Airbus Defence and Space, part of the Europe-based Airbus group, announced on Monday that it had, for the first time, both successfully launched and controlled an uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV), or drone, from an A400M military airlift aircraft. Early this year, the company had successfully launched a drone from an A400M, but the drone had not been controlled after launch.

The drone employed in the latest test was a modified Airbus Do-DT25, and its launch device had been developed in just six months. After being released from its carrier aircraft, the DT25’s engines were ignited and it was flown. The A400M crew then handed over control of the drone to a ground operator, who safely landed it.

The test programme was a joint project of Airbus, the German Aerospace Centre (DLR), the German Defence Force (Bundeswehr) and two German companies, SFL and Geradts. It made use of a Bundeswehr A400M, which had the drone launching device fitted to its rear cargo ramp. The project was developed by a multidisciplinary team, using rapid prototyping and joint flight testing.

The test was part of the development programme for the French-German-Spanish Future Combat Air System (FCAS). Drones, or UAVs, were expected to play a major role in FCAS, cooperating closely with crewed aircraft and assisting human pilots execute their missions. Although they would have a significant degree of autonomy, these UAVs would always be under the control of a human pilot. 

The concept was that military transport aircraft, like the A400M, would act as motherships for these UAVs, thereby extending their range. These mothership aircraft would fly as close as possible to the combat zone and then release their embarked drones. In the case of the A400M, it would be able to carry up to 12 heavy, or up to 50 small, UAVs.

“The excellent collaboration with our German customer and partners on the A400M UAV launcher campaign is further evidence of how the development of FCAS will take innovation and technologies to the next level,” affirmed Airbus Defence and Space CEO Michael Schoellhorn. “FCAS as a system of systems is starting to take shape now.”