The British Ministry of Defence has been working with BAE Systems to develop what they are claiming is the most advanced aircraft ever built by British engineers. They may have a point. The unmanned combat aircraft vehicle you see above is capable of supersonic flight and is undetectable by radar.
Called Taranis, the drone has been undergoing a number of test flights of anywhere between 15 minutes and an hour at the Woomera test range in Southern Australia. The first flight was recorded and can be seen in the video below:
As you can see, Taranis completed a close to perfect take off and landing as well as a number of flight maneuvers. This video was actually recorded back in August last year but only made public this week, so the drone must have advanced significantly in its functionality over the 5 months since then.
In a lot of ways Taranis could turn out to be a major boost for British companies. It costs $336 million to develop, but that meant work for over 250 engineering companies, and has produced a combat UAV that many defense departments will want to place orders for, especially when you consider it carries both guided bombs and missiles, can be deployed anywhere and controlled by satellite, and is undetectable by radar.
Bob Fraser, commander for the first Taranis flight, commented that it was a pretty boring and routine experience. But that’s exactly what you want when you’re controlling a $336 million unmanned aircraft traveling at Mach 1.