Next-generation fighter planes will battle with semi-autonomous wingman drones that will operate as force multipliers. Airbus has just dropped its Remote Carrier demonstration off of a cargo jet for a mid-air launch.
This test is part of Europe’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS) programme, which aims to generate coordinated chaos in the sky by combining sixth-generation fighter planes with swarms of highly automated yet remote-piloted uncrewed aircraft. These stealth drones will be outfitted with mission-specific payloads and weaponry for air-to-ground, air-to-air, recon, intelligence, and electronic warfare scenarios.
Because they are far smaller and less expensive than fighter planes, they are seen as expendable assets and will not have the same long-range flying capabilities as, say, Australia’s Ghost Bat faithful wingman drones. So getting these Remote Carrier drones into the theatre of action through massive military transporters like the A400M Atlas is an important aspect of the FCAS concept. One Atlas may drop up to 50 tiny Remote Carriers close to their location, or 12 bigger “heavy” Remote Carriers.
For the first time, we observe the whole launch procedure. The demonstrator drone under test is not the final Remote Carrier design; rather, it is a modified Airbus Do-DT25 aerial target drone. The launch technique, however, remains the same: the drone is ejected from the cargo hold of the A400M while being remotely controlled by a pilot on board the plane. Once clear of the transport plane, the jet engines are activated.
The airborne crew now passes over control of the powered-up UAV to a ground-based remote pilot, who takes it on a separate mission before landing it at an airfield. The procedure is seen in the video below.
Meanwhile, the United States Air Power is developing its own methods of delivering deadly force using huge cargo planes. Its Rapid Dragon system, dubbed a “bomb bay in a box,” consists of a pallet full of precise bombs that is parachute-dropped out of the cargo bay of unmodified C-17 or C-130 Hercules transports.
As it floats downhill, it releases whatever nasties it’s carrying, which shoot downward and away from the chute before regaining control and departing on whatever autonomous or remote-piloted mission they’ve been assigned.
The technology has previously been demonstrated in a live fire exercise by the USAF. It employed the Rapid Dragon system to fire a Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile in Norway last month. Video of this live firing event is accessible at the Air Force website, but the system is better illustrated in the render video below.
Long Endurance at Medium Altitude (MALE) Zephyr is a European MALE RPAS (Eurodrone) Stratospheric solar powered High Altitude Platform Station (HAPS). Manned-Unmanned Coordination. Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System.
The aircraft is intended for surveillance and communications relay. The vehicle can circle a specific location for lengthy periods of time, with a focus on its civic and military uses as an Earth-observation and communications platform.
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