Overview
- Lieutenant Commander Adrian “AJ” Hill received a Green Endorsement, the highest aviation safety award used by the Fleet Air Arm and RAF, marking the first time it has gone to a drone operator.
- During a two-and-a-half-hour maritime security patrol in the Gulf of Oman, the Peregrine was hovering about 60 feet astern of HMS Lancaster when a computer error triggered a rapid descent to within one to two feet of the sea.
- Hill switched the aircraft from autonomous to manual control, arrested the drop, climbed to a safe height, and then landed on the flight deck, an action he described as pressing three buttons in sequence followed by full-up control input.
- No personnel were at risk, but the recovery averted the potential loss of a scarce £2.5 million sensor platform and a major hit to the ship’s operational capability, with two Culdrose-based engineers witnessing the landing.
- Peregrine is the Royal Navy designation for the 200 kg Schiebel S-100 Camcopter and was still in testing aboard Lancaster; Navy Lookout reports the RN has only two aircraft and notes Lancaster’s December 2025 decommissioning with future OPV deployments being considered.