UK's BAE enters uncrewed fighter competition with 'Brontanax'

By Sarah Young

FARNBOROUGH, England, July 22 (Reuters) - BAE Systems revealed a new unmanned fighter jet on Wednesday, boosting Britain's entry into one of the defence industry's hottest and most fiercely contested markets.

The UK's biggest defence company showcased a model of its new jet, Brontanax, derived from the ancient Greek words for thunder and king, at the Farnborough Airshow. It is about the size of a Hawk trainer and would be ready to start flight testing next year, BAE said.

As the global threat level rises and western nations re-arm, defence chiefs say the lesson from the Ukraine war is clear: nations need to control the skies to avoid Ukrainian-style attritional trench warfare and that requires air forces to bulk up.

BAE enters an increasingly crowded market for so-called Collaborative Combat Aircraft, with Airbus, Boeing, Anduril and General Atomics among a growing number of companies competing for business at Farnborough in a sector expected to expand rapidly.

Often described as "loyal wingmen," CCAs are designed to fly alongside piloted aircraft and are expected to cost roughly a third as much as a traditional fighter jet.

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Britain's new Defence Secretary Wes Streeting, who was appointed on Monday, said it was a "groundbreaking moment".

"We will adopt this as our operational concept demonstrator, and we're going to get it in the air in 2027," he said at the airshow.

BAE has invested hundreds of millions of pounds in its CCA, pushing ahead without the government co-investment which usually underpins new platforms. 

"We've put our money where our mouth is," CEO Charles Woodburn told Reuters. 

"We could see where the market was going," he added, saying he hopes to secure a UK order, and that other countries in Europe and the Middle East could follow, with some already showing an interest. 

BAE has developed Brontanax alongside the Royal Air Force, in a project dating back to 2022, and already has a fully assembled aircraft at its Warton facility in northwest England. It could enter service by 2030, BAE said. 

That timeline compares to Boeing's MQ-28 Ghost Bat, on display at Farnborough, which has already started flight testing, and could be flying for Australia by 2028.

BAE said its CCA offered more stealth than rivals and it was aiming for it to have 70% to 80% of the capabilities of a fighter jet and to come in at under 25% of the cost, which could give it a price tag of around $25 million. 

Its open architecture and modular design will allow software upgrades and changes to easily be made, with BAE looking at non-military suppliers to help with the build. 

Britain said in its defence investment plan earlier in July that it would spend an initial £300 million ($401.10 million)  to launch a sovereign CCA programme it has named Storm Fighter. 

($1 = 0.7479 pounds)

(Reporting by Sarah Young; Editing by Joe Brock and Sharon Singleton)