Leonardo, the Royal Navy and the UK Ministry of Defense’s (MoD’s) Defense Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Innovation (FCI) team have unveiled the design of the Proteus technology demonstrator aircraft.
As informed, the circa three-tonne uncrewed rotorcraft will be used to demonstrate advances in autonomy as well as payload modularity and interchangeability, whilst developing new rotorcraft technologies including design and manufacturing techniques.
According to Leonardo, its development supports the Royal Navy’s ‘Maritime Aviation Transformation’ (MATx) strategy, which covers the evolution of maritime aviation out to 2040. This includes building mass at sea and supporting future anti-submarine warfare missions.
The design of the Proteus technology demonstrator will, reportedly, demonstrate the viability of large uncrewed air system (UAS) in the maritime environment as well as function as a test bed for the development and demonstration of autonomous capability. This includes flight control laws and algorithms for large autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.
The Proteus design features a modular payload bay to enable flexibility in mission roles, including the ability to trade fuel for mission payload. The ability to plug in specific payloads for different missions aims to give commanders in the field a wide range of options from a single type of aircraft, Leonardo said, claiming that this is both operationally useful and delivers value for money by avoiding the need to buy and maintain multiple different fleets of aircraft.
To note, Leonardo’s site in Yeovil, the Home of British Helicopters, is said to maintain an “aggressive autonomy development roadmap,” which covers the capabilities required to conduct autonomous flight and deliver mission capability.
In practice, this means maturing and testing a range of transformative technologies and techniques, for the design and manufacture of rotorcraft as well as on-board the aircraft itself, the company explained, adding that it has created a “digital twin” of the Proteus technology demonstrator to aid in development.
Leonardo also revealed that it is experimenting with the application of new digital manufacturing technologies in rotorcraft production, including additive layer manufacturing (3D printing) and the use of cost-effective low-temperature cure composite materials, which require fewer manufacturing stages in the production of parts.
The Proteus program is expected to see the first flight of the new rotorcraft in mid-2025, following contract award in June 2022.