Price is investing in autonomous aerial refueling tech

Farnborough News: Prime is investing in autonomous aerial refueling tech.

Photo of Boeing

Farnborough, United Kingdom – The Air Force is looking for its next aerial refueling tanker, and the contenders for the contract showed off some new autonomous capabilities at the Farnborough National Airshow.

The competition for a new type of tanker could be a demonstration of a new Lockheed Martin platform based on Boeing aircraft and an Airbus body. Now, autonomous capabilities can be in the mix.

Lockheed Martin is working with Airbus to adapt the A330 multi-role tanker transport body to the LMXT. The Boeing Pegasus KC-46 aircraft is the Air Force’s current fuel tanker.

Tim Flood, Boeing’s senior director of global business development for Europe and America, told reporters that autonomous refueling on the KC-46A is one of several autonomous capabilities the company is working on. He pointed out that the MQ-28 Ghost Bat unmanned aerial vehicle and the Orca, a large underwater vehicle, are both under development.

In the year “Autonomous refueling is part of that broader corporate vision,” he said on July 20. We keep growing down.

Boeing has the opportunity to supply the Air Force with refuelers for many years. But problems abounded in the KC-46 program.

For example, the platform’s remote visual system that allowed pilots to refuel had a design flaw. The company reached an agreement with the Air Force to fix the system at Boeing’s expense.

Flood has turned it over to the Air Force to reveal when the improvements will be completed, but Boeing notes that it is in the early stages of its design review.

“They’re happy with what we came up with in the design review,” he said. “So I have no reason to think there’s any problem with the road going forward.”

Meanwhile, Airbus announced this week that the A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport for Automated Air-to-Air Refueling, or A3R, is a daylight-rich operation. The company claims to be number one in the world for this type of certification.

Airbus has worked with the Royal Singapore Air Force to pilot the technology. Along with independent technology, it has developed advanced maintenance technology. Spain’s National Institute of Aerospace Technology announced the certification in a press release.

Airbus is building a demonstration to further develop its capabilities, such as autonomous air-to-air refueling and flight operations. The technology developed in the Auto’Mate demonstration will be used on a test flight in 2023, the company said.

According to the company’s press release, the technology will be a “disruptive step forward” in today’s autonomous operations – with “high” on-demand capabilities – reducing worker fatigue and training costs.

Airbus expects to demonstrate an “end-to-end” flight by mid-2024, the statement said.

Companies are promoting their superior capabilities, but their efforts may not make a difference in the competition. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he may cancel the competition if demand for the aircraft does not increase.

He told lawmakers during a House Armed Services Committee hearing earlier this spring that a final decision on the race had not been made.

Topics: Air Force News, Robotics and Autonomous Systems, Air Force