UK’s BAE enters uncrewed fighter competition with ‘Brontanax’

FARNBOROUGH, England — BAE Systems revealed a new unmanned fighter jet on Wednesday, boosting Britain’s entry into one of the defense industry’s hottest and most fiercely contested markets.

The U.K.’s biggest defense company showcased a model of its new jet, Brontanax, derived from the ancient Greek words for thunder and king, at the Farnborough Airshow. It is about the size of a Hawk trainer and would be ready to start flight testing next year, BAE said.

As the global threat level rises and western nations re-arm, defense chiefs say the lesson from the Ukraine war is clear: nations need to control the skies to avoid Ukrainian-style attritional trench warfare and that requires air forces to bulk up.

BAE enters an increasingly crowded market for so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft , with Airbus, Boeing, Anduril and General Atomics among a growing number of companies competing for business at Farnborough in a sector expected to expand rapidly.

Often described as “loyal wingmen,” CCAs are designed to fly alongside piloted aircraft and are expected to cost roughly a third as much as a traditional fighter jet.

Britain’s new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who was appointed on Monday, said it was a “groundbreaking moment.”

“We will adopt this as our operational concept demonstrator, and we’re going to get it in the air in 2027,” he said at the airshow.

BAE has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in its CCA, pushing ahead without the government co-investment which usually underpins new platforms.

“We’ve put our money where our mouth is,” CEO Charles Woodburn told Reuters.

“We could see where the market was going,” he added, saying he hopes to secure a U.K. order, and that other countries in Europe and the Middle East could follow, with some already showing an interest.

BAE has developed Brontanax alongside the Royal Air Force, in a project dating back to 2022, and already has a fully assembled aircraft at its Warton facility in northwest England. It could enter service by 2030, BAE said.

That timeline compares to Boeing’s MQ-28 Ghost Bat, on display at Farnborough, which has already started flight testing, and could be flying for Australia by 2028.

BAE said its CCA offered more stealth than rivals and it was aiming for it to have 70% to 80% of the capabilities of a fighter jet and to come in at under 25% of the cost, which could give it a price tag of around $25 million.

Its open architecture and modular design will allow software upgrades and changes to easily be made, with BAE looking at non-military suppliers to help with the build.

Britain said in its defense investment plan earlier in July that it would spend an initial £300 million ($401 million) to launch a sovereign CCA program it has named Storm Fighter.

英国范堡罗——英国航空航天系统公司（BAE Systems）周三发布了一款新型无人战斗机，这推动了英国进军国防工业最热门、竞争最激烈的市场之一。

英国最大的国防公司在范堡罗航展上展示了其新型喷气式飞机“Brontanax”的模型。“Brontanax”一词源于古希腊语，意为“雷霆”和“国王”。英国航空航天系统公司（BAE Systems）表示，该机大小与“鹰”式教练机相仿，将于明年开始试飞。

随着全球威胁等级上升和西方国家重新武装，国防部长们表示，乌克兰战争的教训很明确：各国需要控制制空权，以避免乌克兰式的消耗性堑壕战，而这需要空军力量得到加强。

BAE 进入了竞争日益激烈的所谓协同作战飞机市场，空客、波音、安杜里尔和通用原子公司等越来越多的公司在范堡罗航展上争夺业务，预计该行业将迅速扩张。

CCA（协同作战飞机）通常被描述为“忠诚的僚机”，其设计目的是与有人驾驶飞机并肩飞行，预计成本约为传统战斗机的三分之一。

英国新任国防大臣韦斯·斯特里廷于周一上任，他表示这是一个“具有里程碑意义的时刻”。

“我们将把这架飞机作为我们的作战概念验证机，并计划在 2027 年让它升空，”他在航展上说。

BAE 已在其 CCA 项目上投入数亿英镑，在没有政府通常支持新平台的共同投资的情况下继续推进该项目。

“我们已经用实际行动证明了我们的承诺，”首席执行官查尔斯·伍德伯恩告诉路透社。

“我们能看出市场的发展方向，”他补充道，并表示希望获得英国的订单，欧洲和中东的其他国家也可能效仿，其中一些国家已经表现出了兴趣。

BAE系统公司与英国皇家空军合作开发了Brontanax战机，该项目始于2022年，目前已在其位于英格兰西北部沃顿的工厂完成了一架飞机的组装。BAE系统公司表示，该战机有望在2030年投入使用。

这一时间表与波音公司在范堡罗航展上展出的MQ-28“幽灵蝙蝠”无人机相比，后者已经开始飞行测试，并可能在2028年为澳大利亚飞行。

BAE表示，其CCA比竞争对手具有更强的隐身性能，目标是使其拥有战斗机70%到80%的性能，而成本低于战斗机的25%，这意味着其价格可能在2500万美元左右。

其开放式架构和模块化设计将使软件升级和更改变得容易，BAE 正在寻求非军方供应商的帮助进行建造。

英国在7月初的国防投资计划中表示，将先期投入3亿英镑（4.01亿美元）启动一项名为“风暴战士”的自主CCA计划。