Watch the UK's New £185 Million Military Drone Take Flight

BAE Systems, the British aerospace and defence company, today released a video showing off “the most advanced aircraft ever built by British engineers”. Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, is capable of identifying and hunting down targets, conducting surveillance, and firing a payload of Hellfire missiles. It can even protect itself from enemy aircraft, remaining undetected by enemy radar and all the while looking much sleeker than the Reaper drones we've all got used to.

Demonstrated in the orchestral-scored video above, Taranis successfully completed a take-off, rotation, climb out and landing for its first 15 minute flight. This video was filmed in August 2013 but only released today, and other test flights have apparently taken place, lasting up to an hour. It's all positive steps for a project that has cost £185 million ($300 million), and which has included cooperation from Rolls-Royce and the Ministry of Defense, under the auspices of those with top-secret security clearance.

The MOD is clearly pleased with its latest piece of kit, tweeting that “#Taranis is testament to the UK's world-leading design and technology skills #globalrace”. BAE are equally chuffed with the “stealthy unmanned combat vehicle,” describing Taranis as “inspiration for a nation,” perhaps in the hope that Brits are going to start having drone street parties and hang out the UAV bunting to celebrate.

When Taranis was revealed for the first time last year, many were worried that some of the craft's actions would be carried out autonomously by computer systems, including locating and identifying targets, which is probably why the Ministry of Defense's and BAE's press releases heavily emphasised that, although being an unmanned aircraft, it is still “under the control of a human operator.” So, even though the drone has completed its first test flight and is at least capable of flying and targeting autonomously, its exact outer limits aren't clear.

The potential for the kind of autonomous systems widely reported in relation to Taranis were downplayed in the MOD's press release. Contention arises around the possibility of an autonomous system that could identify its own targets. What if the computers involved in distinguishing friend from foe made a mistake? Is that a choice we want to leave to non-sentient systems?

For this reason and more, a UN report published last year pushed for the banning of lethal autonomous robots. But for now at least, Taranis is only described as "semi-autonomous," and it looks like humans will stay in the loop.

Regardless, the warplane is proof the UK has officially entered the next stage in unmanned vehicles, and that we're one step closer towards fully autonomous combat drones that require no decision making from humans.

Nigel Whitehead, Group Managing Director of BAE Systems summed it up with a dash of national pride: “It truly represents an evolution of everything that has come before it. This milestone confirms the UK's leading position as a centre for engineering excellence and innovation.”