The Royal Navy will trial the use of uncrewed aviation for intra-theatre resupply as part of its forthcoming Carrier Strike Group deployment to the Indo-Pacific region.
Nine Malloy Aeronautics T-150 heavy lift octo-copters will be operated by personnel from 700X Naval Air Squadron (NAS) to transfer low-weight stores, supplies and components between ships in the CSG25 group. HMS Prince of Wales, the flagship of the group, is planned to sail from Portsmouth on 22 April.
700X NAS, based at RNAS Culdrose in Cornwall, is the Royal Navy’s specialist unit for uncrewed aviation. The squadron will embark a team of 12 sailors to operate the T-150 vehicles from three ships in the group – HMS Prince of Wales, the Type 45 destroyer HMS Dauntless and the tanker RFA Tidespring – to test the capability.
As well as being more cost effective and reactive than using crewed helicopters, the use of uncrewed air systems (UAS) will reduce airframe hours consumed by Wildcat and Merlin helicopters in the task group, and free them up to focus on primary roles. The trial will also support the Royal Navy’s broader ambitions to operate and integrate uncrewed air vehicles alongside crewed aircraft.
“There is a statistic from previous carrier strike deployments that shows 95% of stores transferred weigh less than 50kg,” said Lieutenant Matt Parfitt, a 700X NAS flight commander. “They could be anything from parcels from home to a vital engineering part.
“In the past we’d have used a helicopter if a part was urgently needed on another ship. This time we’re going to use a remotely-piloted, uncrewed system instead.”
The electrically-powered T-150 UAS is able to lift loads of up to 68 kg. The vehicle is ‘flown’ by a team of two – one remote pilot and a second person to monitor a command unit – and can be flown manually or autonomously via designated waypoints
The T-150s were delivered to 700X NAS in August 2024. “Since then we’ve had to learn how to fly and maintain them and how to integrate them into the crewed aviation space,” said Lt Parfitt. “That’s an awful lot of regulations and documentation that has to be done, which is a lot of work for us as we prepare to deploy.
“These systems have only really been used over land before, so we’re also having to understand how we can operate and maintain them in the maritime environment,” he added.
Malloy Aeronautics was acquired by BAE Systems in February 2024. The T-150 is one of a number of uncrewed air systems developed by Malloy to provide cost-effective and cost-efficient ‘last mile’ logistics. Its family of uncrewed, heavy lift UASs is capable of lifting payloads from 68kg to 200kg over short-to-medium range missions: the company is working to increase this to 300 kg.
The deployment of the T-150 as part of CSG25 follows on from the Heavy Lift Challenge (HLC) programme run by Defence Equipment and Support and the Royal Navy’s own Office of the Chief Technology Officer organisation. Malloy Aeronautics was one of a number of companies that participated in the HLC.
