Mojave Drone Flies From British Aircraft Carrier
General Atomics’ Mojave short take off and landing drone has gone to sea aboard the Royal Navy aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales.
The Mojave drone, specifically developed with the ability to perform short takeoffs and landings, including from rough fields, with minimal support, has begun experimental operations aboard the U.K. Royal Navy’s aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales. The event marks an important milestone in the development of the Mojave — as well as the wider family of Q-1 lineage drones — which hadn’t previously operated from an aircraft carrier, as well as for the Royal Navy, which is increasingly looking to harness the capability offered by un-crewed aircraft for its carrier force.
- The company added that the Mojave was controlled by an aircrew within a control station onboard the ship. “The demonstration included takeoff, circuits, and approaches and ended with a landing back onto the carrier,” GA-ASI said.
Under a $1.9-million contract, GA-ASI is using its Mojave to “demonstrate a threshold capability for a short takeoff and landing un-crewed air vehicle” aboard the HMS Prince of Wales.
“The Mojave trial is the first time that a remotely piloted air system of this size has operated to and from an aircraft carrier outside of the United States,” said Rear Admiral James Parkin, the Royal Navy’s director develop, in an official statement.
“The success of this trial heralds a new dawn in how we conduct maritime aviation and is another exciting step in the evolution of the Royal Navy’s carrier strike group into a mixed crewed and uncrewed fighting force,” Parkin added.
“With so many international partners interested in the results of these trials, I am delighted that we are taking the lead in such exciting and important work to unlock the longer-term potential of the aircraft carrier and push it deep into the 21st century as a highly potent striking capability,” said Vice Admiral Martin Connell, the Royal Navy’s Second Sea Lord.
Ahead of the latest Mojave trials, the Royal Navy had confirmed that the drone would be tested aboard the carrier. In a statement, the Royal Navy said that, by the time HMS Prince of Wales returns to the United Kingdom in December, it will have “operated advanced drone technologies, demonstrating the delivery of vital supplies without the need to use helicopters.”
Other tasks HMS Prince of Wales is assigned to complete during its fall deployment include expanding the operational envelope for the embarked F-35B Lightning stealth fighters (featuring a first night-time rolling vertical landing), as well as further experiments involving the U.S. Marine Corps MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft.
Exploring drone concepts of operations has been central, however.
Indeed, as soon as the carrier was in the English Channel, at the start of the deployment, it began trials with the W Autonomous Systems company, with a feasibility study looking at drones for the delivery of supplies to Royal Navy vessels at sea, initially flying in up to 220 pounds of stores.
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