Overview
- The full-size demonstrator flew from Predannack airfield after recent ground-running verification at Leonardo’s Yeovil site.
- During the sortie, the aircraft operated its own flight controls independently under constant supervision by ground-based test pilots.
- Programme leads frame Proteus as a tool to develop uncrewed capability alongside crewed helicopters within the Atlantic Bastion concept.
- Designed and manufactured in Yeovil, the effort supports roughly 100 highly skilled UK jobs under the RWUAS Phase 3A programme.
- The platform offers a payload exceeding one tonne with a modular bay based on an existing crewed design, and it has no in-service date as it remains a technology demonstrator.