In the case of MUM-T, combining drones and helicopters creates teams that can do more than drones or helicopters alone. A case in point: Imagine a military ‘tank killer’ helicopter receiving targeting data from a fleet of autonomous surveillance drones. The drones would be tasked to spot enemy tanks and send their coordinates to the helicopter’s weapons system. The pilot/crewman in charge would then simply decide which targets to fire upon.
In the civilian world, MUM teams could be highly effective when it comes to search and rescue, police aerial searches, and humanitarian relief efforts. In fact, any mission in which wide-area, time-sensitive aerial surveillance is required is
a natural for MUM-T – especially if the drones are either autonomous or flown from the ground, leaving pilot(s) to focus on actionable intelligence gathered by the unmanned systems.
“The day will come when drones and manned helicopters are all integrated into a system of systems; one where the humans remain in charge and benefit from the work the drones do,” said Tony Duthie, head of land and maritime marketing for Leonardo Helicopters-U.K. “We will all be comfortable with these MUM-T applications,” because drones and manned helicopters will each have their roles to play.
Photo by Airbus MUM-T So Far
Not surprisingly, exploring MUM-T
helicopter OEMs have been busy capabilities, in a variety of ways.
Airbus Helicopters’ MUM-T efforts have focused on combining a manned Airbus H145 and an unmanned Schiebel Camcopter S-100 unmanned air system (UAS). The company’s initial tests were staged in 2018, where the S-100 acted as the H145’s eyes in detecting hidden ground targets, among other tests.
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Most importantly, the S-100 was fully controlled by the H145 crew through all stages of flight; including takeoff and landing. In the MUM-T world, this qualifies as a ‘Level of Interoperability 5” (LOI 5) flight, the highest level possible for manned-unmanned teaming.
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