Honeywell has announced Kestrel, a new compact Embedded GNSS/INS (EGI) navigation system designed for uncrewed aerial systems operating in GPS-jammed and spoofed environments. The system is aimed squarely at the Group 2 and 3 drone market, including collaborative combat aircraft and loitering munitions platforms, where size, weight, cost, and resilience in contested environments are the defining requirements.
The performance claims are significant. Kestrel is 40% smaller and lighter than comparable navigation products, delivers up to 80% improvement in navigation accuracy for uncrewed platforms, reduces costs by as much as 50%, and cuts UAS attrition by 60% while more than doubling mission distance capability. For operators scaling drone deployments at volume, that cost reduction is as relevant as the technical performance.
The system combines Honeywell’s HG3900 MEMS Inertial Measurement Unit with an M-code receiver and multi-GNSS receiver, providing continuous, self-contained position, velocity and attitude estimates independent of external signals. Honeywell has produced more than 60,000 EGI units since the mid-1990s, giving Kestrel a mature technology foundation rather than a clean-sheet development risk profile.
For the UK defence supply chain, Kestrel is relevant in several ways. GPS-denied navigation is a stated UK capability priority, with the MoD’s drone investment programme and the newly opened DroneTEX facility in Swindon both focused on platforms that can operate in contested environments. Honeywell has confirmed Kestrel will be available in configurations supporting international and non-ITAR deployments, removing a significant barrier for UK programmes and export-linked supply chains.
The broader market signal is also worth noting. As SPARC AI, Q5D and now Honeywell all bring contested-environment drone capabilities to market within the same week, the GPS-denied navigation and drone manufacturing supply chain is clearly accelerating. UK integrators, platform developers, and system primes working in this space should be mapping these new component-level capabilities against their own programme requirements now.
