The Royal Navy conducted, for the first time in the UK, an exercise in which a Wildcat helicopter used live data from multiple drones and ground sensors to identify and engage a moving target during flight.
The tests took place on January 31 from Predannack airfield, on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall, demonstrating the Wildcat’s ability to receive near-instant information from unmanned systems to operate beyond line of sight.
During the exercise, a Wildcat from 815 Naval Air Squadron integrated data streams from two surveillance drones — the Puma and Providence — along with information from ground sensors. All data traffic was transmitted through a decentralized mesh network, providing the crew with a real-time view of targets “beyond the horizon.”
Named Eagles Eye, the exercise demonstrated how crewed aircraft can act as airborne command centers, coordinating and leveraging data from multiple unmanned systems within a shared network. The activity involved specialists from the 700X Naval Air Squadron drone unit, Wildcat crews from 847 Naval Air Squadron, and industry partners including MarWorks, TeleplanForsberg, General Dynamics, C3IA, UAV Aerosystems, and Collins Aerospace.
According to a Navy officer, the mesh architecture allows information from any remote node on the network to be sent directly to the aircraft, and also enables crews to take control of unmanned systems when the tactical situation demands.
Mesh networks are decentralized and “self-healing,” able to automatically reroute data if part of the network is disrupted. According to the Royal Navy, this concept reflects lessons learned from the war in Ukraine, where similar structures have been used to connect sensors, drones, and attack assets in real combat conditions.
Inside the Wildcat, the crew directly operated the Puma drone — in service with 700X Squadron for over six years — while simultaneously receiving live video from the smaller, stealthier Providence system. The fusion of this information allowed targets to be accurately located before engagement with Martlet missiles.
The Royal Navy also stated that lessons learned from Eagles Eye will be applied in future exercises in Norway, where Wildcat helicopters will train alongside the Royal Norwegian Navy. The goal is to employ integration between crewed and uncrewed assets against fast attack craft and other asymmetric threats in fjords near Bergen.
Source and images: Royal Navy. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
