This page contains a selection of responses from Ministry of Defence (MoD) and other public authorities following Freedom of Information requests submitted by Drone Wars UK on issues related to drone warfare.
Section A contains a selection of responses to questions on various specific topics as detailed, while Section B contains responses to our regular requests for statistical information on UK use of Reaper drones in Iraq and Syria (Operation Shader), and previously, Afghanistan (Operation Herrick). If you have any questions, drop us a line at office[at]dronewars.net.
Last updated: Feb 2023
Section A: Requests by topic (chronological order)
| Date | Brief summary of information request | Released? Y/N | Response date / Reference |
| 17 Feb 2023 | Total budget for the 2022-23 for projects within MoD’s Science and Technology portfolio relating to human augmentation | Yes | 23 Feb 2023 FOI2023/02133 |
| 04 Jan 2023 | Titles of all in-house projects and contracts for external research within DSTL’s ‘Human Augmentation’ project area | Part | 23 Feb 2023 FOI2023/00206 |
| 28 Nov 2022 | Which nations involve din MQ-9B International Co-operation Programme (MICP) and cost of Project Mosquito | Yes | 19 Dec 2022 FOI2022/14134 |
| 17 Mar 2022 | DSTL’s ethical framework for conducting research into artificial intelligence. | Part | 25 Mar 2022 FOI 2021/15482 |
| 24 Feb 2022 | Personnel and inventory of RAF 216 Squadron | Part | 25 Mar 2022 FOI2022-02472 |
| 16 Feb 2022 | Accidents involving UK Reaper and Watchkeeper drones since July 2021. No of Reapers and Watchkeepers in service at 1 Jan 2022 | Yes | 16 Feb 2022 FOI2022-00900 |
| 06 Oct 2021 | Details of further UK strikes revealed by weapons use stats but not published | Yes | 27 Oct 2021 FOI2021-11339 |
| 23 Aug 2021 | Details of UK strikes revealed by weapons use stats but not published | Yes | 22 Sept 2021 FOI2021-09384 |
| 10 Aug 2021 | Forecast or estimated net additional costs for Counter-Daesh activity in Iraq and Syria are for 2020-21 | No | 2 Sep 2021 FOI2021/08687 |
| 09 Jul 2021 | Accidents involving UK Reaper and Watchkeeper drones since Dec 2020. No of Reapers and Watchkeepers in service at 1 July 2020 | Yes | 2 Aug 2021 FOI2021/07434 |
| 05 Jul 2021 | Operators authorised to fly UAVs BVLOS in UK | Yes | 28 Jul 2021 F0005338 |
| 06 May 2021 | No. of Australian personnel flown UK Reapers/launched strikes. No. of contractors involved in launch and recovery of UK Reapers | No | 4 Jun 2021 FOI2021/04833 |
| 02 Feb 2021 | Sorties/hours flown by TEKEVER AR5 for UK Border Force in 2020 | No Appealed |
17 May 2021 FoI63259 |
| 02 Feb 2021 | Sorties/hours flown by Watchkeeper for UK Border Force between Nov 20 and Jan 21 | Yes | 22 Feb 2021 FOI2021/01218 |
| 04 Dec 2020 | Details of small drones deployed with British forces to Mali | Part | 18 Dec 2020 FOI2020/13361 |
| 20 Nov 2020 | Sorties/hours flown by Watchkeeper for UK Border Force in Oct 2020 | Yes | 04 Dec 2020 FOI2020/12813 |
| 18 Nov 2020 | Accidents involving UK Reaper and Watchkeeper drones since Oct 2019 | Yes | 15 Dec 2020 FoI2020/12693 |
