BAE Systems is underlining its unmanned air system (UAS) capabilities at Farnborough as it shapes up to become a big player in the marketplace.
A new Global UAS Strategy Team has been set up, headed by Mark Kane, to spearhead and co-ordinate its unmanned activities in the UK and around the globe.
Kane is under no doubt about the importance of unmanned systems: “Conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are proving that many dull, dirty and dangerous operations can be done by unmanned systems, and using them means people are kept out of harm’s way.”
BAE Systems anticipates its current customers will be spending $10 billion annually on military UAS within five to six years. The manufacturer is focusing on next-generation UAS, harnessing advanced technologies and autonomous operations. Kane says: “We have skipped a generation, and whereas most current UAVs are remotely piloted or have some automatic functions, ours are fully autonomous. They can take-off, undertake a mission, identify targets and come back entirely on their own.” BAE Systems is making huge claims that it offers considerable through life cost savings over most systems currently in use.
The company has also teamed up with Cranfield Aerospace and the National Flight Laboratory Centre at Cranfield University to develop its UAS technologies. A series of missions have been undertaken using a modified Jetstream commuter airliner, which has been flying without human intervention.
Programme manager Nick Colosimo said: “The Jetstream we use is a surrogate UAV, meaning it has an aircrew on board, and up to now they’ve guided the aircraft through a display in the cockpit that’s acted as a pseudo-flight director. Now we’ve got a way of taking them out of the picture and providing a purer UAV environment by controlling the plane through the mission system and autopilot.” BAE Systems is looking to make greater use of the aircraft in order to test technologies that support UAS operations in the UK airspace integration.
Source: Flight International
