A new uncrewed helicopter design from European defense and aerospace company Leonardo has taken flight. The move comes after rival US defense firm Sikorsky revealed a pilotless Black Hawk concept last year.
The British Royal Navy on Friday said “the UK’s first truly autonomous full-size helicopter,” the Proteus, completed its maiden flight.
It said that “British aviation history has been made” and that it is “one of the world’s first full-sized autonomous helicopters.”
The Proteus, rather than having a crew in the cockpit or cabin, has sensors and computer systems “driven by cutting-edge software.” Those allow the helicopter to “understand and process its environment, make decisions, and act accordingly,” the Royal Navy said.
A Royal Navy spokesperson told Business Insider that the new design is “a one-off prototype/demonstrator,” explaining that “the Navy and Leonardo will use it for trials and experimentation, but it’s not a production-line machine for everyday usage.”
The navy said in its announcement that Proteus “will serve as a testbed for future hybrid air wings.” It described the helicopter as a step toward having uncrewed aircraft operate alongside crewed platforms.
The Royal Navy operates drones, such as octocopters made by Malloy Aeronautics that can carry supplies between ships, and the Peregrine, which is a “scaled-down helicopter” that does surveillance missions. But, it said, Proteus “eclipses them in terms of size, complexity and above all autonomy.”
Lockheed Martin subsidiary Sikorsky, a key competitor in the helicopter space, unveiled the autonomous U-Hawk, a new uncrewed Black Hawk helicopter, last October.
Pentagon commitments to more autonomous aerial weaponry have pushed US defense companies, both the major players and startups, into intensifying competition to build these systems.
This desire for change is clear in the helicopter space: US Army leadership told Business Insider in July that it wants to invert the current ratio, going to 90% drone and 10% crewed.
Efforts to develop this technology extend beyond the US though, as the Proteus flight shows.
The UK’s autonomous future
The helicopter was designed and built by Leonardo to “unlock the potential of uncrewed aerial systems,” the Royal Navy said.
The aim, it said, is to operate these types of systems alongside crewed aircraft in a “hybrid air wing” combining crewed aircraft, be it traditional rotary wing aircraft or fighter jets, and cheaper autonomous systems like drones.
Leonardo said that the Proteus helicopter concept was designed with a large modular payload bay that can carry two standard NATO pallet loads and that it can perform a host of missions ranging from anti-submarine warfare to airborne early warning. The company said that “with this multi-role design, a single aircraft type can address multiple mission objectives cost-effectively.”
Aircraft like this could play a role in the UK’s future anti-submarine warfare plans under Atlantic Bastion, a new strategy aimed at countering Russian undersea threats. Britain is pushing toward a hybrid naval force designed to detect and respond to submarines and other technologies targeting critical seabed infrastructure.
During its maiden flight, Proteus made two short flights, operating from the Predannack airfield in Cornwall, in the southwest of England, the Royal Navy said.
It said Leonardo, which developed Proteus under a roughly $80 million program, had done ground tests on the helicopter’s sensors and engines weeks prior.
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