The US Boeing - Australian Loyal Wingman Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicle (UCAV) has been unveiled Avalon Air Show near Melbourne, February 26/27 2019. It is also being called the "Boeing Airpower Teaming System". Their is stiff US, UK and European competition to it.
Loyal Wingman is a fighter sized "drone" that can work with manned aircraft (eg. Australia's
F-35As, P-8A Poseidons, Super Hornets and AEW&C E7 Wedgetail aircraft) and can operate individually as a remote guided drone or as a loitering missile.
Until the February 26/27, 2019 unveiling its development was secret. Joint development is by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australia's DoD, Boeing operating in Brisbane, Australia. Also US Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is involved.
Having no onboard pilot or life-support systems Loyal Wingman's projected range may be twice that of an F-35A with a similar weapons load. Specifications for the prototype are few but Loyal Wingman may be currently 11.7 metres long and have a range of 2,000+ nautical miles (3,700+ km).
Loyal Wingman's uses could include:
- electronic warfare, ie "jamming" which makes F-35s even more difficult to detect
- optical and radar reconnaissance and sigint intercepts
- on remote human orders dropping guided bombs, air to ground missiles, and firing air-to-air
missiles, and as
- a loitering kamikaze "cruise" missile which, with a large warhead, could be ordered to crash itself
into high value targets (hopefully not being 5G hacked to crash into Australian "targets").
As there is no onboard pilot it can operate in higher risk environments, read China and China's SAM armed South China Sea islands. The US could also use it against Russia and Iran.
Apparently no figures on project cost have been published but it is supposed to be Boeing's largest investment in drones outside the US.
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Loyal Wingman is a fighter sized "drone" that can work with manned aircraft (eg. Australia's
F-35As, P-8A Poseidons, Super Hornets and AEW&C E7 Wedgetail aircraft) and can operate individually as a remote guided drone or as a loitering missile.
Until the February 26/27, 2019 unveiling its development was secret. Joint development is by the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Australia's DoD, Boeing operating in Brisbane, Australia. Also US Kratos Defense & Security Solutions is involved.
Having no onboard pilot or life-support systems Loyal Wingman's projected range may be twice that of an F-35A with a similar weapons load. Specifications for the prototype are few but Loyal Wingman may be currently 11.7 metres long and have a range of 2,000+ nautical miles (3,700+ km).
Loyal Wingman's uses could include:
- electronic warfare, ie "jamming" which makes F-35s even more difficult to detect
- optical and radar reconnaissance and sigint intercepts
- on remote human orders dropping guided bombs, air to ground missiles, and firing air-to-air
missiles, and as
- a loitering kamikaze "cruise" missile which, with a large warhead, could be ordered to crash itself
into high value targets (hopefully not being 5G hacked to crash into Australian "targets").
As there is no onboard pilot it can operate in higher risk environments, read China and China's SAM armed South China Sea islands. The US could also use it against Russia and Iran.
Apparently no figures on project cost have been published but it is supposed to be Boeing's largest investment in drones outside the US.
Fullsize mock-up (Courtesy Boeing via FlightGlobal) of Loyal Wingman at Australia's Avalon Air Show (?) February 2019. It looks swept back enough to go supersonic, maybe cruise supersonic(?). Drone maker Kratos Defense & Security Solutions (see Kratos website) is also working with Boeing on Loyal Wingman.
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Artwork of the Loyal Wingman UCAV (Courtesy Boeing and the Australia's DoD via Australia's ABC)
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AUSTRALIA ALSO BUYING OTHER DRONES
Australia is also buying 2 other cutting edge US drone types, including:
- 6 x Triton (Global Hawk derivative large long range, unarmed UAVs) for a $7 Billion project.
The Tritons will be capable of flying over China’s South China Sea islands where (given the
Triton’s unmanned nature) they may be shot down by China in times of tension. and
The Tritons will be capable of flying over China’s South China Sea islands where (given the
Triton’s unmanned nature) they may be shot down by China in times of tension. and
- 12 to 16 x Reaper armed UAVs in a $400 million project. These may be particularly useful to
Australian forces in the perpetual Afghanistan and Middle East conflicts.
It is likely Australia’s purchases of the Reaper, and especially the far more expensive Tritons, eased US Government permissions to transfer highly sensitive Loyal Wingman technical details to Australia.
COMPETITION
As I guess-stimate the Australian domestic market would be less than 100 Loyal Wingmans in the 2020s it will need to be exported to other nations. This is especially to the US Airforce and maybe USN, to be commercially viable and to enjoy the most advanced US software and hardware sensor and avionics upgrades. By restricting Loyal Wingman to Five Eye customers there may, or may not be, some commercial advantage.
Some more technically mature(?) competitors include:
- the USKratosXQ-58 Valkyrie - first flight may be 2019. US Airforce interested. May just beat
Loyal Wingman to market or it may be rolled into the Loyal Wingman Project?
- the US Northrop Grumman X-47B that first flew in 2011. The US Navy has been interested in
using the X-47B for carrier operations.
- US General Atomics Avenger - first flew 2009. Hot competition as General Atomics is already the
popular and trusted Predator A and Reaper builder.
- the British BAE Systems Taranis (aka "Raptor"). France may also supply some components.
Flight testing has actually taken place in Australia, in South Australia's Woomera Test Range in
2013.
- Boeing's own Phantom Ray, first flew 2011. Also Boeing's X-45, flew 2002.
- France's Dassault eEUROn - first flew 2012, and
- Germany and Spain's EADS Barracuda - first flew 2006.
- China and Russia and Israel would be working on their own project, although Western customers
are unlikely.
SOURCES
I looked at media reports including Australia's ABC, DefenceConnect and FlightGlobal February 26/27, 2019 and many of my own ideas.
Pete