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FARNBOROUGH, England - BAE Systems has taken the wraps off a multimillion-pound technology demonstrator program aimed at boosting British know-how in unmanned autonomous systems.
The doors had barely opened for business at the weeklong Farnborough Airshow starting July 14 before BAE and the Ministry of Defence announced they had signed a deal to jointly fund the first phase of the Mantis development.
The BAE-led consortium is scheduling the maiden flight of Mantis for early next year.
Aside from BAE, other companies involved in the project include Rolls-Royce, QinetiQ, GE Aviation, Selex Galileo, Meggitt and L-3.
Neither the MoD or BAE would reveal how much is being spent on the program nor how much of the cash is being provided by the government.
The reticence by the two sides to reveal program costs leads to the suspicion that the amount of cash involved in the program at this stage is small, and the cash-strapped MoD is providing only a small portion of the funding.
Industry sources estimated the investment in the tens of millions of pounds, significantly less than the 124 million pounds being jointly invested by industry and government in the stealthy, jet-powered Taranis unmanned air vehicle technology demonstrator launched in 2006.
Many of the leading players in Mantis are also playing a role in Taranis. That airframe is in assembly.
Both programs are expected to give operational sovereignty to British forces using large unmanned UAVs in the ISTAR and attack roles.
A BAE spokesman said the vehicle would have a 24-hour plus endurance, an operating ceiling of 50 kilometers and a wingspan approaching 22 meters.
That puts Mantis firmly in the same market sector as the General Atomics Reaper, which is already being used by the Royal Air Force in Afghanistan.
The first phase of development will see the twin-engined platform use Rolls-Royce's RB250 turboprop.
Later spiral developments planned for Mantis are likely to feature a more advanced powerplant.
Mark Kane, the managing director of BAE's Autonomous Systems & Future Capability business, said he reckoned a twin-engine capability would be a growing trend as UAVs began gaining clearance for civil applications.
Other spiral developments could include the fitting of multisensor suites and exploring its use as an armed platform.
A mock-up of Mantis displayed by BAE at the airshow carried precision-guided bombs and Brimstone anti-armor missiles.
Although there is no agreement in place beyond phase 1, two further spiral developments are being discussed to take the program beyond the second quarter of next year.
Air Vice Marshal Simon Bollom, the MoD's director-general, combat air, said Mantis was a "real opportunity to develop better understanding of what we can do with these vehicles."
While Reaper provides relevant capability now, Bollom said Mantis was an opportunity to look into the future with its autonomous control systems.
Development of autonomous-control capabilities was also one of the prime roles allocated Taranis when it was launched in 2006 by the then-defense procurement minister, Lord Drayson.
Bollom said the program also was aimed at demonstrating the rapid prototyping capabilities of British industry in the UAV sector.
"Rapid development programs such as Mantis will provide indicators of how we can improve the acquisition process to deliver capability swiftly into fast-changing military environments," Bollom said.
Several of BAE's earlier privately funded demonstrator programs, like Corax and Raven, were developed using rapid prototyping.
Kane said the company had only been working earnestly on the program since the last quarter of 2007.
"The aim is to prove that the integrated technologies on Mantis can provide tangible military capability and levels of performance required for future U.K. unmanned autonomous operation," Kane said.
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