The Royal Air Force (RAF) will be scaling up the use of its new remotely piloted air system capability over the coming months, with pilots from its 31 Sqn soon to secure the instrument ratings required for them to begin flying the type in UK airspace.
Based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, the new General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) Protector RG1 recently secured release to service approval, following the type’s receipt of military type certification.
“The challenge that we face over the next few months is to take this cutting-edge technology and learn to employ it in the civilian airspace structures, alongside other traffic, while simultaneously getting in onto operations,” says Wing Commander Scott MacColl, officer commanding its Protector-equipped 31 Sqn.
With the MQ-9B-based platform able to operate in civilian airspace, and boasting a flight endurance of more than 30h, he cites as an example of its mission projection capability: “You could launch from the UK, fly to the Baltic Sea, do 8-10h on task and then come back.
“Our first focus is to get to operations later this year, but as soon as we achieve that we will look to expand the nature of our capabilities, and maritime [operations] is high on our agenda,” he said during the Royal Aeronautical Society’s FCAS Summit in London on 22 May.
“We have got a maritime capability from day one, and can pass information to and share with assets like P-8,” he says, referring to the RAF’s Boeing 737NG-based maritime patrol aircraft.
“If there was something in UK waters that we wanted to monitor, our level of endurance will allow us to sit there for 24 or 30 hours and reach back in real time to our operational headquarters.”
The UK has not yet funded the integration of a dedicated maritime search radar which would further develop the Protector’s capability over water, however.
Meanwhile, in an armed application, the single-engined model will be able to carry up to four Raytheon Systems Paveway IV precision-guided bombs, and MBDA Brimstone 3 air-to-surface missiles.
MacColl notes that the RAF’s soon-to-depart fleet of MQ-9A Reapers was optimised for operations in Afghanistan and elsewhere, and states: “Twenty years of counter-insurgency has made us very focused on one type of mission. The opportunity we have with Protector is to look at the types of missions and way that we interact with other assets.”
The Protector flights completed in the UK to date have been performed by pilots from the RAF’s 56 Sqn test and evaluation unit, supported by personnel from 31 Sqn.
“Earlier this week we had aircraft take off from RAF Waddington and fly out to ranges off the east coast of the UK, and return,” MacColl notes.
He expects the first 31 Sqn pilots to secure their instrument ratings in June, while noting that 20 crews have already flown the type in the USA as part of preparations for the type’s introduction.
GA-ASI recently disclosed that it has already delivered 10 of the RAF’s eventual 16 Protector air vehicles. MacColl says seven of those aircraft are now in the UK, with four in flying condition and the others being prepared to enter use soon.
The RAF will incrementally expand the type’s use and its access to non-segregated airspace, he says, while noting: “I would hope that we will be flying most days.”
