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Farnborough News: UK Air Force Touts Tech Partnerships for Air Defense System
Photo of Boeing
Farnborough, United Kingdom – The Royal Air Force is developing new air defense systems to fly on planes as early as 2023 to counter the growing threat posed by modern anti-aircraft missiles.
The next-generation air survivability, or NGAS, will combine technologies from three defense companies to protect aircraft from high-altitude threats, Air Vice Marshal Lincoln Taylor, director of capabilities, said at a press conference at the Farnborough International Air Show. . Self-defense systems are integrated into existing aircraft.
“The digitization of not only modern advanced air defense systems, but the digitalization of all systems means that these things are not only becoming more lethal, but also more unpredictable,” he said.
Leonardo UK, France-based Thales and UK-based Chemring Countermeasures are developing software for NGAS that can be deployed on any aircraft, Taylor said.
The affiliates, called “Team Pelonia,” were contracted to add their systems to Boeing’s E-7 Wedgetail Early Warning System and Raytheon-built shadow surveillance aircraft. The Shadow will fly with the system in 2023.
Leonardo Module is providing advanced platform protection and all three companies are developing various countermeasures and warning systems. Depending on the Air Force’s individual aircraft needs, countermeasures can be mixed and matched.
Advancing the system is critical to the service as adversarial air defense platforms, such as man-portable air defense systems, are proliferating around the world.
Taylor played a viral video showing Ukrainian forces using a Mi-24 Russian helicopter with an anti-aircraft missile.
“With this kind of threat, things went really wrong very quickly,” he said. “Ultimately, it’s about making sure the video doesn’t get to our people.”
Taylor’s concern in Ukraine is similar to what Thales, Leonardo and Keimring have been looking at for years.
“I hope we don’t go to war with Russia, but we will confront their systems. We will confront their systems that they send to other countries,” he said.
The Air Force is working with the UK’s Defense Science Technology Laboratory to help industry better understand the threat, said Matt Chinn, the agency’s head of orbital systems. He said that more than 60 percent of the work he did last year was done in collaboration with large and small companies.
The service needs a combined effort from each company to achieve its ambitious goal of protecting all airframes in all missions, he said.
“It’s much better to start from a common perspective,” he said.
In addition to collaboration, a spiral approach that builds capacity beyond capacity can help speed up the process compared to programs that take 10 years to reach initial capacity, Taylor explained.
“We need to be more agile in the face of the threats we face,” he said.
Topics: Air Force, International Defense Market, Aviation
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