Leonardo Helicopters expects to fly its unmanned Proteus technology demonstrator for the first time in the near future, with work on the aircraft at an advanced stage.

“It is fully built now – the fuel tanks are in, the engine is not quite in,” says Nigel Colman, Leonardo’s managing director helicopters UK. “In the coming weeks we will be doing rotors off and then rotors on ground runs, before flying.”

Based on the company’s AW09 airframe, the demonstrator is being advanced in support of a £60 million ($81 million) demonstration activity for the UK Royal Navy. Its initial focus is on anti-submarine warfare (ASW), with the aircraft to be used to deploy sonobuoys, but the company was asked to assess some 16 mission sets in support of the project.

“The test programme will probably take us up until about the Christmas period,” Colman said at the DSEI exhibition in London on 11 September, referring to a Phase 3A activity.

“We don’t know what the follow-on is going to look like – we are consulting with our partners at the moment,” he adds. “But if you look at what the Royal Navy are putting out there, this is about a transition to uncrewed aviation, and that is what we’re pushing really hard to do.

“This is low-risk, low-cost and gives us the opportunity to test the technologies and the autonomy,” he notes of the demonstrator. While noting that the roughly 3t, skid-equipped AW09-adaptation is not suitable for the maritime environment, he notes: “the autonomy is the important bit”.

With the RN looking to develop a hybrid carrier air wing model mixing manned and unmanned assets, Colman says a future operational capability would be suitable for use across a variety of roles. In addition to ASW, those could potentially also including anti-surface warfare, airborne early warning, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or search and rescue.

“The proposal we are putting forward [for an operational capability] is a ‘plugs and sockets’ module – you can deliver whatever capability you want,” he says.

A full-scale mock-up of the Proteus air vehicle is on show within a UK capability showcase area at the 9-12 September event.

Meanwhile, asked about the UK Ministry of Defence’s New Medium Helicopter (NMH) requirement, Colman tells FlightGlobal: “I spoke to the secretary of state a few weeks ago and the process continues. We’ll await a decision hopefully as soon as we can see one.”

Leonardo Helicopters submitted a final offer for the NMH need in April based on its AW149, with the company the only contender still in contention to meet the requirement to replace the Royal Air Force’s already-retired Puma HC2 transports.