BAE Systems have announced that their ‘revolutionary’ new mission planning software will be rolled out to the Royal Air Force by November 2020.

The software, named Sceptre, will be used throughout a mission, from the initial plan, to the execution of it, to the debrief. BAE say it’ll allow users on the ground to “make better, more informed decisions” to support the flight crew.

The system was originally used for Merlin and Wildcat helicopters, and has now been adapted for use with fast jets. Whilst the RAF will initially use it primarily to support Typhoon, it has been designed to be platform agnostic.

Briefing media on the announcement yesterday, Louise Aiken – Head of Mission Planning Programmes – said:

“Sceptre will deliver the RAF a very real and tangible information advantage over its adversaries. In today’s world, a pilot does not have time to decipher multiple pages of information and this is where Sceptre gives them information in a clear way to allow them to focus on the mission.”

It was developed and funded internally by BAE Systems. The value of the contract with the Ministry of Defence has not been released.

Analysis on the BAE Systems media day from Henry Jones

358 Hanger sits unassumingly on the southern side of Warton Aerodrome. Inside are six Typhoon jets. I was only allowed to photograph one of them. The rest had various panels removed – these jets are used by BAE to test new technologies and components.

IPA6 for example, the jet that I could photograph, was the primary testbed for Project Centurion, BAE’s plan to ensure Typhoon could takeover from Tornado. I was told that it had been a “seamless transition”.

IPA6, photo taken by Henry Jones.

I got the impression that Typhoon will never be a ‘final product’. BAE constantly work as a ‘whole force’ with the RAF, getting feedback on new systems and providing a vast amount of support.

Part of this support is in training, run by Archie Neill. In response to what he described as an “asymmetric changing environment”, the RAF is moving towards a 50:50 Live:Synthetic training balance. While less time training in the air may be cheaper, cost isn’t the main driver for this shift

There is increasing concern over adversaries watching the techniques and tactics that pilots employ while training in the air. He even identified the Falkland Islands as somewhere with plenty of free airspace, but can nonetheless be watched from a satellite. Switching to an increasingly synthetic training programme minimises the risk of revealing techniques to other states.

As part of their involvement in the Tempest programme, BAE are also looking at how pilots may interact with an aircraft in the future.

They describe their Striker II helmet concept as the “world’s most advanced helmet-mounted display”. Whilst I have very little to compare it too, it is nonetheless very impressive. Suzy Broadbent, one of the engineers working on the helmet, said it would “become the primary display surface” in an aircraft. While in flight, the pilot can select an interface or display and drag and drop it to some dead space in their field of vision. 

I was struck during the visit by how passionate the BAE Systems staff were about each of their areas and projects. They’re doing some remarkable and incredibly impressive work.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. So the RAF gets this and I get a slightly crumpled none fablon 1:500,000,000,000,000 map with a coffee stain? But the worst case scenario is they loose all aircraft and 12 bods? I fell let down!

    BV

  3. Great bit of kit, glad there spending money somewhere.
    https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/268589
    Please sign and share this petition, all sectors of MOD need more no st but for an island nation that once had the greatest RN in the world we have been publicly shamed by not have enough ships to protect or shipping. In 10 years more ships are being retired than we have on order, orders will secure docks and building capacity. If we don’t act soon in 10 years we will be an even bigger joke.

    • We are anything but a joke Bob. We have the most respect Armed Forces in the world, the best trained, and some very fine kit in service, and much more coming. Yes, we need abit more, so does every other nation. But the last thing we need is people sat in the safety of their home, saying our forces are a joke. If you want to be pro-active. Join up.

      • Hi Robert, by joke I mean what consecutive government’s have done to our ability to ensure safety of our international interests. We have 1 aircraft carrier – with no planes (cleared for embarking) 30% plus of destroyers and frigates needing repair and numbers of vessels at an all time low. Don’t for one minute think I doubt the ability of what personnel and assets we do have, we just don’t have enough. If I was young enough to serve I would, my biggest regret was not joining once I had my offer to join esp as 3 generations before me did(dying father and getting engaged got in the way). I have spoken to quite a few friends aboard that found it funny we was told by Iran they will capture a British flagged tanker but we just don’t have numbers to prevent… The type 45’s are top notch, the new 26’s will be too and obv the elizabeth class will be great when fully operational. The theory of fewer but far better ships doesn’t work so well if they are stretched so far that only 1 or 2 can be responding to an area they could be vastly outnumbered overwhelming the defensive ability of said ship. I understand my tone & words might have made people think I don’t respect our forces but that is not how I intended it to sound. I wouldn’t have started the petition if I didn’t care about the resources allocated to our boys (& girls). Sorry if the way I stated my last comment gave the impression I think any branch is a joke. Bob

        • Firstly even the Americans would struggle to protect all the shipping in the gulf… There are simply too many ships sailing too close to Iran. Iran has its entire surface fleet and personnel at its disposal.

          Secondly we have no operational Aircraft carrier as it has not completed tests yet. But that was a calculated gamble that seems to have paid off. If needed both the Carrier and its aircraft could operate in theatre.

          To get more ships we need to spend more money. To spend more money we need to increase tax or decrease spending somewhere else. When there are homeless on our streets, schools having to shut down lessons in order to survive, NHS struggling to cope with winters, elderly not getting adequate social care and our mental health system being severely under funded, where is the money coming from?

          Add to that the possibility that Brexit could cost the economy £30 billion per year and the fact that we now need to purchase a bunch of coastal policing vessels that we have not needed for decades then I am not sure how we increase the fleets dramatically. The cost of the ships is one thing, the cost of running them is another.

    • It’s difficult to know from the article and illustrations what this Sceptre system is actually doing. There might be some quite complicated processing going on there in terms of radar visibility calculations based on intel on enemy radar locations and Typhoon radar cross-sections, attack envelopes of know SAM defences, fuel efficiency for the potential candidate flight paths in and out of enemy territory, etc. If it is doing stuff like that then it’s an extremely impressive and valuable asset even if, once it gets to the display of its results, it doesn’t look much more impressive than Google maps displaying the best route to get to your local Tesco.

  7. Curious to know who the chap on the left of the CGI representation is supposed to be? Bert from the local garage?

    Otherwise, good to know. How much of this amazing technology will Whitehall give away to the world free of charge do we think?

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