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AirBoxer: extending naval surveillance beyond the horizon
At Euronaval, Dutch company High Eye is showcasing its AirBoxer unmanned helicopter, designed and built in the Netherlands. With over four hours of flight time and a payload capacity of up to 7 kg, the AirBoxer is designed to provide naval forces with over-the-horizon surveillance capability without the need for a crewed helicopter.
1. High Eye’s AirBoxer, a VTOL drone designed for maritime surveillance missions.
2. With over four hours of flight time, the AirBoxer can provide sustained surveillance beyond the horizon.
3. Depending on the mission configuration, the AirBoxer can carry a payload of up to 7 kg.
© HIGH EYE
For naval forces, having a drone capable of operating from a ship is only part of the challenge. It must also be able to stay airborne long enough to be genuinely useful, carry sensors suited to the mission and transmit the data they collect to the ship. These three capabilities – endurance, payload capacity and data transmission – are central to High Eye’s approach with the AirBoxer.
“The main requirement we are addressing is the ability to provide persistent surveillance and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities beyond the ship’s immediate horizon,” explains Vincent Wols, Commercial Director at High Eye. With a payload of around 3 kg, the AirBoxer can stay airborne for more than four hours at a speed of 30 knots. Its mission range can exceed 180 km on a single tank of fuel, while extended-range fuel tanks can increase flight time to more than five hours.
This opens up new possibilities for drone operations. “Rather than sending a small drone out for a brief observation mission before bringing it back, we can maintain continuous surveillance over a shipping lane, an offshore installation or an area of interest,” adds Vincent Wols.
Sensors, but above all, time on station
Another key feature of the AirBoxer is its payload capacity of up to 7 kg. However, maximum payload and endurance cannot be achieved simultaneously. With a payload of around 5 kg, the drone can remain on station for more than two hours at 30 knots. Its maximum payload capacity of 7 kg allows it to carry equipment beyond the capabilities of many smaller, lighter vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) drones.
The AirBoxer can carry a range of mission-specific payloads, including electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) cameras, LiDAR systems for mapping and measurement, magnetometers for detecting variations in magnetic fields, acoustic sensors and magnetic anomaly detection (MAD) systems.
For naval operations, combining EO/IR sensors with the Automatic Identification System (AIS) is a particularly useful configuration. The drone can fly ahead of the ship to investigate an AIS contact or search for a vessel that is not transmitting, relay live imagery and track the target. “The real advantage is not simply being able to stay airborne longer, but combining endurance with advanced sensor capabilities,” says Vincent Wols.
A genuine shipborne capability
Operating from a ship also presents specific challenges. The AirBoxer is designed to operate in temperatures ranging from -10°C to +45°C, in winds of up to 25 knots and gusts of up to 40 knots (these figures represent the aircraft’s operating limits and have not necessarily been tested simultaneously, editor’s note). A demonstration has already taken place in Den Helder, a port city in the northern Netherlands, with the AirBoxer performing autonomous take-offs and landings from a moving vessel.
The aircraft can also be transported in a compact case and made ready for flight in around 15 minutes, while an ISR mission requires just two operators. However, this shipborne capability depends on a reliable data link. The standard configuration uses a mobile ad hoc network (MANET) link, while relays, dedicated maritime communications systems, 4G (where available) and, eventually, satellite communications (SATCOM) should provide greater operational flexibility.
Beyond 100 km, the AirBoxer’s operational range is limited less by its endurance than by its ability to maintain a data link with the ship, which depends in part on antenna height and the radio horizon.
Another challenge: navigating without GNSS
Electronic warfare raises another fundamental question: what happens when satellite navigation signals are jammed or unreliable? The AirBoxer combines GNSS navigation with inertial sensors to maintain control of the aircraft in the event of jamming or interference.
High Eye is also developing other solutions, including vision-based navigation over land and radio-based positioning for maritime operations. However, the company acknowledges that these technologies are still maturing. “We see this as a question of combining several navigation methods, rather than assuming we can simply eliminate GNSS without any consequences,” says Vincent Wols.
Extending the ship’s sensor reach
High Eye has already demonstrated several of the AirBoxer’s key capabilities, including beyond visual line of sight (BVLOS) operations, multi-hour missions, long-range flights and take-offs and landings from a moving vessel. Development is now focusing on new payloads, navigation systems that are more resilient to GNSS interference, and next-generation propulsion systems.
Beyond the aircraft’s technical performance, the real value of the AirBoxer lies in how it could change the way naval forces use drones. Rather than simply sending a drone out to “take a look”, it provides ships with an airborne sensor that can remain ahead of them for hours, monitoring the situation and relaying information.
Extending a ship’s field of vision beyond the horizon, without putting an aircrew at risk, is the key capability High Eye is showcasing at Euronaval.
- Linda Verhaeghe
