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PARIS 2009: Boeing forms UAS division

June 15, 2009

The president and CEO of Boeing Integrated Defense Systems (IDS), Jim Albaugh, announced today that the company was creating a UAS division within its military aircraft business. The new division, which will be headed by Vic Sweberg, will be the fifth division within the business.

Chris Chadwick, president of Boeing Military Aircraft, said that the new division will focus UAS capability from across IDS to better serve the customer. He said that Boeing's long-term vision was to become a key player in the UAS market.

Chadwick said that he estimated that the UAS business could be worth between $60 and $100 billion in the next 10 years and that Boeing wanted to take a major part of that market. Towards that end Sweberg's new division will incorporate all of the major current projects, such as A-160T, as well as having stewardship for the recent acquisition, Insitu.

As well as having systems like the Hummingbird and Integrator under its direct control the new division will also work closely with Boeing's Phantom Works advanced projects division. In May Boeing announced that it would fund and develop Phantom Ray, an evolution of the X-45 Joint UCAS demonstrator, as a UCAV demonstrator. Once such systems reach a level of maturity they are expected to be transitioned in to the UAS division.

Chadwick said that Boeing was 'uniquely positioned'  to provide systems, services and solutions. In particular, through Insitu and its own capabilities the company hopes to be able to provide innovative solutions to the customer such as 'pixels by the hour, rather than by the platform'.

He added that in Boeing's view the UAS sector remains very immature with no clear domination of  future capabilities by any one company. He told Unmanned Vehicles that Boeing would concentrate on being able to provide the customer what he wanted through capability demonstration projects that could potentially develop in to full programmes.

Boeing believes that what the customer is often looking for is the '80 per cent' solution, but with high reliability and at a decreased cost. The company expects to concentrate its efforts on payloads, endurance and propulsion to reach that end.

Looking across the sector Boeing has identified three capability areas for UAS: intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR); strike; and logistics. In particular, with Scan Eagle/Integrator and A-160T already deployable systems Boeing expects to concentrate initially on the ISR and logistics spheres.

Further growth of the UAS division will be dependent on Boeing capturing business, but Chadwick envisages both organic growth and the potential for further acquisitions downstream. He denied that Boeing was playing catch-up to its competitors in the UAS market, but with the likes of General Atomics and Northrop Grumman already in a strong position in the US it will be an uphill struggle for Boeing.

By Darren Lake, Le Bourget