Boeing Australia recently achieved two more milestones on the Royal Australian Air Force’s Loyal Wingman – Advanced Development Program: weight on wheels and aircraft power on. The development milestones for the unmanned aircraft come just weeks after completion of the first fuselage, allowing for rapid progress on systems installation and functional and integration testing from the aircraft’s own landing gear.
“We’re continuing at pace toward our goal of flying later this year, so that we can show our customer and the world what unmanned capability like this can do,” said Dr. Shane Arnott, program director of the Boeing Airpower Teaming System. “The strong contributions from our industry team are powering our progress.”
The Loyal Wingman is 11.7-meter (38-foot) long unmanned aerial vehicle should be capable of providing fighter-like performance developed by Boeing Australia for the Royal Australian Air Force Its range should be over 3,700 kilometers (2,000 nautical miles). Its possible armament has yet to be unveiled, but its missions should cover intelligence support, surveillance, and reconnaissance as well as electronic warfare.
