QinetiQ has successfully trialled the UK’s first Manned-Unmanned Teaming (MUM-T) demonstration between a crewed aircraft and a drone. 

The trial, which took place in collaboration with the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl), the Royal Navy and the Air and Space Warfare Centre (ASWC), involved a QinetiQ jet aircraft which took off from the Ministry of Defence’s Boscombe Down in Salisbury.

At the same time, a modified Banshee Jet 80 drone was launched from the Ministry of Defence Hebrides range off the north-west coast of Scotland.

✈️ Another UK first for QinetiQ!

We’ve successfully trialled the UK’s first Crewed-Uncrewed-Teaming demonstration between an #aircraft and #drone.

Find out how we made this happen: https://t.co/0EUpUFeAaU

Thanks to @DefenceHQ @dstlmod @RoyalNavy & ASWC 💪#teamwork pic.twitter.com/Knk1gM7VTM

— QinetiQ Group (@QinetiQ) April 25, 2024

According to the company’s announcement, flying from Boscombe to the Hebrides, the aircraft soon gained control of the Banshee, with the drone receiving its orders from the aircraft before automatically conducting the mission assignment, flying at 350 knots.

The mission was completed not only by the live Banshee, but also a number of digital Banshees within a live-virtual swarm, successfully acting in a coordinated manner.

The Banshee was equipped with QinetiQ’s Airborne Command and Control for Swarm Interoperable Missions (ACCSIOM) technology, which allows the drone to communicate with the crewed aircraft using the same messaging format as the standard NATO Link 16 datalink. 

Instrumental to the deployment of autonomous air platforms, the technology provides an airborne gateway which can receive and translate both long-range and short-range communications between drones, while in-built safety systems can override the autonomy to ensure the drone stays at all times within a safe operating area.

The success of this trial demonstrates that MUM-T between current combat aircraft and next generation drones can be potentially achieved successfully with the existing combat air fleet, while offering the potential to increase combat capability in an affordable manner.

This flight trial is part of the UK’s Accelerating Air Autonomy Capability Experimentation (A3CE) R&D programme and is the culmination of a year’s planning and development activity by QinetiQ and Dstl that has seen a series of synthetic and flight de-risking trials, assessment and testing.

Also read: Ukraine | First sighting of QinetiQ’s Banshee Jet 80+ UAV – VIDEO

*Photo: QinetiQ