Aussie BAE Systems new VTOL long-range drone STRIX passes design review, in static testing

INDOPAC 2023 — BAE System Australia’s ambitious long-range drone, STRIX, has passed the company’s critical design review, and though it is slightly behind schedule for first flight, the company expects to provide an operational system for the self-funded aircraft in 2026.

Passage through CDR resulted in “some key elements of the platform modified compared with the model exhibited at Avalon International Airshow and DSEI London,” the company said in an email response to written questions. It seems likely those changes account for planned first flight shifting from the end of 2023 to “the first half of 2024.” The company provided the information on the eve of the biggest naval show in the region, Indo Pacific 2023, being held here. Indo Pac will boast 832 participating exhibitors from 21 countries.

STRIX is a Vertical Takeoff and Landing (VTOL) aircraft that can be stuffed in a standard shipping container and can function as a weapons platform or an ISR platform. It’s designed to fly from land or a ship. It is co-developed by BAE and Perth-based Innovaero, which specializes in product design and manufacture in the Australian market.

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When it was unveiled at the Avalon Air Show in February, BAE Systems Australia CEO Ben Hudson stressed the system’s simplicity of deployment. Fitting the aircraft into a standard shipping container “was one of our key seven requirements when we kicked the program off,” he said. “It takes about a minute to fold the wings, and then you push it straight in a container and, without the weapons on board, it’s about 650 kilograms, and then you’re on the back of a truck and you’re off to the next location.”

The company said it is building a full-scale prototype and “propulsion testing has taken place on a static rig at our Henderson shipyard in Western Australia.” Also, testing is “underway” on the “propeller, motor and battery configuration as well as elements of the autonomy that will be on board the platform.”

The first flight trials are designed to prove the concept works and demonstrate VTOL capabilities with transition to conventional flight and landing. The aircraft is being designed for a “representative maximum take-off weight” of around 900 kilograms.

BAE Australia has tested “a digital twin of STRIX in our 6 Degree of Freedom physics-based simulation and proved several missions including maritime operations. Whilst this is only in a synthetic environment, it contains advanced testing parameters including real-world physics, atmospheric conditions, cross-winds and more. And, it is the same simulation that we have successfully used before to prove novel concepts in the air domain,” the company said in the email.

BAE Systems Australia clearly would like to sell the aircraft to the army and navy here but the firm is also actively cultivating the international market. Still, they are aiming to increase the “sovereign” content of the system as they develop it and have spread development across several Australian states.

“Our ePrototype platform is being developed in Western Australia, with the autonomy capability being predominantly designed in [the state of] Victoria and supported by Australian Industry,” the company email said. “As we build the ePrototype, we are incorporating expertise from across Australian industry, with the intention to increase Australian content as we move through production.”

Since the weapon has been designed completely in Australia, all the intellectual property is Australian and not subject to America’s ITAR regulations or Britain’s arms export controls.

The company said the system “has been put forward for a number of RFIs across the Indo Pacific region. STRIX is an evolving capability so discussions have included an expanded focus on areas such as littoral capabilities and various payload requirements. STRIX was displayed at DSEI in London with a number of nations requesting further information. We also recently attended AUSA and had important conversations with potential customers and industry partners.” As is usually the case when a company is the earlier stages of talking with the military of another government, they said BAE Australia said it was “unable to go into the specifics at this stage.”

Clearly hoping to increase the size of the target market, the company says STRIX is designed with “a payload-agnostic architecture” so customers can fit different weapons and sensors on it “with the ability to rapidly fit different payloads for a variety of mission sets.”

At their original unveiling at the Avalon Air Show, company officials mentioned a range of weapons, including the AGM-114 Hellfire, Brimstone, APKWS II 70mm laser-guided rockets, the AGM-179 JAGM-MR and a new Razer precision guided munition (LCPGM) being developed by BAE Systems Australia, that was also unveiled at the show.

Since STRIX is internally developed, Breaking Defense asked for some indication as to how much of company funds have been spent on the system. Unsurprisingly, the company said it does not comment on individual projects, but said “in 2022 BAE Systems spent AUD $3.75bn [$2.4 billion USD] on R&D, of which AUD $545m [$354 million USD] was self-funded investment.”