Unmanned Aerial Vehicles
BAE Systems’ Blizzard Hits Farnborough
BAE Systems FalconWorks is collaborating with the Skunk Works on a multi-mission air vehicle
BAE Blizzard
The Blizzard has an open system architecture and can be easily reconfigured with different equipment. © David McIntosh/AIN

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.