Called Adaptable UAVs, the concept involves unmanned aerial vehicles that can alternate between fixed-wing and rotary flight on the same mission for greater speed and versatility.
The aircraft would feature adaptive flight control and advanced navigation and guidance software. It also involves the use of a pole on a vehicle or landing zone to constrain lateral movement of the UAV when being launched or recovered in rotary mode.
BAE said the use of the pole is particularly important when recovering a UAV to the aft of a ship or a land vehicle.
"The pole's gyro-stabilized element also ensures that it remains upright independently of the host vehicle's orientation, which may be rolling if on a ship, or in the case of a land vehicle driving up or down a slope at the time of the launch or recovery," the company said in a news release.
"The battlefield of the future will require novel solutions to meet emerging threats and to keep human operators safe wherever they may be,'" said Professor Nick Colosimo, BAE Systems' futurist and technologist. "The Adaptable UAVs concept and related technologies are one of a number of concepts being explored through close collaboration between industry and students in academia."
Cranfield University, an academic partner of BAE Systems, has explored a range of UAV technologies.
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