At the Avalon Airshow in Australia Boeing presented its new aerial combat assistance drone, called Airpower Teaming System. Presented as the most ambitious combat drone program outside the United States, the ATS is designed by Boeing Defense Australia, for the benefit of the Royal Australian Air Force, and the prototype is expected to make its first flight in 2020. Coming from a co-financing between Boeing and the Australian Federal State, the ATS will have performance and capabilities comparable to that of a fighter, for intelligence, reconnaissance and electronic warfare missions. It will also be designed to have a long range of 2000 nautical miles.
The need for combat drones is becoming more and more pressing in the air forces, with anti-aircraft defense capabilities making the use of piloted aircraft increasingly risky, at least as long as the anti-aircraft threat does not was not neutralized.
The cancellation of the Franco-British FCAS program, which was to provide a drone of this type by 2030, and of programs aimed at strengthening electronic warfare capabilities and suppression of anti-aircraft defenses in the near future, is likely to condemn the European air forces will play a purely supplementary role in just a few years. 2040… it’s far away…