British jammer drone opens door to unmanned wingmen in combat

ROME — The U.K. has launched a new jammer drone it says will fly into the battle space ahead of F-35s and Typhoons and jam and bamboozle enemy radar.

The RAF StormShroud, which went into operation on Friday, is based on the 100km range AR3 drone built by British-Portuguese firm Tekever, which has been used in Ukraine.

On board, the StormShroud carries the BriteStorm stand-in jammer supplied by Leonardo UK, which is designed to block enemy radar or spoof it, creating “ghost” jet signatures.

The new asset “means for the first time, the RAF will benefit from high-end electronic warfare without needing crew to man it, freeing them up for other vital frontline missions,” the UK government said in a statement.

“This is a seminal moment for the RAF to maintain our advantage in air combat and national security,” said RAF Air Chief Marshal Sir Rich Knighton.

An initial investment of £19 million ($25 million) by the RAF will see Tekever produce “hundreds” of platforms in the UK this year, the firm said.

The rail-launched AR3, which has a maximum operating weight of 25kg boasts 16 hour endurance and a cruise speed of up to 90kmh.

Tekever’s AR3 and AR5 drones have flown 10,000 hours in Ukraine.

“In a further vote of confidence in Britain’s defense industry, British-Portuguese tech company Tekever, who manufacture the drones in the U.K., plan to invest a further £400 million over the next 5 years across the U.K. and create up to 1,000 more highly skilled jobs,” the British government said.

The 2.5kg BriteStorm, which is about the size of six Coke cans, including its transmit and receive modules and antenna, uses Leonardo’s Digital Radio Frequency Memory (DRFM) technology to digitally capture enemy radar signals.

Leonardo has said that traditional, large manned aircraft carrying stand-off jammers must fly further back in the battle space and are less effective.

Operated by the RAF’s 216 Squadron, the StormShroud is designed to be expendable. Describing the BriteStorm, Leonardo said, “On its return, BriteStorm is rapidly reprogrammable for subsequent missions, but if destroyed in the defense of higher-value or crewed platforms, its loss would be tolerable.”

The drone marks a step towards the collaboration between manned and unmanned aerial platforms – an ambition of the UK-Italian-Japanese GCAP fighter program, which envisages swarms of drones flying alongside fighters.

The RAF said that it was determined to bring such technologies to the front line fast.

“Lessons learned from the war in Ukraine have boosted StormShroud’s production and it’s taken just a year from the Urgent Capability Requirement (UCR) being endorsed to delivering the new capability, significantly reducing program time and costs,” the service said.

Tom Kington is the Italy correspondent for Defense News.

罗马——英国推出了一款新型干扰无人机，称其将在F-35和台风战斗机之前飞入战场，干扰和迷惑敌方雷达。

英国皇家空军的“风暴裹尸布”（StormShroud）无人机于周五投入使用，该无人机基于英国-葡萄牙公司Tekever制造的射程为100公里的AR3无人机，该无人机曾在乌克兰使用过。

StormShroud 机载有由英国 Leonardo 公司提供的 BriteStorm 替代干扰器，该干扰器旨在阻挡敌方雷达或欺骗敌方雷达，从而产生“幽灵”喷气式飞机特征。

英国政府在一份声明中表示，这项新装备“意味着英国皇家空军将首次受益于高端电子战，而无需人员操作，从而可以腾出人员执行其他重要的前线任务”。

“对于英国皇家空军来说，这是一个至关重要的时刻，我们需要在空战和国家安全方面保持优势，”英国皇家空军空军元帅里奇·奈顿爵士说道。

Tekever公司表示，英国皇家空军的初始投资1900万英镑（2500万美元）将使该公司今年在英国生产“数百个”平台。

AR3 是一款轨道发射式火箭，最大运行重量为 25 公斤，续航时间为 16 小时，巡航速度可达 90 公里/小时。

Tekever 的 AR3 和 AR5 无人机在乌克兰已飞行 10,000 小时。

英国政府表示：“为了进一步表达对英国国防工业的信心，在英国生产无人机的英葡科技公司Tekever计划在未来5年内在英国各地再投资4亿英镑，并创造多达1000个高技能就业岗位。”

这款重 2.5 公斤的 BriteStorm 雷达，包括其发射和接收模块以及天线在内，大约相当于六个可乐罐的大小，它采用莱昂纳多公司的数字射频存储器 (DRFM) 技术来数字化捕获敌方雷达信号。

莱昂纳多公司表示，携带远程干扰器的传统大型有人驾驶飞机必须飞得更远，作战效果也更差。

由英国皇家空军第216中队操作的“风暴之罩”（StormShroud）无人机被设计为消耗品。莱昂纳多公司在描述“亮风暴”（BriteStorm）无人机时表示：“‘亮风暴’返回后可以迅速重新编程执行后续任务，但如果在保卫更高价值或有人驾驶平台时被摧毁，其损失也是可以承受的。”

该无人机标志着有人驾驶和无人驾驶空中平台合作迈出了一步——这是英国、意大利和日本联合研制的GCAP战斗机计划的目标，该计划设想让成群的无人机与战斗机并肩飞行。

英国皇家空军表示，决心尽快将这些技术应用于前线。

“从乌克兰战争中吸取的教训提高了StormShroud的生产效率，从紧急能力需求（UCR）获得批准到交付新能力仅用了一年时间，大大缩短了项目时间和成本，”该部门表示。

汤姆·金顿是《防务新闻》驻意大利记者。