Uncrewed rotorcraft pitched at utility and ‘drone mothership’ applications.
Airbus Helicopters displayed its recently-revealed U145 uncrewed rotorcraft concept at the ILA Berlin air show, highlighting two of its potential future operational applications.
With its cockpit controls removed and the aircraft now featuring clamshell cargo doors at the front of its fuselage, its utility transport potential is on show, including the addition of a roller-equipped cargo floor and front loading platform.
The U145 will be able to carry loads up to 1,200kg (2,650lb) and have range around 500nm (925km), its developer says.
Another possible application for the aircraft could be to serve as a “drone mothership” for deployment of air-launched effects (ALE) and counter-uncrewed aerial system (C-UAS) weapons.
At ILA, the adapted former H145M prototype is being exhibited with its side doors open, revealing launcher tubes for an MBDA Germany-developed ALE.
The design concept for the lightweight weapon is that salvoes of the 8-12kg vehicle will be side-launched from a helicopter to prosecute battlefield targets. A strike version will carry a 3.5kg warhead to a maximum distance of 27nm, with further derivatives to potentially be employed for tasks such as target identification, communications relay and decoy/jamming.
The result of a rapid development effort, the ALE design has already undergone ground-based launches, and a first airborne test firing is planned for September.
To be conducted using an H145M, that activity is likely to be performed in conjunction with the German military’s WTD-61 test unit in Manching, Bavaria. The NH Industries NH90 also is eyed as a potential future candidate for ALE integration, MBDA indicates, while the lightweight weapon could potentially be carried by fixed-wing UAS platforms.
Additionally, on 10 June, Airbus Helicopters and Quantum Systems announced a cooperation agreement regarding integration of the latter’s counter-UAS interceptor on military products starting with the H145M. The model on display is equipped with stub wings, each capable of carrying four of the interceptors.
From a platform perspective, the U145 airframe design is identical to the system already being proposed for the US Marine Corps’ Aerial Logistics Connector demonstrator need, where Airbus is working in conjunction with US-based partners.
But with the U145, the company’s H145M programme manager Constance Pinsdorf says: “Our intention here is to have a European platform, with European partners and [European] software.” Specifically, Airbus will port the autonomy technology already employed on its VSR700 system: an uncrewed adaptation of the Guimbal Cabri G2 optimised for ship-based operations.
“We want to show that we have a concept in place, and we have done it before with the Cabri G2,” Pinsdorf says of the U145’s debut at ILA. “We want to see how the market is responding.”
Airbus intends to fly an experimental version of its U175 at the end of this year, with the rotorcraft to get airborne in a hybrid configuration with a safety pilot aboard. That will be followed by flight tests of an uncrewed platform from around early 2028, Pinsdorf says.
“Then our intention is that serialisation will be at the start of next decade,” she adds.
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