Australia makes another order for Boeing’s Loyal Wingman drones after a successful first flight
By Valerie Insinna, Defense News, March 2, 2021
Boeing's Airpower Teaming System conducts its maiden flight on March 1, 2021 over Australia. (Royal Australian Air Force) WASHINGTON — The Royal Australian Air Force on Tuesday signed a $115 million contract to buy three more autonomous “Loyal Wingman” drones from Boeing, raising its total order to six aircraft just days after the first system made its inaugural flight.
Following a series of ground tests to validate its navigation and pilot
control systems, the first Loyal Wingman — which Boeing also calls the
Airpower Teaming System — took flight from Woomera Range Complex in
South Australia on Feb. 27, the company announced on Monday.
During the flight, the aircraft followed a preplanned route where the
vehicle flew at different speeds and altitudes. The drone was monitored
by a Boeing test pilot located on site.
“Most of the interaction by the human is really in mission planning,”
said Shane Arnott, Boeing’s ATS program director. “The test pilot was in
the loop throughout. He gave commands at each phase, if you will —taxi,
takeoff, return … it’s almost as simple as that.”
Eventually, the Loyal Wingman will be able to fly autonomously with
manned fighter jets, and may even use artificial intelligence in order
to respond to new information on the battlefield. However, for this
first flight, testing the drone’s AI capabilities was not a major
priority, Arnott said.
In a statement, RAAF Air Vice-Marshal Cath Roberts, Australia’s head of
air force capability, called the first flight a significant step
forward for the program.
“The Loyal Wingman project is a pathfinder for the integration of
autonomous systems and artificial intelligence to create smart
human-machine teams,” she said. “Through this project we are learning
how to integrate these new capabilities to complement and extend air
combat and other missions.”
The Loyal Wingman air vehicle is 38 feet long and has a 24 foot
wingspan, with a removable nose that can be packed with mission-specific
sensors and other payloads. It can fly at a range in excess of 2,000
nautical miles.
The ATS is the “first military combat aircraft to be designed,
engineered and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years,”
according to Boeing. More than 35 Australian companies, including BAE
Systems Australia, RUAG Australia, AME Systems and Ferra Engineering,
are involved in the production of the aircraft.
Loyal Wingman First Flight, DOD Australia, Mar.2, 2021 VIDEO
Boeing rolled out the first ATS system in May 2020, and has other
aircraft in development. Arnott declined to discuss future tests of the
system or when the six systems would be delivered to the RAAF.
Soon Australia won’t be the only air force operating the system. The
air vehicle also serves as the basis for Boeing’s entrant in the Skyborg
program for the U.S. Air Force, said Jerad Hayes, Boeing’s senior
director of autonomous aviation and technology.
“We’re leveraging a common core across all of the programs,” Hayes
said. What’s different, he added, will be the specific mission equipment
— items like communications gear and sensors.
Boeing has multiple payloads in development for different customers, said Arnott, who declined to give further details.
In December, the U.S. Air Force awarded Boeing, General Atomics and Kratos contracts to produce air vehicles for the Skyborg program
, which seeks to create a low-cost, artificially intelligent,
autonomous drone that can perform missions in contested environments
alongside fighter aircraft.
At the time, Boeing received $25.7 million for a two-year period of
performance. The Air Force has stated that first prototypes will be
received from the vendors no later than May for initial flight
experiments beginning in July.
Hayes declined to say whether the aircraft would be delivered by May,
but said “the aircraft will be available in time to support the
milestone events as part of the Skyborg program.”
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