UAV updates: Approval milestones, new eVOTLs and autonomous warfare

RAF Protector RG Mk-1 (Photo: GA-ASI)

For anyone out there who has ever worked through a formal process of equipment development for subsequent FAA/military or other national certification, you would likely appreciate the significance of a UAV approval milestone.

General Atomics (GA-ASI) has just provided notice that the Royal Air Force (RAF) Protector RG Mk1 — based on the MQ-9A Reaper unmanned aircraft system (UAS) — has been granted a Military Type Certificate, having demonstrated compliance based on the requirements of STANAG 4671, NATO’s UAS airworthiness standard.

This is big news for the RAF and GA-ASI, which enables this large Class III UAS to fly almost anywhere, without restricting flight over cities and other densely populated areas, and most importantly, facilitating flight within civil airspace. New capabilities that have been added include lightning and fire protection, as well as anti-icing systems. The strong airframe is designed to withstand long-term operational stress and exhibit a level of resilience against the effects of multiple airborne combat missions.

The software and electronic hardware were developed in accordance with current industry standards, which are intended to ensure the safety and reliability of systems. However, overall, GA-ASI has invested more than half a million dollars of its own money over 11 years to achieve this approval. Extensive environmental testing included lengthy, complex static and dynamic load tests, and extensive simulations were undertaken to verify performance over the operating envelope of the aircraft.

If you have ever seen a static ground test rig for stressing and even over-stressing an airframe, the significant number of hydraulic jacks within a massive steel girder enclosure is something to behold. Just building the structure and tuning the electronic systems which drive it, and fixing things on the rig and the airframe as tests progress over many months ^— this is a significant undertaking and investment.  

The RAF has so far taken delivery of 11 of the 16 Protector UAS under order, and this certification is a major milestone on the way toward operational deployment. For General Atomics, this initiative hopes to not only lead to further military organizations purchasing an MTC-qualified UAS but also to open the door for civilian qualification options.

In the meantime, Joby Aviation in Santa Cruz, California, has just achieved a major milestone on the way to civil certification of its electric Vertical Take Off and Landing (eVTOL) passenger aircraft. With orders and sponsorship from Delta, Toyota, Uber and many others, the company is working toward piloted and autonomous flying taxis.

The major event involved an onboard pilot flying the eVTOL from a vertical takeoff through the transition to horizontal, wing-borne flight. This clears a major hurdle along the path to civil certification, enabling FAA pilots to be on board to monitor operations and fly the eVTOL.

The Joby test pilot first flew this production aircraft on April 22, with all the propellers horizontal and lifted off to about 30ft, just as a helicopter would take off. After a brief pause, the engine nacelles were rotated gradually forward and the eVTOL slowly crept forward. Traveling approximately 500 yards, the transition to wing-borne flight occurred as speed increased, and eventually, the climb-out began.

After several repetitions with two other test pilots, the piloted transition process was considered ready for operations and the next chapter was on the way to initial validation testing and air-taxi operations, which will be in Dubai.

Since 2017, Joby has flown a number of its eVTOL aircraft for a total of over 40,000 flight hours, with ground-pilot control, and with an onboard pilot in hover and forward flight. However, the transition phase has never been flown with an onboard pilot in full control. So that means presumably that all previous transitions had been controlled externally from the ground. This puts Joby well on the road to certification — other eVTOL manufacturers have made crewed transitions, but with separate propellers for lift and for forward flight – this is the first with one set of tilting propellers which is a principle operational feature of the Joby eVTOL.

AeroVironment (AV) supplies a wide variety of UAS to the U.S. and other militaries. Nevertheless, the company has recently released information about a new one-way drone, which features enhanced capabilities, bringing forward “new, innovative solutions and improvements,” according to the release. This latest contender is apparently equipped to accept software upgrades throughout its design lifetime to continuously add more capabilities and specializations.

The Red Dragon UAV differs in that it is claimed to be fully autonomous (when circumstances require it) and can navigate in GPS-denied environments.

Given that modern battlefields are an electronic nightmare for GNSS navigation and control/data channels, AV has endowed Red Dragon with a hardened GPS baseline system, augmented by visual navigation, digital scene matching and automatic target recognition, and also using airspeed and laser rangefinder inputs. When necessary, the UAV can continue to track its target without requiring satellite control signals. There is a return link back to the operator, but when that link goes down, Red could proceed alone, or optionally crash-land if targeting doesn’t meet pre-programmed parameters.

Carrying a 5lb charge, Red is not designed to return to its owner, rather to deliver a penetrating destructive explosion. Even if doesn’t self-destruct, no-one wants this package back, its completely disposable. With a 250-mile range flying at 50 mph to 60 mph, the UAV can accelerate at up to 100 mph in the final phase of its attack.

Built simply for ready use in the field and to greatly reduce unit volume manufacturing cost, this new one-way munition may be the result of lessons learned during recent battles – possibly just what forces think they need through the use of already combat-proven attack drones such as the AV Puma and Switchblade. It is reported that Red Dragon may have already experienced actual combat.

To recap, General Atomics’ most recent Reaper variant is now ready to fly almost anywhere with its very own UK MTC certification, Joby’s tilt-rotor eVTOL has cleared the piloted transition hurdle and AeroVironment has released a new kind of loitering munition with autonomy and GPS-denied navigation capability — both military and civilian UAVs at the forefront of unmanned evolution.