The US Air Force's XQ-67A Loyal Wingman combat drone has taken to the air for the first time. Built by General Atomics using automotive design techniques, it promises to be a cheaper, more flexible alternative to other UAVs.
Like all major military powers, the US is very interested in drones playing an increasingly important role in combat and other military missions. Not only are they an answer to pilot recruitment and retention shortfalls, they also help to keep humans out of harm's way while acting as force multipliers that turn a single pilot into a drone squadron commander.
In the abstract, that sounds great, but it still leaves the question of where to get the drones in sufficient numbers that can keep up with a piloted fighter plane and have the diverse capabilities that various missions may require.
Based on the XQ-58A that first flew in 2019, the XQ-67A is the next iteration of the Loyal Wingman program that aims to develop a low-cost, low-maintenance drone that is expendable, yet has the flight performance to keep up with a conventional fighter. The way to do this for the Air Force is to develop a drone like the XQ-67A that has a common chassis.
Essentially, what the Air Force and General Atomics are doing is borrowing engineering techniques that have been standard in the automotive industry for decades. At one time, car makers would only issue a new model of their vehicles when enough new technological advances had accumulated to warrant it. Then they found out that they could boost sales by adding in new advances in new models on an annual basis.
It was a neat sales strategy, but it also required a new approach to designing and building cars so they could be quickly modified by using a common chassis. It also allowed car makers to produce whole new models lines by swapping out bodies and interiors.
The hope is that by using a standard airframe with its standard substructures and systems it will be possible to quickly advance drone designs – the Off-Board Weapon Station (OBWS) for combat, or the Off-Board Sensing Station (OBSS) equipped with a radar suite that the Air Force is in particular need of at the moment.
According to the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the first flight of the XQ-67A took place on February 28 at the General Atomics Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility near Palmdale, California. The purpose is both general design development and a specific emphasis on the OBSS. When the airframe is deemed ready, sensors, autonomous avionics and other systems and payloads will be installed.
"It's really about leveraging this best practice that we've seen in the automotive and other industries where time to market has decreased, while the time to initial operating capability for military aircraft has increased at an alarming rate," said Trenton White, Low Cost Attritable Aircraft Platform Sharing, and OBSS program manager from AFRL’s Aerospace Systems Directorate. "The main objectives here are to validate an open aircraft system concept for hardware and software and to demonstrate rapid time-to-market and low development cost."
Source: AFRL
