Leonardo UK has been awarded a contract by the Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) agency of the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to supply, develop and future-proof the tools that generate and analyse data used by the UK armed forces’ combat aircraft, the company announced on 25 April 2024.
The contract is worth GBP 10 million (EUR 11.7 million) covers the next 10 years, extending the close partnership between Leonardo and the MoD’s Joint Electronic Warfare Operational Support Centre (JEWOSC), based at RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire.
The Royal Air Force (RAF) already employs Leonardo’s data generation and analysis tool set, known as HORUS, at the Eurofighter Typhoon Mission Support Centre at RAF Coningsby as well as the JEWOSC at RAF Waddington to ensure that Typhoons and other military aircraft are loaded with up-to-date mission data. The new contract will see Leonardo continue to upgrade the tool sets in response to the evolving demands of modern combat missions, as well as enabling them to support the next generation of combat aircraft. The upgraded toolsets will be built upon the new Leonardo NEXIS architecture, which will also be available to all export customers.
Mission data is an essential component for delivering a combat mission that can dramatically increase the survivability of a combat aircraft by fine-tuning every sensor to the actual situation on the battlefield. This includes the locations and types of threats fielded by the enemy. That fine-tuning equips pilots with the ability to react swiftly to threats with the most effective countermeasures, keeping them out of harm’s way.
One of Leonardo’s objectives will be to make it quicker and less labour intensive to refresh mission data, enabling updates between missions while maintaining a high level of assurance. Leonardo will be drawing on artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate parts of the process, quickly processing large quantities of data to produce new data sets.
The contract will future-proof mission data tools in a way that will benefit next-generation aircraft. The upcoming aircraft being developed by the UK-Italian-Japanese Global Combat Air Programme (GCAP), which the RAF is expected to fly from 2035, will gather vast amounts of data through its unique Integrated Sensing and Non-Kinetic Effects (ISANKE) system and integrated communications system (ICS). Upgraded mission data tools will be needed to both update the ISANKE system and analyse, sort and interpret the massive quantities of data being captured by the aircraft’s advanced sensors.
Leonardo’s Cyber and Electromagnetic Activities (CEMA) centre of excellence in Lincoln, UK, will lead the delivery of the new contract and will draw on company-wide expertise in airborne protection. Leonardo provides the survivability equipment for the Eurofighter Typhoon as well as the UK armed forces’ AW159 Wildcat, AW101 Merlin and Apache AH-64E helicopters. Leonardo is acting as the UK and Italian leads for the GCAP’s ISANKE & ICS domain, which will provide the new aircraft with mission-critical information and advanced self-protection capabilities.
As a core member of Team Pellonia, the UK industry-MoD partnership for Next Generation Air Survivability (NGAS) systems, Leonardo is also working to deliver protection systems for the RAF’s Shadow R2 intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft and E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) fleets. All of these platforms will benefit from the new tool sets.
Quoted in relation to the Leonardo contract in a DE&S press release, Kyle Thompson, Head of Branch at DE&S, stated, “This has been a continuing collaborative effort between DE&S, UKSC [United Kingdom Space Command], the RAF and industry to harness technology and build a competitive edge for our UK armed forces by ensuring they have access to a mission system that can be rapidly updated to counter emerging threats.”
Iain Bancroft, senior vice president for electronic warfare at Leonardo UK, added, “The ability to rapidly update mission data is a vital sovereign capability that ensures our armed forces are able to operate effectively in a contested and congested battlespace. By working collaboratively with DE&S and our armed forces end users, we are able to maximise our combat air fleet’s survivability and help ensure operational independence.”
