Leonardo has revealed the design of its new Proteus uncrewed rotorcraft technology demonstrator, a circa three-tonne aircraft developed to showcase advances in autonomy, modular payloads, and cutting-edge rotorcraft technologies.
The announcement, made on 7 January 2025, marks a significant step in supporting the UK Royal Navy’s Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATx) strategy, which aims to enhance maritime aviation capabilities through 2040.
The Proteus demonstrator incorporates a modular payload bay that enables “flexibility in mission roles, including the ability to trade fuel for mission payload,” according to Leonardo. This design allows commanders to customise the aircraft for specific missions, potentially reducing the need for multiple aircraft types and delivering value for money.
The aircraft will also act as a platform to test autonomous Vertical Take-Off and Landing (VTOL) capabilities, leveraging experience from Leonardo’s existing Uncrewed Air System (UAS) programmes. Advanced flight control laws and algorithms will be tested to validate the viability of large uncrewed platforms in maritime environments.
Leonardo highlighted its use of advanced digital tools in Proteus’ development, including a ‘digital twin’ to simulate and test capabilities without live trials.
The company stated, “Utilising a digital twin, AI and Machine Learning (ML) algorithms in a synthetic environment enables Leonardo to test, modify and prove capability without the need for live aircraft trials, thereby reducing costs and significantly accelerating development.”
Innovative manufacturing techniques, such as additive layer manufacturing (3D printing) and low-temperature cure composite materials, are being used to streamline production and reduce costs, say the firm. These technologies are expected to improve sustainability and resilience throughout Leonardo’s supply chain.
The Proteus programme was contracted in 2022 as part of a joint effort between Leonardo, the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Innovation team, and the Royal Navy. The demonstrator is on track for its first flight in mid-2025, according to the company.
Wow, after two years they have a picture for a prototype remote controlled helicopter with “AI”
It’s got a “modular payload bay” translation big hole in the middle with power connection and USB port.
Just stop fannying around and build something and procure it in numbers.
Proteous was suppose to be the Crowsnest replacement, now apparently it has been relegated to a VTOL technology demonstrator.
We don’t need a Vertical Take Off Technology demonstrator. It’s called a helicopter.
It’s not only a tech demonstrator.
And AEW is one of the suggested payloads. But making modular packages isn’t that simple
It’s not any picture. It’s the same picture. Lol
Was never, ever, proposed as a Crowsnest replacement.
“Proteous was suppose to be the Crowsnest replacement”
It was not.
It could be though
I doubt you can get a proper AEW in a 3t drone heli.
Passive yes.
Active radar no.
EW/ECM capable partially.
CrowsNest is a lot more than just a radar to spot skimmers.
Based on AW-09
We’ve seen this image and this design before.
It’s on one of the Navy Lookout articles for the RN’s future maritime aviation force, or some such.
Still, I preferred the original micro Chinook.
Correct.
I thought the “micro Chinook” was another type meant to operate alongside this.
A rotorcraft able to deploy sonar buoys would be very good. You could remove the need for a specialist helo which are rather expensive and not always reliable. So if a frigate could have multiple drone helo’s and a ASROC type weapon it might be more effective than the current single helo-based approach to ASW.
No a manned Helo will still be required for the final attack, as this is not large enough to carry a dippi NG array and torpedoes.
plus ASROC type weapons are extremely expensive and have to be used sparingly.
That’s the question, do you need a single helicopter that carries both the dipping sonar and the torpedoes.
Lets say for the sake of argument that you can carry 4 of these, with folding blades and tail, in place of a single Merlin.
That give you 2 sonobuoy droppers, one dipper and a torpedo carrier, probably with comparable endurance to Merlin as a result of no crew to lug around.
Much more water can be covered simultaneously, with the added advantage that you aren’t reliant on a single gearbox to maintain subhunting as modules can be swapped between airframes.
It’s not about having a single helo, it’s having people on board to control these autonomous craft when away from the ship and to decide how and when to prosecute the target
That gets to one of my big worries. Datalinks and maintaining control. Imagine this helicopter with torpedoes being hacked without your knowledge and the way back to the ship it attacks you
And maintain and service them so little reduction in manpower compared to manned as the handlers still need to be trained so over all Unmanned does not always mean saving compared to manned as we can see in so many cases. Stick with proven types and just ahve more of them. Morally it is not acceptable to be able to decide to kills humans without the finanl say being a human.
Agreed on the dipping sonar (although they do have a payload for one on the render I believe), and agreed that you’d still want a manned helo on board.
That said, no reason why this couldn’t carry sonobuoys and/or Stingray (or the future BAE small torpedo) that I can see. It’s a force multiplier- one of these with a Merlin would broaden the search radius.
Same for fleet protection- put ISR module in, potentially Martlet (again, no reason why not) and pair it with Wildcat.
Essentially, this allows a T31 or T26 to have two aircraft in the hangar without using up the limited manned airframes in inventory and putting strain on the number of pilots we have.
More “informing decisions” incoming?
Will we ever actually buy something in greater numbers than a single Schiebal in the Gulf?
I thought this was meant to be a part of the RN future aviation plan as shown in the graphic released a year or so ago.
I guess we are waiting for the defence review. I would want to know do these work as advertised? Are the data links, ability to fly back to a ship without signal etc etc reliable?
There is good helicopter/drone orders that could keep a U.K. factory in work. With medium helicopter program, helicopter drones, merlin replacement, wildcat replacement as well as possibility to expand numbers of helicopters there is work for design and production facility for years. Whether this is taken advantage of is another matter.