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Defence prime Babcock Australasia has signed a memorandum of understanding with US-based autonomous aircraft pioneer PteroDynamics to explore unmanned aerial system (UAS) opportunities.
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The two companies will come together to pursue greater autonomous capability within Babcock’s current and future defence and civil contracts across Australia and New Zealand.
PteroDynamics is an innovator in the design and manufacture of autonomous vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft systems, including its Transwing UAS.
The Transwing fixed-wing aircraft has foldable wings that allow transition between vertical and winged horizontal flight and requires no launch and recovery infrastructure. Its ground footprint is also up to a third less than other VTOL aircraft of comparable wingspan.
The Transwing’s unique capabilities make it ideal for automating time-sensitive delivery of critical high-value payloads to hard-to-reach locations with no runways and in austere conditions, including maritime logistics support and reconnaissance and surveillance.
“Australia and New Zealand are leaders in the advancement of autonomous UAS, and opportunities for the Transwing in the region’s civil, defence and commercial sectors will expand quickly,” PteroDynamics CEO Matthew Graczyk said.
“Babcock is a world-class organisation with decades of experience and deep working relationships with key customers. We are excited to explore together new ways to meet current and future needs of operators in a region of growing strategic importance.”
Transwing was previously showcased during the biennial Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise in July, where multiple Transwing UAS demonstrated ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore logistics and maritime resupply missions from the deck of a US Navy guided-missile destroyer.
RIMPAC involved 40 surface ships, three submarines, 150 aircraft, 14 national land forces, and more than 25,000 personnel from 29 countries, including Australia.
Babcock and PteroDynamics will now collaborate on a series of initiatives to introduce PteroDynamics’ next-generation UAS to the Australasian market. The collaboration will also focus on the delivery of training for Babcock teams to provide in-country support of future contracts.
“We are pleased to forge this strategic relationship with PteroDynamics. We can see many complementary capabilities between our two businesses, and we look forward to pursuing these opportunities in the UAS sector together,” said Duncan Milne, Babcock Australasia managing director aviation and critical services.
“This type of advanced technology has any number of applications, including surveillance, infrastructure management and disaster relief, which makes it particularly well aligned with Australian Defence Force priorities.
“The Transwing’s VTOL and wing-borne performance characteristics could also be of strategic use in the littoral environment in Australia’s north, where logistics and resupply missions in remote locations are currently undertaken by crewed aircraft. There are also many advantages in civil enterprise.”
