Privileged: Unmanned Helicopter Drone Submarine Hunting Ready To Be Tested By Royal Navy

JAKARTA - The latest unmanned helicopter drone named Howl designed to hunt down submarines will soon undergo trials with the Royal Navy in the coming months.

This is an innovation of defense company Leonardo equipped with a hydrogen-powered engine and designed to detect enemy submarines autonomously.

The drone design prototype was exhibited by Leonardo on January 7, 2025, as part of a 60 million (IDR 1.2 trillion) project that started in 2022 and is planned to last for four years. The concept of an unmanned helicopter (Unstructured Wing Air System/RWUAS) has been researched by Leonardo and the British Ministry of Defense since 2013.

This drone weighs three tons with a load capacity of up to one ton. The plan, the first flight trial will be carried out in mid-2025.

You can have a modular mission compartment that can be replaced as needed, such as additional payloads or fuel, making it a flexible tool for various missions.

In addition to carrying out complex missions such as hunting submarines, these drones can also be used for logistics delivery and other important tasks. Leonardo stressed that this capability provides operational benefits and cost efficiency, as it allows the use of one type of aircraft for various missions without the need to buy a different fleet.

This drone can also carry a sonobuoy, an engine detector, and an underwater propeller. Data from this sonobuoy will help You determine the location of enemy submarines with high precision.

How to build using advanced technology, including 3D printing, composite materials, autonomous flight software, and artificial intelligence (AI). Leonardo even used the "digital cloud" from Mylo to run trial and modification simulations without having to do direct testing, thus saving costs and accelerating development processes.

If approved for use by the Royal Navy,iri will be produced in Yeovil, England, where anti-submarine helicopters are produced.

Howl is part of the Royal Navy's "maritime aviation transformation" program which is scheduled to last until 2040. In the next few months, this drone test will be carried out to prove the reliability of the drone system in the maritime environment.

"Proteus will be a test platform for developing and demonstrating future autonomous capabilities," Leonardo was quoted as saying by VOI from The Suns.