| 12 Oct 2020 | Presentations by RAF officers on Protector at conference in Sep 2020 | Yes | 04 Nov 2020: FOI2020/11381 |
| 01 Oct 2020 | Sorties/hours flown by Watchkeeper for UK Border Force since Aug 2020 | Yes | 14 Oct 2020: FOI2020/11074 |
| 06 Aug 2020 | Applications to fly UAVS beyond visual line of sight in UK since Jan 2019 | No | 20 Oct 2020: FOIA/F0004891 |
| 03 Mar 2020 | Presentations by RAF officers on Protector at conference in Oct 2019 | Yes | 26 Mar 2020: FOI2020/03095 |
| 17 Feb 2020 | Evaluations of Autonomous Warrior exercise 2018 | Yes | 16 Apr 2020: FOI2020/02365 |
| 14 Feb 2020 | Various presentations at RAF RPAS Conference in Feb 2020 | Yes | 13 Mar 2020: FOI2020/02207 |
| 02 Jan 2020 | No. of sorties and location flown by UK Reaper outside Op Shader in 2019 | No Appealed |
04 Jan 2021 IC-39378-S8W1 |
| 20 Dec 2019 | Costs of RAF Reaper programme | Yes | 21 Jan 2020: FOI2019/13737 |
| 18 Dec 2019 | RAF Reaper personnel embedded in USAF | Some | 17 Mar 2020: FOI2019/13169 |
| 18 Nov 2019 | ‘Predictive cognitive control system’ trial at RAF Wyton | No | 10 Feb 2020: FOI2019/12999 |
| 29 Aug 2019 | UK UAV accidents since 1 Jan 2015 | Yes | 24 Oct 2019: FOI2019/09914 |
| 15 May 2019 | Presentation by RAF officer at conference in April 2019 | Yes | 13 Jun 2019: FOI2019/05834 |
| 06 Feb 2019 | Communication links with RAF Reaper UAVs | Some | 06 Mar 2019: FOI2019/1625 |
| 10 Jan 2019 | Number of UK Reapers currently in US and purpose | Yes | 06 Feb 2019: FOI2019/0464(114) |
| 04 Dec 2018 | No. of hours flown by each Reaper airframe | No | 07 Jan 2019: FOI2018/15539 |
| 10 May 2018 | No. of RAF Reaper personnel / No. trained over past 5 years | No | 14 Dec 2018: FOI2018/06361 |
| 21 Feb 2018 | UK involvement in killing of Naweed Hussain | No | 23 Mar 2018: FOI2018/02711 |
| 21 Sep 2017 | Correspondence between MoD and CAA on Protector | Yes | 22 Dec 2017: FOI2017/02711 |
| 03 Mar 2017 | No. of Reaper mission reports detailing miss distance | No | 03 Apr 2017: FOI2017/02931 |
| 29 Jun 2016 | Skynet 5A and use of UAVs | Yes | 29 Jun 2016: FOI2016/05753 |
| 13 May 2016 | No. of 2015 strikes launched under dynamic process | Yes | 14 Jun 2016: FOI2016/05126 |
| 01 Mar 2016 | No. of RAF Reapers deployed / location of Reaper fleet | No | 15 Aug 2017: FTT: EA/2016/0290 |
| 22 Sep 2016 | Blank copy of Mission Report and Missile Firing Report Forms | Yes | 20 Oct 2015: FOI2015/08213 |
| 05 Aug 2015 | Difference between UK and Coalition’s definition of ‘strike’ | Yes | 02 Sep 2015: FOI2015/07034 |
| 10 Jul 2015 | No. of times Reaper laser designated targets for others | No | 07 Aug 2015: FOI2015/06171 |
| 26 Nov 2014 | Where Reaper relocated following Afghanistan exit | Yes | 19 Dec 2014: FOI2014/07575 |
| 11 Mar 2014 | Data held on strike on ‘high value’ insurgent on 25 Feb 2012 | No | 08 Apr 2014: FOI2014/151308 |
Section B: Requests for statistical information on use of Reaper drones
Operation Shader (Iraq and Syria), Oct 2014 – present.
