Royal Navy helicopter transformed into "flying command centre" as drones used to target moving vehicle

The crew of a Wildcat aircraft information almost instantaneously from two small surveillance drones to target a moving vehicle. Syncing up the data from a Puma and Providence drone, and other ground-based sensors, they tracked the target over the horizon and beyond the line of sight.

Lieutenant Commander Rhydian Edwards, Officer in Command of the wildcat maritime force operational advantage group, said: “We turned a Wildcat helicopter into a flying command centre. For the first time, while flying a mission, a Royal Navy crew sent and received live data from multiple drones from within the aircraft across a node network.

“The important thing here is that remote data nodes were used to send and receive information from any system on the mesh network, getting that into the aircraft instantly whilst also setting the foundations for taking control of those systems when tactically appropriate – the Puma, combined with the Providence, were just a means to an end to prove that the system will work and develop initial tactics.”

The trials, conducted out of Predannack airfield on Cornwall’s Lizard Peninsula, pave the way for far more complex operations involving crewed and un-crewed systems working together. This is part of the development of the “hybrid air wing”, a concept revealed to the public in the Strategic Defence Review. This involves Royal Navy assets operating alongside drones and systems used by Nato allies.

These testing exercises - dubbed Eagles Eye - trials the potential of aircraft acting as airborne sites to control a flotilla of drones, connection to any sensor across the communications network via a series of nodes. A mesh network is decentralised, provides widespread coverage and possesses the ability to ”self-heal”, where it can find alternative routes to securely transmit data between machines on the ground and in the air if parts of the network are removed.

Join us every Friday for a briefing on the defence sector’s biggest stories with The Week in Defence newsletter

It has been used extensively during the war in Ukraine, where piloted and crewless aircraft can work together seamlessly. “This is essentially a universal translator,” Lt Cdr Edwards added. “In the past, every new drone and sensor came with its own unique interface. This breaks that cycle.”

The Royal Navy’s Puma drone which has been in service for more than six years with 700X Naval Air Squadron. Commander Andrew Henderson, Commanding Officer of the Wildcat Maritime Force, said: “This shows exactly where the Wildcat Maritime Force is heading as we embrace the Hybrid Navy model.

““It’s not just about the drone, it’s also about the network access. By learning lessons from the war in Ukraine we are securing these links into MESH networks, increasing interoperability and proving we can connect sensors and strike assets across the battlefield instantly. We are building a system that is modular and survivable – embracing the latest tech to make us deadlier and harder to defeat in a fight on the modern battlefield.”

Wildcat aviators will soon be deployed to Norway for further crewed and un-crewed trials. They’ll be tasked with dealing with fast attack craft and similar “asymmetric” threats, side-by-side with the Royal Norwegian Navy in the fjords around Bergen.