Loyal Wingman

Boeing Australia is looking to answer the question through the Loyal Wingman programme, a snappier moniker for what’s officially known as the Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS).

Working collaboratively with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), the company has marked a major milestone with the completion of the first major fuselage structural assembly for the first of three prototypes.

The fighter-sized unmanned system will act as the eponymous loyal wingman to high value targets such as the P-8A Poseidon and E-7A Wedgetail.

Beyond such roles, it is envisaged that the ATS system will also provide support to RAAF combat aircraft like the fifth-generation F-35A or the F/A-18F — all of which serve part of the RAAF inventory with potential customers also using similar platform combinations.

The essential concept is that a number of the fighter-sized ATS aircraft will be able to act in lockstep with a single manned air asset, providing greater depth and capability, while removing pilot risk in hostile threat environments.

At some 11 metres in length, the air vehicle is about the size of an F-16, has a range of more than 1600nm, giving it a four-to-five-hour combat endurance, well beyond that of a similarly sized manned fighter.

Boeing Australia has used digital engineering and advanced composite materials and construction to achieve radar cross-section signature management and provide low observability shaping, while driving costs down through commercial and military-off-the-shelf components.

The next major milestone for the program will be weight on wheels when the fuselage structure moves from the assembly jig to the aircraft’s own landing gear to continue systems installation and functional testing.

The prototype is expected to complete its first flight this year.

Australia’s aviation industry is a loyal wingman in Loyal Wingman

Plans for the ATS, the first high-performance military aircraft designed and built in Australia in more than 50 years, were first revealed at the Australian International Airshow at Avalon in February 2019.

The then-minister for defence, Christopher Pyne, said there was significant value in investing in innovative, future leaning initiatives like Loyal Wingman, particularly in the early conceptual stages where the Australian Department of Defence could explore concepts and define the role that these capabilities can play in the country’s national security framework.

“This (is) Boeing’s first unmanned aircraft designed and engineered in Australia and represents the company’s largest investment of its kind outside of the United States,” he said.

Loyal Wingman has been developed in conjunction with the RAAF and the Defence Science and Technology (DST) Group.

The first Loyal Wingman prototype will provide key lessons towards production of the ATS, which Boeing Australia has developed for the global defence market as well as domestic applications with the RAAF.

Dr Shane Arnott, program director, Boeing Airpower Teaming System (ATS) – and winner of the Defence Connect Excellence Award at the Australian Defence Industry Awards 2019 for his work on Loyal Wingman – welcomed the milestone, observing how industry participation had been critical to the program’s rapid development.

Indeed, the joint working from several local companies, as well as Australian subsidiaries of global firms, suggests not just a new model of warfighting but of industrial cooperation in the high-technology arena.

BAE Systems Australia delivered hardware kits, including flight control computers and navigation equipment. RUAG Australia built the landing gear system.

Ferra Engineering supports the programme with precision machine components and sub-assemblies, while AME Systems provides wiring looms to support the vehicle.

And it’s not just the industry that benefits from working closely together: the Air Force gains a greater understanding of the capabilities, limitations, strengths and weaknesses of this and successive generations of UAV technology.

Air Commodore Darren Goldie, RAAF director-general of air combat capability, says the partnership with Boeing was central to building the Air Force’s “understanding of not just the operational implications for these sorts of vehicles, but also making us a smart customer as we consider options for manned-unmanned teaming in the coming decade”

The first Loyal Wingman prototype will provide key lessons towards production of the ATS

Revitalising Australian defence capabilities is a step change that could be usefully replicated elsewhere

Building a platform like ATS for export potential is a big turnaround for a local industry that ceased making military aircraft decades ago.

Designed by Boeing Phantom Works in Brisbane, the company’s largest advanced concept development office outside of the US, Loyal Wingman is the first high-performance combat aircraft of Australian origin built since the Jindivik drone of the 1950s.

Phantom Works has a team of over 200 engineers and support staff in Australia.

According to Boeing, Australia is ideally placed to develop such a capability due to its expertise in the various engineering fields, as well as its vast airspace, government’s openness to support a national defence industry, and the airspace regulator’s progressive view towards unmanned systems.

It is expected that international customers will be able to tailor ATS sensors and systems based on their unique defence and industrial objectives.

BAE Systems Australia chief executive Gabby Costigan says the company was proud to be working with Boeing in Australia to bring a new defence capability to life, “one that offers enormous potential for the RAAF as well as future export markets.”

Costigan noted that her company will support the program with an unmanned flight vehicle management solution, flight vehicle simulation capability as well as delivering flight control computers and navigation equipment.

The integration of these capabilities, along with Boeing’s autonomous mission systems, brings together the two leading Australian companies in this technology area.

Earlier versions of the technologies used for this project have already supported Australian and UK autonomy programs such as Taranis, Mantis and Kingfisher UAS demonstrators.

More recently, they have been integrated in some M113 armoured vehicles in support of the Australian Army robotics and autonomous systems strategy activities.

Boeing’s investment in Australia’s R&D and advanced manufacturing capability makes a major step change in the way multinational aerospace and defence companies do business.

Additionally, the seemingly seamless collaboration between the Department of Defence and Boeing serves as an invaluable model for building robust, mutually beneficial commercial relationships.

Moving forward, the lessons learned through such levels of collaboration will inform civilian aerospace industries providing an opportunity for greater technology crosspollination, driving down costs and supporting innovation — worldwide.