Here’s how Leonardo armed the Falco Xplorer drone
At the Le Bourget Air Show, Leonardo presented for the first time its Falco Xplorer drone equipped with an MBDA Brimstone missile. “A major shift in the Italian mindset on arming unmanned aerial systems,” according to Defense News
Leonardo has armed its Falco Xplorer drone, the largest remotely piloted aircraft built by the company for strategic surveillance missions.
The Italian aerospace and defense group has completed a series of initial integration activities of the Brimstone 3 precision air-to-ground attack missile on the Falco Xplorer Medium Altitude Long Endurance (Male) drone.
The company showed the UAV armed with a single Brimstone munition at the Le Bourget air show in Paris, but it could be configured, depending on customer requirements, to house a full load of six missiles or 12 rockets. It is the first time that the company has equipped the aircraft with this previously unarmed weapon system, reports Breaking Defense. The effort to arm the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) drone will culminate in a “full development” phase, which is expected to conclude in late 2024, according to Luca Picollo, SVP Airborne Systems, Leonardo Electronics.
“This change marks a significant departure from the company which said during the unveiling of the drone at the Paris Air Show in 2019 that it had no plans to produce an armed version,” Breaking Defense comments. “A major shift in the Italian mindset on arming unmanned aerial systems,” adds Defense News.
All the details.
LEONARDO'S FALCO XPLORER EQUIPPED WITH BRIMSTONE MISSILES
“We have already completed the integration, including ground activities for the Brimstone 3 integration,” Picollo explained to Breaking Defense . “What we want to do now is tight certification of the ISR version [of the Falco Xplorer] and then focus [further] on the weaponized version.”
The Brimstone missiles, manufactured by MBDA, are highly effective against tanks and are capable of hitting ships at a range of around 12 kilometres. The UK has sent over 600 Brimstone missiles to Ukraine.
According to Defense News reports, Leonardo's ambition is to offer this variant on the market for customers by 2025. As company sources explained to the American head, the armed version of the drone does not meet a requirement specifically requested by the Air Force Military Italian, as to a request from other customers.
WAITING FOR CERTIFICATION
Leonardo has yet to receive military certification for the Falco Xplorer.
Last December, the group headed by Roberto Cingolani announced that it had successfully concluded the first phase of flight tests of the Falco Xplorer. Now the system is ready for the second phase of the campaign which will lead to the certification of the drone.
The second phase of the flight test and certification programme, overseen by the Italian Directorate for Aeronautical Armaments and Airworthiness (DAAA), will also cover automatic take-off and landing capabilities and satellite communications.
The certification will allow the Falco Xplorer to fly over anthropised areas, significantly increasing its ability to fly over portions of the territory and also to operate in support of public safety and civil protection activities.
In case of new orders, Leonardo will start production, at the rate of one aircraft per month, from the Ronchi dei Legionari plant. The Falco Xplorer has extended the RPAS range of the Falco family. Falco family surveillance drones are in service in many countries. Five international customers have chosen the original model, while the United Nations has adopted the advanced version, Falco EVO, for the MONUSCO humanitarian mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Furthermore, the EU has selected the aircraft as part of the Frontex programme, aimed at testing drones for external border control.
DEFENSE NEWS COMMENT
Therefore, Leonardo has been involved in the production of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) for two decades and today about sixty units of its Falco drones are in use all over the world, summarizes Defense News .
And now the company has presented – surprisingly – the Falco Xplorer drone armed with an Mbda missile. As Defense News always points out, “the company has in the past advertised its systems primarily for civilian operations, as well as intelligence- and surveillance-based missions. This has in part reflected a trend that has existed over time in the broader Italian defensive culture, which could be considered in some way as a resistance or even a taboo towards arming this type of systems”.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/smartcity/ecco-come-leonardo-ha-armato-il-drone-falco-xplorer/ on Thu, 22 Jun 2023 05:26:19 +0000.