Japan evaluates autonomous flight-path technology
Japan’s Acquisition, Technology & Logistics Agency (ATLA) has released new details on an advanced uncrewed aircraft research program designed to enable future drones to operate alongside manned combat aircraft.
The update comes after ATLA published footage on Nov. 21 showing flight tests involving an experimental uncrewed aircraft and a manned helicopter.
According to ATLA’s Aeronautical Equipment Research Institute, the agency “has been working on research into unmanned aircraft capable of cooperating with manned fighter aircraft.”
As part of this effort, the research program on remote-operation support aircraft focuses on “automatic flight-path generation technology” and “remote-operation technology” that would allow a pilot to control multiple drones while conducting their own mission.
On July 9, ATLA received an unmanned experimental aircraft from Subaru Corporation, the contractor for the program. ATLA said that from July through October, researchers conducted flight tests using the experimental drone and a manned helicopter, simulating mission movements and five-ship formation flight. Those tests produced data on automatically generated flight paths and on pilot workload while operating the drone.
In a statement, ATLA said it will now analyze the results “to confirm the effectiveness of the technology and steadily advance research and development toward the realization of future unmanned aircraft.”
ATLA described the flight-path generation technology as one that automatically produces a route using information from manned fighters or other drones, while the remote-operation technology allows a pilot to control several unmanned aircraft while still flying their own platform and performing mission tasks.
The agency’s public update was followed by the release of video footage on its official YouTube channel. The video shows the unmanned aircraft used in the testing and includes onboard and cockpit views that highlight the technical goals of the program.
Japanese media reporting on the footage noted scenes showing a helicopter cockpit where the pilot controls the drone using a tablet-based interface. The video also shows five individually launched unmanned aircraft forming a coordinated formation in midair.
According to the details released, the experimental drone used in the trials is a remote-operation support aircraft delivered by Subaru on July 9. ATLA said the aircraft is more than one meter long and similar in size to a large hobby-grade radio-controlled airplane.
The flight tests conducted in October were part of ATLA’s broader research to develop technologies that enable cooperation between manned and unmanned aircraft. The agency said the test flights simulated “mission maneuvers and five-ship formations” and collected data needed to evaluate the performance and workload associated with operating an unmanned aircraft from a manned cockpit.
ATLA stated that through analysis of the collected data, the agency aims to verify both the automatic flight-path generation technology and the remote-operation method that would allow a manned aircraft pilot to direct multiple drones while maintaining control of their own aircraft. These capabilities are intended to support the development of autonomous formation flight and more advanced uncrewed aviation systems in the future.
The video released by ATLA also highlights how Japan is seeking to expand its research into advanced uncrewed aviation as part of ongoing modernization efforts within the Japan Air Self-Defense Force. Although the current experimental aircraft is small and used only for research, the technologies being evaluated are aimed at future operational systems.
