British aerospace major, BAE Systems, announced Tuesday that it has started work on building the Taranis airframe - a 124 million pounds (Rs.10 billion) unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV) demonstrator aimed to boost the country's military capabilities.
Named after the Celtic God of Thunder, Taranis will help improve the ministry's 'approach to the future capabilities needed for deep target attack and intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (ISTAR),' a BAE release said.
About the size of a BAE Systems Hawk advanced jet trainer, Taranis will have low observable features and autonomous systems that will allow it to think for itself for much of its mission.
Ground testing of Taranis is scheduled to begin in early 2009, with the first flight trials due to take place in 2010. The programme brings together a number of technologies, capabilities and systems to produce a UCAV technology demonstrator based around a fully autonomous intelligent system.
The 'first metal cut' on the new airframe took place at BAE Systems' manufacturing facility in Samlesbury, Lancashire, earlier this month.
Taranis is part of the British government's strategic unmanned air vehicle (Experiment), or SUAV (E). The defence ministry's team leader for the programme, Jonathan Barrett, joined the managing director of Autonomous Systems and Future Capability for BAE Systems, Mark Kane, in the Lancashire facility to commission the start of the machining process.
Barrett said: 'This programme is not just about positioning UK industry and putting the UK on the map with cutting edge technology; it is also about informing the basis of the potential future Royal Air Force and our future potential capability.'
BAE Systems is the industry lead on the Taranis technology demonstration programme, working together with Rolls-Royce, QinetiQ and the Systems division of GE Aviation (formerly Smiths Aerospace), as well as a range of Britain-based suppliers.
Kane said: 'We have a big team around us and we are going to do this together. Taranis is one of the most important defence projects currently underway and will help maintain UK capability over the next 20 years.
'It makes use of at least 10 years of research into low observables, systems integration, control infrastructure and full autonomy. It builds on a number of successes with risk reduction programmes and it harnesses a range of new skills acquired around rapid engineering,' he added.
The initial concept for Taranis was built on the BAE Systems-funded Raven programme and many other technology de-risking activities undertaken under both industry and defence ministry funding. Raven demonstrated, in flight, an autonomous system using a configuration similar to the one proposed for Taranis.
BAE Systems is a premier global defence and aerospace company delivering a full range of products and services for air, land and naval forces, as well as advanced electronics, IT solutions and customer support services.With 96,000 employees worldwide, BAE Systems' sales exceeded 15 billion pounds in 2006.