Leonardo, the Royal Navy and the UK Ministry of Defence’s Defence Equipment and Support (DE&S) Future Capability Innovation (FCI) team have unveiled the design of the Proteus technology demonstrator aircraft, Leonardo announced on 7 January 2025
The uncrewed rotorcraft, which weighs around 3 tonnes, will be used to demonstrate advances in autonomy and payload modularity and interchangeability while developing cutting-edge new rotorcraft technologies, including design and manufacturing techniques. Its development supports the Royal Navy’s Maritime Aviation Transformation (MATx) strategy, which covers the evolution of maritime aviation out to 2040. This includes building mass at sea and supporting future anti-submarine warfare missions.
The design of the Proteus aircraft reveals that it has drawn on components from throughout Leonardo’s helicopter portfolio in order to reduce costs and accelerate aircraft development. Leonardo has also drawn on knowledge and experience from across its existing unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) programmes. The design will demonstrate the viability of large UAVs in the maritime environment and will function as a test bed for the development and demonstration of autonomous capabilities, including flight control laws and algorithms for large autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft.
Uniquely, the Proteus design features a modular payload bay designed to enable flexibility in mission roles, including the ability to trade fuel for mission payloads. The ability to plug in specific payloads for different missions aims to give commanders in the field a wide range of options from a single aircraft type. “This is both operationally useful and delivers value for money by avoiding the need to buy and maintain multiple different fleets of aircraft,” Leonardo explained in a press release.
Leonardo noted that its site in Yeovil maintains an aggressive autonomy development roadmap that covers the capabilities required to conduct autonomous flight and deliver mission capability. In practice, this means maturing and testing a range of transformative technologies and techniques, both for the design and manufacture of rotorcraft as well as on board the aircraft itself. For instance, Leonardo has created a ‘digital twin’ of the Proteus technology demonstrator to aid in development. Utilising a digital twin, artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms in a synthetic environment enables Leonardo to test, modify and prove capability without the need for live aircraft trials, thus reducing costs and significantly accelerating development when compared to traditional rotorcraft programmes.
Leonardo is also experimenting with the application of new digital manufacturing technologies in rotorcraft production, including additive layer manufacturing (3D printing) and the use of cost-effective low-temperature-cure composite materials, which require fewer manufacturing stages in the production of parts.
Once proven, these technologies will be employed more extensively to deliver agility through spiral development techniques, reduce through-life costs in comparison to conventional crewed aircraft and improve manufacturing resilience and sustainability throughout Leonardo’s supply chain.
In addition to innovating in technologies, Leonardo is also utilising the Proteus programme to transform its approach to collaboration with customers and end users. The company is drawing on ‘agile’ methodology that breaks the project into phases and emphasises continuous collaboration and improvement. This closer collaboration between Leonardo, DE&S and the Royal Navy has enabled the EUR 71 million project, initially contracted in 2022, to move forward at pace, with the demonstrator on track to fly for the first time in mid-2025.
