Spain, Germany, and Belgium have advanced to the second phase of a European Defence Agency (EDA) research project to enable automatic in-flight refuelling of multiple unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
The capability could extend UAVs’ endurance and operational range, letting them stay airborne longer and operate farther from base without landing to refuel.
Led by Spain, the 8-million-euro ($9-million) second phase focuses on developing technologies to autonomously refuel multiple unmanned aircraft from a single tanker.
The project builds on a first phase that tested automatic refueling between an Airbus A330 MRTT tanker and German Tornado and Spanish F-18 fighters, during which researchers developed camera-based tracking and drogue-stabilization technologies.
Automatic Air-to-Air Refueling
Phase Two will explore relative navigation technologies that allow an aircraft to determine its position and motion relative to another aircraft, rather than a fixed reference such as GPS. It will also examine image sensors, connectivity between aircraft, and the hardware needed to process sensor data and run tracking algorithms.
Work will involve multi-aircraft refuelling simulations, robotic-arm laboratory tests replicating hose-and-receiver movements, and ground and flight tests to gather further data.
The consortium comprises Airbus Defence and Space and GMV from Spain; Airbus Defence and Space, the German Aerospace Center (DLR), and AES Technology from Germany; and ScioTeq and the Von Karman Institute from Belgium.