{"id":225942,"date":"2021-01-27T05:20:18","date_gmt":"2021-01-27T05:20:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=225942"},"modified":"2021-01-29T08:29:01","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T08:29:01","slug":"new-raf-high-speed-combat-drone-unveiled","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/?p=225942","title":{"rendered":"New RAF High-Speed Combat Drone Unveiled"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2 style=\"text-align: center;\">Meet the RAF&#8217;s new &#8216;loyal wingman&#8217;: Prototype of high-speed unmanned drone designed to fly alongside fighter jets bringing extra tech and weaponry into war zones goes into production<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>A \u00a330million Government investment is in place to start production of a prototype of the potentially game-changing fighter aircraft<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It will be armed with surveillance and electronic warfare technology to provide assistance to manned planes\u00a0<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Spirit AeroSystems in Belfast will lead new phase of Project Mosquito in a contract that will support more than 200 jobs in Northern Ireland, the MoD said<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h1 style=\"text-align: center;\"><strong>Charlotte Mitchell \u2013 Mail Online Jan 26, 2021<\/strong><\/h1>\n<p>Production of the RAF&#8217;s new unmanned high-speed combat drone is set to begin in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/northern-ireland\/index.html\"><strong>Northern Ireland<\/strong><\/a> in a \u00a330million project.<\/p>\n<p>Nicknamed the &#8216;loyal wingman&#8217;, the aircraft will be designed to fly alongside fighter jets, armed with\u00a0surveillance and electronic warfare technology to provide a battle-winning advantage over hostile forces.<\/p>\n<p>The Ministry of Defence (MoD) said the three-year contract to design and manufacture a prototype will support more than 100 jobs in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n<p>The loyal wingman will be the UK&#8217;s first uncrewed platform able to target and shoot down enemy aircraft and survive against surface-to-air missiles, the MoD said.<\/p>\n<p>Spirit AeroSystems, in Belfast, has been selected to lead Team Mosquito in the next phase of the project.<\/p>\n<p>The team will further develop the RAF&#8217;s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA) concept, with a full-scale vehicle flight-test programme expected by the end of 2023.<\/p>\n<p>Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis said: &#8216;This is fantastic news and underlines the distinct strengths in Northern Ireland&#8217;s economy, through its advanced engineering and manufacturing capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This ground-breaking project will involve significant investment which will not only support local employment, but also reinforce Northern Ireland&#8217;s contribution to the security of our nation.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;This is a great win for the Northern Ireland defence industry and will showcase some of the most pioneering engineering work currently being undertaken in the UK,&#8217; UK Minister for Defence Procurement Jeremy Quin said.<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_225946\" style=\"width: 630px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/loyal-wingman2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-225946\" class=\"wp-image-225946\" src=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/loyal-wingman2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"620\" height=\"406\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/loyal-wingman2.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/loyal-wingman2-480x314.jpg 480w\" sizes=\"(min-width: 0px) and (max-width: 480px) 480px, (min-width: 481px) 620px, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-225946\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The loyal wingman will be the UK&#8217;s first uncrewed platform able to target and shoot down enemy aircraft and survive against surface-to-air missiles, the MoD said. Pictured: An MoD visualisation of the RAF&#8217;s Lightweight Affordable Novel Combat Aircraft (LANCA). Click to enlarge<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&#8216;The \u00a330 million project will accelerate the development of the UK&#8217;s future air power by delivering cutting-edge uncrewed aircraft, maintaining our position as a world leader in emerging technologies.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>The director of Future Combat Air at the MoD, Richard Berthon, said: &#8216;Project Mosquito is a vital element of our approach to Future Combat Air, rapidly bringing to life design, build and test skills for next generation combat air capabilities.<\/p>\n<p>&#8216;Autonomous &#8216;loyal wingman&#8217; aircraft create the opportunity to expand, diversify and rapidly upgrade Combat Air Forces in a cost-effective way, now and in the future.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Boeing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/sciencetech\/article-6752787\/Boeing-unveils-38ft-long-autonomous-Loyal-Wingman-fighter-jet-uses-AI-fly-alongside-pilots.html\"><strong>first unveiled<\/strong><\/a> the new autonomous fighter jet plane at an Australian air show in February 2019.<\/p>\n<p>The aerospace giant said the new drone was\u00a0particularly suited for long-distance surveillance missions that humans can&#8217;t typically perform.<\/p>\n<p>It may also be able to carry missiles or bombs at some point in the future.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-9182835\/Production-set-start-high-speed-unmanned-drone-designed-fly-alongside-fighter-jets-RAF.html\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Meet the RAF&#8217;s new &#8216;loyal wingman&#8217;: Prototype of high-speed unmanned drone designed to fly alongside fighter jets bringing extra tech and weaponry into war zones goes into production<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":39262,"featured_media":225944,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-225942","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-Fringe_Science_New_Discoveries_and_Developments"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225942","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/39262"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=225942"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":225947,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/225942\/revisions\/225947"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/225944"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=225942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=225942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thetruthseeker.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=225942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}