Project Proteus Naval Helicopter UAV

They claim that this will be a new clean sheet design, rather than a conversion of an existing manned helicopter, but I find that hard to believe…

Presumably the drive train (engines, gearbox & rotors) could all come from an existing AW design? Either the AW-09 (2.6t) or the AW-119 (2.8t) would seem like a good fit.
 
If it's unmanned and military, they can push the new technologies beyond what the industry can do today: EV, turbogenerators, tilt wing or rotors* etc...
3t GTOW leaves you plenty of margins.

*a high speed will allow the system to be quickly on station without having to match the loiter capacity of the search platforms.
 
Thanks @TomcatViP. I would love to see something very innovative but that seems unlikely given the (relatively) small budget. Plus I’ve always read that tiltrotors don’t scale down well below a fairly large minimum size… so
that’s why I would expect them to reuse at least the drivetrain from an existing conventional rotary design.
 
There is a lot of hovering associated with many of the naval missions. I think that the priority of the missions will dictate the propulsion means. What size ship do they expect this air vehicle to operate from? That too will dictate potential propulsive means and weights. I, like @H_K, would love to see some great innovation, but given they want to demo in two years I think that very challenging for a clean sheet design.
 
Hrm. AW09 has ~3300lbs useful load, and both the Bell 407 and MQ-8C talk about having ~3000lbs total load. So the Proteus should have about the same as the AW09.

That would let you carry at least one torpedo plus either dipping sonar or the equal weight in buoys, on top of a good surface-search radar and EOTS.
 
Scott Kenny said:
Hrm. AW09 has ~3300lbs useful load, and both the Bell 407 and MQ-8C talk about having ~3000lbs total load. So the Proteus should have about the same as the AW09
Click to expand...
That would be because Proteus is an AW09 with a new outer mould line. But the important bit is the software anyway.
 
red admiral said:
That would be because Proteus is an AW09 with a new outer mould line. But the important bit is the software anyway.
Click to expand...
Exactly my point.

Searchwater/Crowsnest only weighs about 370lbs, so the other 3000lbs of useful load can go into fuel.
 
A recent publicity brochure for the Proteus is attached in PDF form.
 

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