BAE Systems’ Blizzard Hits Farnborough

Last September, the advanced research and development division of BAE Systems—FalconWorks—made public a collaboration with Lockheed Martin’s fabled Skunk Works on an autonomous and rapidly deployable air vehicle that can undertake a range of disruptive missions. At the Farnborough Airshow, BAE announced the name for this product: Blizzard.

Weighing in at around 330 pounds, the 7.7-foot-long vehicle is jet-powered and has pop-out wings with a span of around 5 feet. It can be configured with various payloads for a range of tasks, although initially, the focus is on those intended to disrupt and defeat surface-to-air threats. These include jamming and acting as a decoy. While Blizzard can be carried and launched from combat aircraft, it is also being developed for palletized delivery that allows it to be launched in large numbers from cargo aircraft such as the A400M.

With an open system architecture, the Blizzard can easily be reconfigured with different equipment. This “plug-and-play” approach for both software and hardware allows it to be adapted to different tasks and permits rapid updating with new equipment to meet evolving threats. It also allows the Blizzard to be easily adapted to meet national technology security and sovereignty requirements.

The FalconWorks/Skunk Works team has already conducted captive-carry and release trials and expects to conduct system trials soon, with the aim of having the system production-ready by around the end of the year. Blizzard faces competition from other systems, but its jet power, cruise altitude of 30,000 feet, and range of around 400 nm place it in a class that can more easily support combat aircraft.