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Project Musher linked an Airbus H130-based FlightLab test aircraft and the prototype VSR700 with a Leonardo AW189 and Hero drone operating in Italy to prove the potential of a European CUC-T communications protocol.
Airbus plans to partner autonomous rotary-wing uncrewed air systems with helicopters to get ready for the next-generation battlefield.
Just as Airbus’ Defense and Space unit is developing technology to enable remote carriers—autonomous uncrewed aircraft systems (UAS)—to work with next-generation crewed combat aircraft in the European Future Combat Air System (FCAS), its helicopter business wants to adapt that model for operations closer to the ground. This would be a step beyond existing crewed-uncrewed teaming (CUC-T)—also called manned-unmanned teaming—technologies that allow attack helicopters to take video feeds from higher-flying tactical UAS.
- The H145 is being adapted for U.S. Marine Corps logistics
- UAS could eliminate need for dedicated attack helicopters
Airbus believes this approach could eliminate the need for dedicated attack helicopters, as UAS would assume the roles of forward intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance; electronic warfare; radio relay and delivery of kinetic effects. Company officials say adopting a similar approach to FCAS is essential because of the more contested battlefield, where even low-level or nap-of-the-earth flying does not necessarily guarantee protection for the modern helicopter.
“Airbus believes manned-unmanned teaming for us is a force multiplier for the helicopter,” Victor Gerin-Roze, Airbus Helicopters’ head of UAS, told journalists in Marseille, France, as the OEM presented its military product line to potential customers on Oct. 8.
Airbus is already developing its own UAS, including the VSR700, based on the Guimbal Cabri G2 light helicopter. The company is also working on an uncrewed derivative of its H145 light twin to meet a U.S. Marine Corps requirement for an Aerial Logistics Connector to carry cargo around the battlefield. In May, Airbus also purchased U.S.-based Aerovel, the developer of the Flexrotor rotary-wing UAS (RWUAS).
The development of uncrewed derivatives of helicopters and tactical drones, such as the Flexrotor, are two components of Airbus Helicopters’ three-prong UAS strategy. The third is the development of CUC-T technologies that would allow helicopters to achieve interoperability level 4, enabling crews to control both the UAS and its payloads. In the short term, this would be demonstrated with control of a single UAS from a helicopter; a safety pilot would be in the loop, and light cockpit integration would be required.
In the medium term, a helicopter would control multiple UAS or air-launched effects with integrated cockpit controls but without a remote pilot. The ultimate goal is integrating helicopters into the FCAS, linking them with crewed fighters, networked remote carriers, RWUAS and weapons.
“With the workload associated with helicopters . . . operating with a limited number of actors is appropriate,” Gerin-Roze said, pointing to a military rule of “one boss, five subordinates.”
Just as with the FCAS, efforts are in place to ensure that even if autonomous UAS support the helicopter, a person in the loop remains at the “core of the system,” Gerin-Roze said.
Airbus Helicopters CEO Bruno Even said this approach will help the company “prepare the future for the next-generation military helicopter,” and development of CUC-T technologies will enable rotorcraft to pair with “any drone available on the market.” Teaming dual-use helicopters with UAS will help customers “adjust and adapt to different battlefield requirements,” he said.
Although Even is committed to developing the upgraded Tiger attack helicopter for France and Spain,he is “not convinced” about the need for a “specialized attack helicopter,” he said. “Teaming between drone and helicopter could also be the answer for the long term to the need for attack capability,” he added.
European support has buoyed Airbus’ CUC-T efforts. The helicopter-maker has worked with Thales and Leonardo on the €13.7 million ($14.9 million) European Defense Industrial Development Program-funded Manned-Unmanned Teaming System for Helicopter (Musher) project to prove the potential of a common European CUC-T communications protocol.
The Musher team demonstrated the ability to connect crewed helicopters and UAS platforms on a single network. In the Sept. 30-Oct. 9 demonstration, an Airbus H130-based FlightLab operating in France alongside a VSR700 UAS was able to take control of another UAS in Italy that was connected to the same network.
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