| Date of FoI request | Period covered | Date of / link to response |
| 3 Oct 2022 | Jul – Sep2022 | 31 Oct 2022 |
| 20 Jul 2022 | Apr – Jun 2022 | 10 Aug 2022 |
| 14 Apr 2022 | Jan – Mar 2022 | 10 May 2022 |
| 4 Jan 2021 | Oct – Dec 2021 | 26 Jan 2022 |
| 4 Oct 2021 | Jul – Sept 2021 | 28 Oct 2021 |
| 1 Jul 2021 | Apr – Jun 2021 | 20 Jul 2021 |
| 6 Apr 2021 | Jan – Mar 2021 | 27 Apr 2021 |
| 4 Jan 2021 | Oct – Dec 2020 | 29 Jan 2021 |
| 1 Oct 2020 | Jul – Sep 2020 | 29 Oct 2020 |
| 2 Jul 2020 | Apr – Jun 2020 | 12 Aug 2020 |
| 1 Apr 2020 | Jan – Mar 2020 | 15 May 2020 |
| 2 Jan 2020 | Oct – Dec 19 | 17 Feb 2020 |
| 1 Oct 2019 | Jul – Sep 19 | 29 Oct 2019 |
| 1 Jul 2019 | Apr – Jun 2019 | 13 Aug 2019 |
| 1 Apr 2019 | Jan – Mar 2019 | 1 May 2019 |
| 10 Jan 2019 | Oct – Dec 2018 | 6 Feb 2019 |
| 1 Oct 2018 | Jul – Sep 2018 | 16 Nov 2018 |
| 16 Jul 2018 | Apr – Jun 2018 | 16 Nov 2018 |
| 3 Apr 2018 | Jan – Mar 2018 | 1 May 2018 |
| 3 Jan 2018 | Oct – Dec 2017 | 15 Feb 2018 |
| 5 Oct 2017 | Jul – Sep 2017; Aug 2014 – Sep 2017 |
23 Jan 2018 |
| 5 Jul 2017 | Jan – Jun 2017 | 10 Aug 2017 |
| 10 May 2017 | Jan – Mar 2017 | 19 May 2017 |
| 5 Apr 2017 | Jan – Mar 2017 | 9 May 2017 |
| 3 Jan 2017 | Jan 2016 – Dec 2016 | 23 Feb 2017 |
| 3 Oct 2016 | Jun – Sep 2016 | 31 Oct 2016 |
| 1 Jul 2016 | Apr – Jun 2016 Sep 2014 – Mar 2015 |
2 Aug 2016 |
| 13 May 2016 | Sep 2014 – Mar 2015 | 14 June 2016 |
| 29 Apr 2016 | Jan – Mar 2016 | 11 May 2016 |
| 1 Apr 2016 | Jan – Mar 2016 | 29 April 2016 |
| 4 Jan 2016 | Oct – Dec 2015 | 1 Feb 2016 |
| 1 Oct 2015 | Aug 2014 – Sep 2015 | 12 Nov 2015 |
| 1 Jul 2015 | Apr – Jun 2015 | 4 Aug 2015 |
| 7 Apr 2015 | Sep 2014 – Mar 2015 | 14 May 2015 |
| 3 Jan 2015 | Oct – Dec 2014 | 3 Feb 2015 |
| 3 Nov 2014 | Oct – Nov 2014 | 26 Nov 2014 |
Operation Herrick (Afghanistan) – Statistical information
| Date of FoI request | Period covered | Date and link to response |
| 12 Dec 2014 | Nov 2014 | 15 Jan 2015 |
| 3 Nov 2014 | Jan – Oct 2014 | 19 Dec 2014 |
| 16 Sep 2014 | May – Aug 2014 | 14 Oct 2014 |
| 20 Jun 2014 | 2008 – 2014 | 5 Aug 2014 |
| 9 May 2014 | Jan – Apr 2014 | 4 Jun 2014 |
| 23 Feb 2014 | Jan – Dec 2013 | 19 Mar 2014 |
| 20 Jan 2014 | 2013 | 31 Jan 2014 |
| 11 Feb 2013 | 2008 – 2012 | 11 Mar 2013 |
| 26 Nov 2009 | July 2008 – Dec 2009 | 21 Dec 2009 |