Leonardo has collaborated with the UK Ministry of Defence (MOD) for over a decade to advance Rotary Wing Uncrewed Air Systems. In partnership with DE&S Future Capabilities Innovation and the Royal Navy, Leonardo is developing the Proteus Technology Demonstrator to enhance payload modularity, autonomy and rotorcraft technology.

Proteus forms a key pillar of the Royal Navy’s Maritime Aviation Transformation (MAT X) strategy to utilise uncrewed systems where possible and crewed platforms where necessary, build mass at sea and support anti-submarine warfare missions.

In July 2022, Leonardo was awarded a four-year, £60M contract for the RWUAS Phase 3A Technology Demonstrator Programme, (referred to as ‘Proteus’). The company is developing a c3t Technology Demonstrator with inherent modularity and autonomy, designed, developed and manufactured in Yeovil, UK. The demonstrator aims to take flight in 2025.

This programme will provide evidence confirming that existing aviation capability can be augmented with uncrewed air systems. The programme, which is being managed by DE&S’s Future Capability Innovation and Leonardo’s Future Programmes Group (FPG), aims to harness technology development under an agile framework.

Primarily driven by the Royal Navy and funded via the Anti-Submarine Warfare Spearhead Programme, the outcome of the latest phase of these investigations is the flight demonstration of a Technology Demonstrator. This is being developed with the attributes necessary to make a meaningful contribution to the future UK MOD rotary wing fleet, and supports both the Defence Capability Framework and the Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm 2040 (FAA 2040) vision.