LONDON – As militaries prepare for a new age of air combat defined by ever-evolving unmanned aerial systems, one defense company is betting that the workload of fighter pilots will swell far beyond flying an aircraft to include directing swarms of drones.
At Farnborough Airshow this week in London, BAE Systems unveiled a helmet-mounted prototype it says is intended to explore how future pilots may be able to operate under battlefield conditions they anticipate to be saturated with unprecedented amounts of data.
Called Project Intuity, the demonstrator is intended to help pilots manage input from multiple sources by projecting information onto the helmet’s visor.
“As allies move towards aircraft that act as combat command centers, future operations will demand that pilots process more information from more sources than ever before,” Andrew Macklin-Smith, the company’s product line director for helmet-mounted displays, said in a release.
“Through Project Intuity, we’re addressing that challenge by integrating the technologies to allow pilots to command fleets of drones in the skies,” he added. “This system will achieve that by filtering and presenting the most important information clearly and within the pilot’s natural field of view.”
BAE did not yet say whether the demonstrator is tied to a specific program or provide a timeline for when this technology could enter service but the project comes as the U.S. is experimenting with having pilots command drone wingmen.
During an exercise last summer, Air Force pilots controlled Valkyrie drones during flight and in January, the Navy announced that F-35 pilots had used touchscreen tablets to control uncrewed autonomous drones during training.
“Modern warfare is demanding more from our aviators,” Rear Adm. Todd Evans, commander of the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, said in a release about the Navy’s human-machine teaming milestone. The exercise, he added, gave pilots “the advanced tactics they need to win future battles.”
The U.S. Air Force has for years broached the possibility of integrating drone wingmen — used for reconnaissance, electronic warfare and attacks — alongside fighter jets. The teaming, experts have said, would make the difference in between winning or losing wars against advanced adversaries like China.
In a first this year, the Air Force asked Congress for nearly $1 billion to start procuring Collaborative Combat Aircraft, or CCA, a fleet of jet-powered, semi-autonomous drones fly alongside crewed aircraft like the F-35 and F-22.
The service’s national plan pairs two CCA with each fighter jet, but testing suggests pilots may be able to command higher numbers.
The Air Force logged another CCA milestone recently when it conducted its first-ever live-fire test using the Anduril-made YFQ-44A.
BAE says its prototype is designed with flexible architecture so that novel and emerging components — such as eye tracking capabilities and new optics — can be added or replaced over time. Currently, it combines head tracking and 3D audio cueing.
According to the company, the demonstrator’s visor has twice the display area of current helmet-mounted systems and what it describes as “quad high-definition resolution.” The bigger display is aimed at keeping pilots’ eyes directed at the skies, with information within their field of view, and thus reducing their need to look down at cockpit instruments during flight.
The company said it already has more than 1,000 helmet-mounted displays in use in 10 different countries, but that this is lighter than other models. BAE did not give design specifications, but attributed the drop in heaviness to new materials and better microelectronics, among other things.
Technology tested through prototypes could eventually be integrated into new helmet-mounted systems or added to existing ones.
Eve Sampson is a reporter and former Army officer. She has covered conflict across the world, writing for The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Associated Press.