The decision to pursue Electric Products stemmed from this expressed customer interest, our standing commitment to sustainability and a shared interest in developing innovative products. The Electric Products team formed in September 2021 with a long-term goal to explore and develop an e-product portfolio for our customers. In a fast developing market, it was important that BAE Systems found a way to capitalize on existing capabilities in the commercial sector in a way that would help us to fast-forward ideas into realisable solutions.
Neil and his team have adopted a collaborative approach, establishing relationships with several companies who are active in the civil market. By using the civil market as an entry point, we have been able to leverage our partners’ know-how and tap into their existing offerings and development programmes at a point where we can work together to shape solutions that will enable us to tailor these products to a military domain. Neil is the first to admit, it’s a radically different way of thinking for BAE Systems Air and it’s something his team are embracing in pursuit of new possibilities.
To date, we’ve entered agreements with three companies: London-based Malloy Aeronautics (Malloy); Brazilian company Embraer and their spin off Eve Air Mobility (Eve); and Pipistrel Aircraft (Pipistrel) out of Slovenia. Malloy, Embraer/Eve, and Pipistrel have made sizable and credible advancements with their respective e-product portfolios, making them ideal partners for our induction into the global market. Neil is confident that these relationships will enable us “to understand and develop a suite of e-products for our customers” that provide innovative and sustainable solutions for the future battlespace.
We collaborated with Malloy to develop the T-650 electric Uncrewed Air System (UAS) aircraft capable of lifting 650lb / 300kg. Malloy have been developing electric powered quadcopter style UAS for over a decade and currently offer a range of logistics drones with payloads from 80lb up to 400lb. While their drones have a number of impressive capabilities, such as providing front-line troops with essential goods, we identified a need for an air vehicle with an increased payload that could support a wider range of military applications. The T-650, whilst still a concept, is intended to carry 300 kg of payload of multiple role types to bring a versatile solution to the market.
The aircraft will be able to fly for approximately 30 minutes and as battery technology improves, we hope to see this increase and we envision the T-650 being deployed for use cases including ship-to-ship and ship-to-land movement, land and sea-based military operations, and humanitarian aid support.
BAE Systems and Embraer are working together to explore potential defense variants for the Eve eVTOL aircraft. Together we are exploring how the aircraft, primarily designed for the urban transport market, could be used for a range of applications such as personnel transportation, surveillance and reconnaissance, disaster relief and humanitarian response. Eve’s eVTOL could help to transform defence operations, whilst reducing their environmental impact – at a much lower operating cost than today’s platforms
Our third collaboration to date is with Pipistrel, creator of the world’s first and only certified electric aircraft. Pipistrel was recently acquired by a larger company, Textron, which elevated its size and resources. We look forward to innovating with Pipistrel and uncovering new product opportunities for our customers.
Navigating in the early stages of an uncharted market, Neil is optimistic about the team’s early progress -
"We’ve made good headway with developing a strategy, developing an initial view of use cases, and developing a set of collaborative partnerships. And the next job is to cement those and get a more formal footing from a commercial sense.”
With these initial products, the goal is not to directly substitute existing platforms, but to enhance and complement existing capabilities – working with our customers to make sure what we’re proposing will help to meet their needs.
Neil adds:
"As a company, we have a lot to learn about the capabilities of electric products and the ways in which we will be able to use them to conserve natural resources while meeting our customers’ operational needs. It’s an incredibly exciting journey to be on.”
The accelerated and experimental efforts that Neil and the team are undertaking are buoyed by the experience and extensive capabilities that BAE Systems brings in the aviation and defense sector.
We recognise the need to accelerate our response in relation to climate change including alignment of our business with the goals of the Paris Agreement. As a result, during 2020, environmental leads and functional representatives from across the business worked together to scope a net zero ambition for the group. Following this first phase of work, we can now outline our ambition to get to net zero.