Saab to lead European development of Detect and Avoid capabilities for remotely-piloted aircraft system.

The European Commission has selected the EUDAAS (European Detect and Avoid System) consortium, with Saab as leading partner, to develop Detect and Avoid capability for large military Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) within the European Defence Industrial Development Programme.

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SKELDAR V-200 RPAS (Picture source: UMS Aero Group / Saab)

The Grant Agreement, worth over €21 million, was signed on 1 December 2020.

“We are extremely pleased with this award; the European Defence Industrial Development Programme EUDAAS is a strategic program providing technological and operational value to us, our partners and military operators of RPAS. This success has been made possible thanks to the long history and collaboration of our company and partners working in this field, which we have the honour to lead,” says Ann-Kristin Adolfsson, head of Business Development and Strategy at Saab business area Aeronautics.

The EUDAAS programme will develop and validate a 100% European Detect And Avoid (DAA) solution for safe insertion of large military Remotely-Piloted Aircraft Systems (RPAS) in European air traffic. The DAA system provide the remote pilot the ability to “see and avoid”, including a fully automatic collision avoidance function which will initiate manoeuvres to avoid collision with other aircraft if necessary. The system is to be integrated into the air traffic management system as with manned aircraft.

“The technology brings the key piece of safety assurance to enable more autonomy and efficiency into aviation, enabling unmanned and remotely operated aircraft to take off in a broader sense. The technology ensures that unmanned and remotely operated aircraft will not collide with other aircraft. While the project focus is on military unmanned aircraft, the technology is fully applicable to also civil systems,” says Ann-Kristin Adolfsson.

The programme also increases the maturity of non-cooperative sensors. The technology will be fully compliant with civil requirements, also supporting safe operation of civil Drones e.g. for services in support of deliveries, agriculture & forestry, environmental protection, border surveillance and Urban Air Mobility (UAM): a transportation system that move people by air.

The Detect and Avoid system developed will be tested on several unmanned platforms including the Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance RPAS (EuroMALE test platform) and Tactical Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (TUAV). The programme will run for three years and work closely with the civil developments in the field such as in the European Commission SESAR2020 programme, standardisation in EUROCAE and regulatory development with the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA).

Ministries of Defence of the five participating EU Member States support the program. The participating countries are Sweden (lead nation), Italy, Germany, France and Spain. These nations will also provide funding to the programme, in addition to the European Commission Grant, which along with industry contribution will result in a +€30 million programme.

The consortium consists of the following members: Saab AB (Sweden, coordinator), Centro Italiano Richerche Aerospaziali CIRA S.C.P.A. (Italy), Diehl Defence GMBH & Co. KG (Germany), Deutches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (Germany), Hensoldt Sensors GmbH (Germany), Indra Sistemas (Spain), Leonardo S.P.A. (Italy), Safran Electronics & Defense (France), Thales Six GTS France SAS (France), Onera (France) and Eurocontrol (Belgium). Additional participants include Thales AVS SAS (France) and Airbus Defence and Space GmbH (Germany).