Page 142 - Australian Defence Magazine November 2021

142 DEFENCE BUSINESS VIEW FROM CANBERRA
NOVEMBER 2021 | WWW.AUSTRALIANDEFENCE.COM.AU
VIEW FROM CANBERRA
Many readers will of course have read and enjoyed novels by American insurance salesman turned author Tom Clancy, attributed with invention of the techno-thriller genre.
A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT | CANBERRA
CLANCY explicitly denied any inside knowledge of US mili- tary technical capabilities but had a useful skill of extrap- olating beyond what was in the public domain.
His skill was such one senior US Navy officer remarked that had he seen a pre-publication draft of The Hunt For Red October, they would have sought deletion of some de- scriptions of USN sonar capabilities. For this reason alone, this novel is worth rereading.
But Tom Clancy, who died in 2013, never had much to say about Australia and neither did many of his successors, with the notable exception of Australian author FX Holden, the nom de plume (nom de guerre?) of writer Tim Slee.
His books feature a female RAAF pilot and UAS special- ist as a central character, along with existing and emerging technology such as AI and uncrewed aerial, underwater and ground systems.
In particular, he delivers a good imagining of actual opera- tional deployment of BATS - the Boeing Airpower Teaming System – a fighter sized drone called Loyal Wingman which will accompany fourth and fifth generation fighters into battle.
BATS – surely we’ll have to come up with a better name – will go where crewed fighters can’t because it’s too dan- gerous – on high-risk escort, reconnaissance or electronic warfare missions.
In Holden’s books, these initially operate in semi-au- tonomous mode, acting as bait for Russian stealth fighters and getting shot down, but eventually in fully autonomous mode, releasing weapons without the participation of a hu- man operator.
Right now, that would be a step too far for the RAAF but as aerial combat features more UAS and AI, with reaction times far faster than humans, it would seem to be the way of the future.
Loyal Wingman was unveiled at the 2019 Avalon Air Show, which sadly won’t be happening in 2021.
It made its first flight on 27 February this year. Initially, Defence ordered three prototypes, subsequently upping that to six to enable more realistic trials of the technology and development of the appropriate tactics.
This is overwhelming Australian tech – the airframe is Australian and the core autonomy system was developed by BAE Systems Australia.
For Boeing the big payoff would be success in the US Air Force Skyborg program, a series of experiments with drone aircraft operating in conjunction with crewed aircraft.
For Skyborg, the Boeing Loyal Wingman is to be pitted against prototypes from General Atomics and Kratos Un- manned Aerial Systems.
The USAF launched Skyborg in May last year, with pre- liminary flight trials now under way.
It sees this as a transformational capability: reusable drones which can be adapted to different missions, rang- ing ahead of crewed F-35, Super Hornet and other aircraft, learning from their experiences and not costing too much or making people sad when blatted from the sky. That hap- pens not infrequently in Holden’s books and surely would in real high intensity air combat.
Outside Defence and defence industry circles, Australia’s engagement with this very advanced technology is little known or appreciated in the broader community.
Right now, the only significant national thought on de- fence capabilities relates to nuclear submarines, which are the better part of two decades away and in some views, may never happen.
Much can happen in the world in two decades, but Loyal Wingman is happening right now and is looking very much like a viable system which will accompany RAAF airmen and women into combat and maybe save their lives.
In late September, Boeing Australia, in conjunction with the Queensland government announced it had selected the Wellcamp Aerospace and Defence Precinct at Wellcamp Airport outside Toowoomba as preferred site for assembly of Loyal Wingman.
This is actually a really big deal on all sides. For Boeing, this is the first aircraft assembly facility of its kind outside North America.
For Australia, Loyal Wingman is the first military combat aircraft designed, developed and manufactured in Australia in half a century. ■
ABOVE: Boeing’s Airpower Teaming System,
or Loyal Wingman, flew from Woomera for the first time on 27 February 2021
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