemies would then know nothing about the British military, but it would also mean that the taxpayers who cough up for it all had no idea how their money was being spent.

The UK Watchkeeper drone, expected to arrive in 2010
Rather refreshingly, the MoD conceded this point, and sources there revealed today that the £800m Watchkeeper project will deliver 54 aircraft to the British Army. In very broad-brush terms, then, each Watchkeeper will cost the taxpayers £15m. The Register