Airbus and Singapore’s Defence Science and Technology Agency (DSTA) have concluded a HTeaming flight campaign at a Singapore airbase.
“The complexity of modern operations demands solutions that can adapt in real time. The successful flight demonstration underscores DSTA’s commitment to innovation and strong partnerships with industry to deliver cutting-edge solutions. It marks a positive step forward in teaming capabilities to enhance the RSAF’s mission effectiveness, while ensuring human decision-making remains at the centre of operations. This achievement gives us confidence to move further to redefine the boundaries of what’s possible for more dynamic operations,” Director Air Systems, Defence Science and Technology Agency, Ang Jer Meng, mentioned.
The flight demonstration has concerned an Airbus Flexrotor uncrewed aerial system (UAS) and the Republic of Singapore Air Force’s (RSAF) H225M helicopter.
“The successful teaming is a game-changer for modern tactical operations. This flight campaign fully illustrates the ability to exploit dual-use technologies to support secure operations. By leveraging the strengths of both platforms, air commanders are enabled with unprecedented situational awareness in complex missions and high-risk environments,” Airbus Helicopters, Executive Vice President of Global Business, Olivier Michalon, acknowledged.
The demonstration has adopted an settlement signed in June final 12 months, with the 2 companions exploring how crewed-uncrewed teaming might improve situational consciousness and enhance mission outcomes by a flight demonstration campaign.
According to Airbus, the trials carried out in January utilizing simulated situations, have proven {that a} crewed helicopter can securely entry real-time information from a UAS, extending the plane’s visible vary and total mission security.
To display this functionality, the H225M and Flexrotor teamed up in a search and rescue mission, delivering enhanced situational consciousness.
As a part of the collaboration, Airbus managed the design of the HTeaming system and its integration into the H225M, together with specialised data-link architectures.
This integration enabled the helicopter crew to obtain and course of real-time information from the Flexrotor whereas sustaining direct command and management of the UAS.
According to the corporate, this synergy facilitated fast decision-making and mission execution whereas minimising the crew’s publicity to high-risk environments.
Airbus HTeaming is a brand new modular crewed-uncrewed teaming resolution which has been designed to be suitable throughout all the Airbus helicopter vary.
As a UAS-agnostic system, it has built-in quite a lot of uncrewed platforms, permitting helicopter crews to take full management of various UAS in flight to satisfy particular mission necessities.
The Flexrotor is a contemporary Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) uncrewed plane with a launch weight of 25 kg, it has been designed for ISTAR missions for greater than 12-14 hours in a typical operational configuration, and 10 hours in EMSA configuration.
It can combine several types of payloads together with an electro-optical system and superior sensors to go well with distinctive mission wants. It apparently has the flexibility to autonomously launch and recuperate from both land or sea requiring solely a 3.7 by 3.7 m space.
The Flexrotor is the newest addition to the Super Puma household.