“Our smaller T-150 has been tested and operated for years by the UK MoD and US DoD,” said Malloy Aeronautics CEO Oriol Badia. “T-600 has gone from concept to operational demonstrator in record time for a vehicle in this payload class.”
Capable of vertical take-off and landing, electrically-powered quadcopter T-600 can carry 200kg and travel at up to 140km/h. Payload-dependent range is up to 80km.
“It is around the size of a small car and is designed to be disassembled for transportation,” said BAE. “During the exercise, the demonstrator released an inert Sting Ray anti-submarine torpedo during a flight mission at sea for the first time.”
This adds torpedo launching to last-mile re-supply and casualty evacuation roles already demonstrated, it added.
T-600 is a proof-of-concept pre-cursor to the planned T-650 (right) “which will offer reconfiguration capabilities applicable to military, commercial and humanitarian uses”, said BAE, carrying 300kg up to 30km, with a maximum range and speed the same as the T-600.
L3 Harris and General Dynamics UK were also partners in the demonstration.
The exercise, called Repmus (Robotic experimentation and prototyping with maritime un-crewed systems) involved 15 NATO countries as well as Ireland and Sweden. “It provided a safe and controlled area to test concepts, requirements and advancing technologies in respect of maritime un-crewed systems”, said BAE.
