Boeing Co and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) yesterday said they had completed the first flight test on a pilotless fighter-like jet designed to operate in conjunction with crewed aircraft.
The “Loyal Wingman,” the first military aircraft to be designed and manufactured in Australia in more than 50 years, made its first flight on Saturday under the supervision of a Boeing test pilot monitoring it from a ground control station in South Australia.
The Loyal Wingman is 11.6m long, has a 2,000 nautical mile (3,704km) range and a nose that can be outfitted with various payloads. It can also carry weapons and act as a shield to help protect more expensive crewed fighter jets.
Photo: Reuters
The US Air Force in December awarded multimillion dollar contracts to Boeing, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems and Kratos Defense and Security Solutions to produce uncrewed aerial prototypes that can team with crewed jets.
“The airpower teaming system is the basis for our Skyborg bid,” Boeing airpower teaming program director Shane Arnott told reporters. “Obviously, the US market is a big market. That is a focus for us, achieving some sort of contract or program of record in the United States.”
Defense contractors are investing increasingly in autonomous technology as militaries around the world look for cheaper and safer ways to maximize their resources.
Australia, a staunch US ally, is home to Boeing’s largest footprint outside the US and has vast airspace with relatively low traffic for flight testing.
The Australian government yesterday said it would invest a further A$115 million (US$89.7 million) to acquire three more Loyal Wingman aircraft for the RAAF to develop tactics for using the jets with crewed planes, on top of its initial investment of A$40 million.
“Our aim with Boeing is to understand how we can get these aircraft to team with our existing aircraft to be a force multiplier in the future,” RAAF Air-Vice Marshal and head of air force capability Cath Roberts said.
Britain in January signed a £30 million (US$41.7 million) contract with the Belfast unit of Spirit AeroSystems for a similar type of pilotless aircraft to have a trial flight in the next three years.
During the test flight in Australia, the Loyal Wingman took off under its own power before flying a predetermined route at different speeds and altitudes to verify its functionality and demonstrate the performance of the design.
Arnott said that three Loyal Wingman aircraft would be used for teaming flights this year and that the Australian government’s order would take the number available to six.
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