In an unprecedented test, a Remote Carrier drone was launched and controlled from an Airbus A400M military freighter. The operation is part of European FCAS project, which seeks to create a 6th Generation fighter and family of air combat systems.
According to the manufacturer, the t operation involved the German Armed Forces (Bundeswehr), the German Aerospace Center and the German companies SFL and Geradts.
“The excellent collaboration with our German customers and partners on the A400M UAV Launcher campaign is further proof of how the FCAS development will take innovation and technologies to the next level,” said Airbus Defense and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn. “FCAS as a system of systems is starting to take shape now.”
The device for launching Remote Carriers from a flying A400M was developed in just six months. For the test flight, it was loaded onto the ramp of a Luftwaffe A400M, from which the Remote Carrier demonstrator, a modified Airbus Do-DT25 drone, was launched. After launch, the Do-DT25's engines were started and it continued in powered flight mode. being controlled from within the A400 itself. The crew aboard the A400M then handed over control to an operator on the ground, who safely commandeered and landed the drone.
Remote Carriers will be an important component of FCAS. They will fly in close cooperation with manned aircraft and pilots in their tasks and missions. Military transport aircraft like the A400M will play an important role: as motherships, they will bring the Remote Carriers as close as possible to their areas of operation before relea to 50 small or up to 12 heavy Remote Carriers. These will then manned aircraft, operating with a high degree of automation although always under the control of a pilot.
Preparing the A400M UAV Launcher for testing
To prepare the A400M UAV Launcher for the test campaign, Airbus, the Technical Center for Aircraft and Aeronautical Equipment of the Bundeswehr (WTD 61), DLR, SFL and Geradts applied new ways of working such as rapid prototyping and a test case approach. t flight.
This allowed the multidisciplinary team to develop and integrate the system, bringing it into the context of required systems of systems in a very short time, ready for flight testing. Throughout development, this flexible industrial setup and new collaborative ways of working were ed by the German purchasing office, BAAINBw.
With information Airbus Defense and Space
