Leonardo, 2Excel and the Ministry of Defence have announced that the Flight Test Aircraft (FTA) ‘Excalibur’ has successfully completed its first phase of modification and flight testing. The milestone saw Excalibur, now equipped with new side and belly pods, assessed for stability during flight. The aircraft will now undergo further engineering work at QinetiQ’s Boscombe Down facility in Wiltshire.
Excalibur is a former commercial Boeing 757 aircraft that is being overhauled into a flying laboratory for combat air technology. It is part of the UK’s Future Combat Air System (FCAS), which will include the core fighter being developed under the Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), as well as a broader range of capabilities such as uncrewed aircraft, information systems and weapon systems.
The first phase of modification saw the Excalibur FTA equipped with new side and belly pods, changing the outer mould line of the aircraft. These pods are designed to host the Integrated Sensors, Non-Kinetic Effects (ISANKE) and Integrated Communications Systems (ICS) that Leonardo UK and its international partners are developing as part of their work on GCAP. Further modification to the Excalibur FTA aircraft will include a fighter jet-style nose cone, to host advanced radar-based sensor demonstrators.
The focus of the Excalibur programme will soon move to the installation of ISANKE & ICS technology demonstrator systems, underpinning the development of these sophisticated capabilities. Excalibur is expected to fly with advanced new ISANKE & ICS technology on-board within the next years, when on-board scientists and engineers will be able to test and refine the systems whilst in flight. This will de-risk and accelerate the domain’s development programme and in turn support the ambitious timescales of GCAP.
Leonardo, 2Excel and the Ministry of Defence have worked closely and transparently to ensure that the Excalibur FTA programme remains on-track. The partnership draws on years of successful collaboration between Leonardo, a major defence prime, and 2Excel, a medium-sized enterprise, with the successful conclusion of this phase of the Excalibur programme acting as a tangible demonstration of the pace and agility that can be achieved through a strong partnership.