The company is developing plans for aircraft that could support crewed combat aircraft in battle by the end of the decade.
Tony Osborne
BAE Systems believes its two UAS concepts could help air forces address challenges of mass in high-intensity operations. Credit: BAE Systems
BAE Systems has unveiled its vision for a family of uncrewed air vehicles that could accompany current and future generations of crewed combat aircraft into an air battle.
Building on its two decades of investment in uncrewed and autonomous air systems, BAE has developed two modular uncrewed air system (UAS) concepts. One is a potentially expendable rail-launched 300-kg (661-lb.) air vehicle capable of carrying sensors and jammers. The second, a loyal wingman, weapons-capable platform, is the size of an attritable jet trainer and weighs 3.5 metric tons.
Both are aimed at giving commanders greater combat mass for less than a crewed fighter would cost. The family concept was unveiled at the Royal International Air Tattoo at RAF Fairford, England, in mid-July and is separate from BAE’s involvement in the Team Tempest industrial consortium developing technologies for a UK-led future combat aircraft (AW&ST July 11-24, p. 38).
The project is similar to Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat Airpower Teaming System in Australia and remote carrier systems being developed by Airbus, MBDA and a consortium of Spanish companies for the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS). The U.S. has examined the potential of such platforms through its Skyborg initiative, too, and is expected to further develop the capability through its upcoming collaborative combat aircraft projects.
“We think this is a much-needed capability area,” Steve Reeves, BAE System’s head of future systems within the company’s air business, tells Aviation Week. “We see these sorts of vehicles playing an important part of a force mix for many nations going forward, and we believe that we’re best placed to be able to provide those capabilities for UK defense and beyond.”
At the heart of the system is BAE’s autonomous technology, which has been enhanced through development of the Herti and Mantis UAS and the Taranis uncrewed combat air vehicle demonstrator.
BAE expects that the systems will make use of goal-based autonomy. Mission systems onboard platforms will be given “levels of guidance to go and do a task,” Reeves says. “But we won’t prescribe exactly how to do it.”
Although sufficient capability or bandwidth will not be available for a human in the loop to control these platforms at all times, the vehicles will need to operate within a defined set of rules and will not be able to work outside of those rules without referring to the human in the loop, Reeves says.
A critical part of delivering a goal-based capability is what Reeves refers to as “trusted autonomy,” a process that requires what he calls a “mature conversation with customers” to ensure that the systems operate in compliance with policy.
The concept reveal comes weeks after the Royal Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office (RCO) decided to abandon the consortium development of the Mosquito Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) demonstrator being led by Spirit AeroSystems. The RCO concluded that the LANCA efforts would be better focused on advanced uncrewed capabilities on platforms with a more immediate beneficial value (AW&ST July 11-24, p. 44).
While such platforms are largely being developed to meet the timelines of next-generation combat aircraft such as the FCAS or Tempest, BAE says it could deliver such a capability to a customer well before the end of the decade. “This is not meant to be a sixth-generation capability in terms of flying networks or advanced weaponry; these could augment the capability of Typhoon in terms of mass,” Reeves says. “We see this as bridging to sixth-gen and as a building block for the future so that we are better positioned to provide an array of sixth-generation capabilities as and when that time comes.”
UAS Concept 1, the smaller of the two systems, is designed to be reusable but expendable. Conventional in shape and powered by a turbojet engine, the 3-m-long (9.8-ft.) Concept 1 is designed to carry a 40-kg payload that could include sensors, jammers or more kinetic effects. It would fly at around Mach 0.5, suggesting that it might operate ahead of a crewed fighter force, potentially confusing enemy air defenses and clearing a gap for a strike force. Reeves notes that the platform could work with other force elements in addition to combat aircraft. Its rail-launched capability would allow it to be operated from ground vehicles or ships. Recovery would be by parachute.
The larger platform, the 3.5-metric-ton Concept 2, is closer to other loyal wingman platforms being developed. Designed to operate at speeds of about Mach 0.75 with an endurance of around 5 hr., Concept 2 would be more capable of operating alongside crewed combat aircraft. According to Reeves, its size, similar to BAE’s Hawk jet trainer, will allow it to accommodate up to four MBDA Spear 3 air-to-ground cruise missiles or a pair of Meteor beyond-visual-range air-to-air missiles in internal bays. Designed to take off and land conventionally, Concept 2 has more low-observability (LO) features than Concept 1. However, increased LO features potentially push up the price point of the aircraft, Reeves notes.
The cost will depend on the sensor fit of the platforms, but Concept 1 would be priced at less than $1 million per aircraft, while Concept 2 is envisaged to be a fraction of the price of a crewed fighter.
BAE is developing the UAS concepts with internal funding, hoping the proposals will capture the interest of international air forces. “We’re interested in having a discussion with a customer about how they want to progress this,” Reeves says.
Recent events, such as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, have put a spotlight on sovereign defense capabilities and groups of like-minded nations working more closely together. The BAE UAS concepts could appeal to countries wanting a sovereign capability, Reeves suggests. “We think that is going to be a defining feature [of future procurements], and we want to work to deliver that for our global customers,” he says.
