Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems have teamed up to develop a range of uncrewed air systems (UAS), all based on a common design, for which concept artwork has now been presented. The effort sees two of the world’s biggest defense contractors joining forces and entering a growing field of less expensive and more expendable drones and munitions.
The collaboration was announced today at the Defense and Security Equipment International (DSEI) exhibition taking place in London. The partnership specifically involves the two companies’ advanced research and development divisions: Lockheed Martin Skunk Works and BAE Systems’ FalconWorks.
Conceptual imagery of the UAS, so far unnamed, shows a missile-like vehicle with a body that is clearly optimized for low observability, with prominent chines. The UAS features notably long and narrow main wings, with seemingly limited sweep, V-shaped tailfins, and smaller, canted ventral fins. The overall size of the vehicle is not immediately apparent, and we have approached the manufacturers for more details about this and other aspects of the UAS.
The companies describe the design as an autonomous UAS, although it’s unclear if it will have an optional “human in the loop” and to what degree. More generally, with advances in artificial intelligence and machine learning, there are ever-growing discussions around the employment of increasingly autonomous weapon systems, something that TWZ has previously highlighted. At the same time, some kind of swarming capability is also likely to be central to the way the UAS operates.
Broadly speaking, the new UAS appears to follow a similar format to Lockheed Martin’s Common Multi-Mission Truck (CMMT, pronounced ‘comet’), which is shown in concept artwork with pop-out wings. An earlier rendering of the CMMT, presented below, showed it with a V-shaped tail assembly and an unusual single offset air intake. There is no visible air intake in the renderings for the new UAS.
When more details about the CMMT were announced earlier this year, Lockheed Martin described it as a family of systems, comprised of low-cost subsonic air vehicles designed for a wide range of missions and for launch from both air and ground platforms.
As for the new Lockheed Martin/BAE Systems UAS, this is described as being “rapidly deployable and modular to deliver a range of effects, including disruptive capabilities.” In the first instance, however, the UAS will be configured for electronic warfare and electronic attack. In this role, it is intended to be used to enhance the survivability of crewed combat aircraft. Like the CMMT, the new UAS will also come with multiple launch options.
The Lockheed Martin/BAE Systems UAS reflects a number of key trends that can be seen across designs that increasingly blur the line between uncrewed aerial systems, especially longer-range kamikaze drones, and cruise missiles, as well as decoys and other ‘launched effects.’
To start with, the two firms are hopeful that the new UAS can be brought into production quickly, leveraging the potential of Skunk Works and FalconWorks to rapidly design, prototype, and then build defense products.
Once ready for series production, the resulting UAS should be cost-effective and easily deployable. This will ensure that manufacturing output can be ramped up to meet the demands of future large-scale conflicts and that the UAS should be affordable enough to be fielded in significant numbers to boost ‘combat mass.’ The ability to produce munitions at scale is something that is increasingly seen as a key requirement by the U.S. military, and elsewhere.
While it looks very much like a missile, the manufacturers classify the new vehicle more as a drone, reflecting the growing demand for uncrewed assets of different varieties to complement crewed platforms.
BAE Systems also stresses that the new UAS should be able to work alongside existing crewed platforms and not just the next (sixth) generation of combat jets.
Having a drone/munition/launched effect that offers modularity is also increasingly on-trend. In this way, the same common design can be adapted to fly different missions. While electronic warfare/electronic attack is clearly the first priority, it’s easy to envisage subsequent iterations of the UAS being configured for kinetic attack, with the design evolving into a relatively cheap cruise missile. By switching out the payloads, it could also be used for intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance (ISR), as well as being employed as a decoy.
In terms of launch options, BAE Systems outlines plans for the initial system to be suitable for air drop, ground launch, and maritime launch. In addition to air drop, the company notes that the UAS will also be able to be launched “from a wide-body logistic aircraft.”
That latter concept parallels the U.S. military’s Rapid Dragon, an experimental effort in which airlifters have been armed with cruise missiles. Having palletized munitions aboard an airlifter is now being seen as a critical way of boosting air-launched strike capabilities.
“We’re pleased to join forces with BAE Systems, combining our expertise in rapid prototyping and advanced development to deliver game-changing capabilities,” said OJ Sanchez, Vice President and General Manager, Lockheed Martin Skunk Works, in a press release. “By working together, we’re unlocking new possibilities for our customers and advancing the future of autonomous systems.”
Dave Holmes, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ FalconWorks division, added that the new UAS program will “deliver disruptive capabilities that can make a real difference to our military customers at pace, enabling them to confront the operational requirements of today’s battlefield.”
While key performance and other parameters of the new UAS remain unknown, the design appears to be very much in keeping with an ongoing U.S. Air Force push for cheaper, easier-to-produce munitions that has been accelerated by the realities of the current stockpile and its limited depth.
While this appears to be a new area of focus for BAE Systems, it’s notable that Lockheed Martin has been working in this field for some time, beyond the aforementioned CMMT.
In fact, the CMMT is a revised design based on the same company’s Speed Racer air vehicle concept, a missile-shaped uncrewed system you can read more about here.
The older Lockheed Martin video below includes a rendering of the Speed Racer experimental vehicle, as seen in the thumbnail.
Back in 2022, Lockheed Martin unveiled four distinct uncrewed aircraft designs, one of which was the CMMT, with Speed Racer being disclosed as the basis for it.
Like the new UAS being developed with BAE Systems, the CMMT is designed to be suitable for air-drop from fighters, bombers, and transports, with previous concept artwork showing examples being launched from a C-130 series airlifter (as seen at the top of this story) and from an F-16 fighter. There is also a smaller version of the CMMT that comprises a long-range launched effect that will be deployed from rotary-wing platforms — related concept artwork has shown an H-60 Black Hawk series helicopter.
Lockheed Martin also showed concept artwork of a ground-launched version of the CMMT, with an example being fired from an M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) using one of its rocket pods. The fact that the new Lockheed Martin/BAE Systems UAS is also intended to be offered for ground launch could indicate that HIMARS is a possible launch platform, although much will depend on the size of the vehicle. Regardless, a supplementary booster would presumably be required for ground launch.
At this stage, we don’t know what, if any, relationship the new UAS might have with the CMMT, or other Lockheed Martin efforts, although it would appear almost certainly planned to leverage the same rapid path to manufacturing. In the past, the U.S. firm has talked about the aim of producing a low-cost design that is “100 percent producible from the start.” Then, once a scalable product is achieved, “performance-enhancing and mission-specific capabilities” will be introduced later, “as use cases and threats emerge.”
Overall, Lockheed Martin’s previously known efforts in this direction also find parallels with other manufacturers. For example, Anduril’s Barracuda is described as a new family of “expendable autonomous air vehicles” that are scalable, highly modular, and already being flight tested. Other entrants in what is fast becoming a crowded field include the L3Harris Red Wolf and Green Wolf, and these represent just a portion of the low-cost precision munition projects known to be going on now in the United States.
There are, meanwhile, an increasing number of cheaper cruise missiles now in the works, and this is an area that has attracted particular interest from smaller firms, including some brand-new players that pose a challenge to Lockheed Martin and others.
With the eyes of the Pentagon very much on a potential conflict with China in the Indo-Pacific region, and the demands for low-cost air vehicles that this would entail, the Lockheed Martin and BAE Systems collaboration is nothing if not timely. Involving the U.K.-based company could well open the door to additional export opportunities for the new, unnamed uncrewed air system. Meanwhile, the prospect of two defense-contracting powerhouses teaming up will be hard to overlook as the Pentagon and its allies start to pour more money into this space.
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