has launched a new division within its Air Sector called FalconWorks. It is a new centre for advanced and agile research and development designed to deliver a range of cutting-edge combat air capabilities to the UK and its allies.
Governments around the world are acutely aware of the increasing pace of technological change and the need to strengthen and adapt their security and defence to manage the evolving threat.
Specialists at FalconWorks will assess emerging trends and deliver solutions with speed and efficiency, increasing the use of digital technologies such as artificial intelligence, quantum sensing and robotics. They will also collaborate with partners in areas such as autonomy, synthetic environments and electrical powered air systems.
Defending our freedoms is becoming ever more unpredictable – the only constant is change. The creation of FalconWorks is a reflection of the changing environment and our goal to ensure innovative technology development is at the core of everything we do. This new division builds on our established expertise in world-leading combat air programmes such as Typhoon, F-35 and Tempest to unlock opportunities to expand our portfolio and deliver the breakthrough technologies which keep our customers ahead.
FalconWorks, which was officially launched on July 10, is focused on the rapid design of “generation after next” capabilities in the air domain, BAE Systems officials told media at the company’s assembly plant in Warton, Lancashire last week.
According to the new unit’s managing director, Dave Holmes, FalconWorks will be more suited to UK and European air domain business, unlike more classified, “near peer” organizations like Skunk Works and Phantom Works.
“If we think about how Skunk Works and Phantom Works were formed, both those two organizations were stood up in a complete veil of secrecy. They were stood up to be wholly independent and hidden away and were certainly not engaged with the media to discuss how they were seeking to do their business,” Holmes said.
“They’re very good at it, by the way and this is by no means saying their [business] model doesn’t work. I just don’t think that model works in a UK/European setting. We operate on a different scale. We have a very principled customer — the [UK] MoD — which clearly has a different level of budgeting.
“And this for me is about how do we turn this into a team sport rather than running multiple programs which are secret for a reason and then picking out one which gets to the solution in the most effective manner? This is about backing the right resources and being more effective at what we do.”
According to Holmes, FalconWorks will bring together small/medium enterprises, academia and government agencies to collaborate, innovate and “set trends and solve problems at pace” across physical and non-physical environments. Again, he emphasized, that will be a more open model than what is traditionally seen from the Boeing and Lockheed equivalents.
“FalconWorks is looking at all things that fly across armed forces and para-public organizations,”
he added, highlighting agile engineering, autonomy, AI, electric products, quantum sensing and robotics.
Another major difference between the new office and the US equivalents: greater ability to work internationally. The unit will bring together BAE Systems’ locations around the world, including Australia, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, Slovenia, the UK and US, he said.
Efforts will include focus on developments beyond the UK’s sovereign, sixth-generation fighter program — Future Combat Air System (FCAS) — with Holmes saying “If FCAS is next, how do we move beyond FCAS and think wider as to what will come in the 2060s, ‘70s and ‘80s and turn of the century? How will that look in terms of novel vehicle configurations and shapes?
BAE Systems has a long history of working with leading academic institutions and industry to harness knowledge in the defence sector. In the past three years, the Company has invested £800m of its own money in research and development.
BAE Systems is at the heart of the UK’s sovereign combat air capability, delivering combat air readiness to air force customers around the world. FalconWorks will be a vital part of BAE Systems, exploring market opportunities in the UK and international air sector.
Sources: Press Release; Breaking Defense