The first demonstration flight of manned-unmanned teaming drone operations has been conducted in the UK. The test flight, which took place during June over British Army ranges on Salisbury Plain, Wiltshire, featured a manned helicopter and a semi-autonomous drone that worked together to identify potential targets in a designated area. It was conducted by QinetiQ and the UK Government research agency Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL).
During the test flight an operator on the helicopter switched between monitoring the images sent back by the drone’s cameras and allowing it to operate independently, searching for and identifying potential targets itself and alerting the operator when a decision was required.
The potential use of autonomous drones for riskier parts of military air operations is being investigated around the world, with several manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) systems such as Boeing’s Loyal Wingman in development....MORE
