Innovaero developing sovereign loitering munition for Army

A small, Perth-based aviation engineering company, Innovaero, has been awarded a contract to develop a sovereign loitering munition with a range of 200km and a choice of payloads.

The Innovaero OWL (One Way Loitering) munition’s maiden flight.

Thanks to the current conflict in Ukraine, everybody thinks they know what a “loitering munition” is and that the Australian Army should have some.

In fact, the Army started looking for just this capability well before Russia invaded Ukraine and has awarded a small, Perth-based aviation engineering company, Innovaero, a contract of undisclosed value to develop an entirely sovereign loitering munition with a range of 200km and a choice of payloads.

Importantly, the munition remains under human control at all times and can’t attack a target without a direct command from a controller.

“Defence understands the requirement, and has done for some time,” says Adam Kelly, the company’s Airborne Systems Manager who is also a key member of the design team.

The Innovaero OWL (One Way Loitering) munition’s maiden flight was in May this year, just five months after design work began.

If ongoing testing, including planned live-fire tests, is successful, the next step could be the start of volume production.

Although much of this project is considered sensitive, Innovaero showed a full-scale model of the 1.6m-span OWL at this month’s Land Forces 2022 expo in Brisbane.

The OWL has been a very complex integration task, Kelly tells The Australian: the 30kg, semi-stealthy Unmanned Air System has a composite airframe with folding wings and tail plane; it is propelled by a battery-powered electric motor; it uses a GPS-independent optical sensor to spot targets; it has a long-range data link for over-the-horizon control and targeting; and it will be fitted with an explosive warhead.

Most of these are developed and manufactured in Australia.

On top of this, the OWL can be launched using the same pneumatic launcher as the Army’s existing Insitu Integrator and ScanEagle UASs, or launched from a slim tube using compressed air so a battery of them can be mounted on a light vehicle or small boat. Once launched, the OWL can circle slowly, reconnoitring the battlefield or waiting for the command to attack a confirmed target.

The company’s intention is to integrate the OWL with existing UASs so, for long-range missions, there will be no need to design and build an all-new control station. But for shorter-range missions up to 40km a direct radio link to the operator is sufficient and the OWL could loiter for extended periods, controlled using a laptop computer.

And for those short-range missions the payload could consist of an Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) sensor, or an anti-tank warhead.

Kelly says he believes Innovaero got the job in part because the business has the regulatory approvals and technical certifications to design a UAS and integrate all the components quickly and in compliance with defence and civil airworthiness regulations.

More importantly, he says, Defence is becoming aware that Australian industry doesn’t just contain stove-piped pockets of excellence in stand-alone technologies such as batteries and sensors. It also contains well-established engineering firms with the technical credentials to integrate technologies from half a dozen separate Australian suppliers and help develop them to create a credible, sovereign capability – and do it quickly, another lesson from the Ukraine conflict.

“Speed of execution is the key,” Kelly says.