Royal Navy to use a fleet of drones to fly crucial supplies between ships of the UK Carrier Strike Group when it deploys to the Indo-Pacific later this month.
Alongside its F35B stealth jets and naval helicopters, flagship HMS Prince of Wales’ air group will also consist of nine powerful octo-copters for remotely moving items – food, packages from home and engineering parts – around the task group on its mission east.
The trial of the new systems alongside crewed aircraft is intended to free up the more expensive helicopters to focus on their primary role of protecting the task force from danger on its mission to the Far East.
Drone specialist 700X Naval Air Squadron from Royal Navy Air Station Culdrose is embarking a team of 12 sailors to operate nine air systems, initially from three ships in the group to test the capability.
Lieutenant Matt Parfitt, a drone flight commander with 700X NAS, said: “There is a statistic from previous carrier strike deployments that shows 95 per cent of stores transferred weigh less than 50kg. They could be anything from parcels from home to a vital engineering part.
“In the past we’d have used a helicopter if a part was urgently needed on another ship. This time we’re going to use a remotely-piloted, uncrewed system instead. We are aware that we’re trialing new things and, because it’s not been done before on this scale, the eyes of the fleet will be on us.”
With eight rotor blades, each around two feet in length, an endurance of between 20 to 40 minutes, top speed of 60mph and able to lift up to 68kg the Malloy T-150 is not just your average drone.
It needs a team of two, one remote pilot and a second to monitor the drone’s command unit, and can be flown manually or autonomously to designated waypoints with an underslung cargo.
The rapid change and use of drone technology is driving the Royal Navy to adapt new systems and practices at record speed. Changes that would normally take years were now being done in months.