The Eurofighter STAR MUM-T project badge seen earlier in 2024 at the ILA Airshow in Berlin. (Janes/Gareth Jennings)
Airbus is looking to field ‘as quickly as possible' the manned-unmanned teaming (MUM-T) capability it is developing for Germany to enable the Eurofighter Typhoon combat aircraft to remotely control ‘loyal wingmen' under the System and Teaming Advanced Research (STAR) programme.
Speaking at the IQPC International Fighter Conference (IFC) in Berlin on 5 November, Marco Gumbrecht, head of combat air systems, Airbus Defence and Space (DS), said that, with a German contract for STAR expected shortly, the company is planning for a baseline capability to enter into service initially to get the capability into the hands of the Luftwaffe as soon as possible, with a progressive upgrade programme to follow.
“[For STAR], we are expecting a contract next year for the German armed forces. The [timeline for the] Long-Term Evolution [LTE] will take too long, and we don't want to wait that long before we start bringing capabilities [such as STAR] onto the Eurofighter. What we are doing is taking certain parts that we know are coming up for LTE, but offsetting those into an external pod to ease the certification and integration [of the capability], and to give an [initial operational test and evaluation] IOT&E capability as soon as we can to our German customer.
“We will give [Germany] something as soon as we can, fully aware that it does not fulfil all of the necessities, but we are giving it as quickly as we can, and then going into a spiral development to see what elements stay and what goes into a full development [of the capability],” Gumbrecht said.
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