Proteus RWUAS set for mid-2025 flight-testing

The Proteus technology demonstrator programme is intended to prove the viability of a large VTOL UAS in the maritime environment. The render shows the aircraft equipped with a sonobuoy dispenser payload. (Leonardo)

Leonardo UK is set to fly a prototype 3 tonne-class rotary-wing unmanned aircraft system (RWUAS) for the UK Royal Navy (RN) in mid-2025, the company confirmed on 7 January.

The Proteus technology demonstrator programme, being delivered under a GBP60 million (USD75.5 million) RWUAS Capability Concept Demonstrator Phase 3 contract awarded by the Ministry of Defence in June 2022, is intended to prove technologies, techniques, and processes applicable to a future maritime vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAS. Sponsored by the RN's Anti-Submarine Warfare (ASW) Spearhead initiative, Proteus development and test results will feed into the service's Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATx) strategy.

The Proteus demonstrator, currently about 70% complete at Leonardo UK Helicopters' site in Yeovil, Somerset, is a single-engine/single-rotor design with a shrouded tail rotor. According to Leonardo, the air vehicle will “demonstrate the viability of [a] large UAS in the maritime environment and will function as a testbed for the development and demonstration of autonomous capability [including] flight control laws and algorithms for large autonomous VTOL aircraft”.

Leonardo is using advanced digital design and manufacturing techniques in the development of Proteus, including a digital twin for synthetic development. The company is also utilising the programme to transform its approach to collaborative design through the adoption of an ‘Agile' methodology based on a collaborative and highly iterative product development cycle.