World's First Supersonic Drone Ready For Its Maiden Flight

There is plenty of money in the ground around Woomera in South Australia but there will be more money in the air in the next few months when the world’s first unmanned supersonic drone makes its maiden test flight inside the world’s biggest weapons testing zone.

Code-named Taranis, the British-designed drone has been 10-years in the design phase but is about to flying in a remote part of Australia which was once the site of nuclear tests but has earned more headlines recently for its deep mineral deposits.

One of the world’s biggest copper and uranium mines, the Olympic Dam project of BHP Billiton , is on the edge of the Woomera test area.

The smaller Cairn Hill iron ore and gold mine of IMX Resources is inside what was once a no-go area for anyone bar military personnel.

To visit Cairn Hill, which I did earlier this month, requires multiple levels of clearance and a signed promise to “not touch or interfere with any unexploded ordnance” -- a promise easily made.

Interesting as Cairn Hill might be the real interest in the mine is that it has served as a trail blazer for other explorers keen to take a look at what lies below the barren and almost featureless surface – not that everyone is allowed to do that.

Four years ago a Chinese company was banned from acquiring control of another copper mine, Prominent Hill, because it lies inside what is officially designated the Woomera Prohibited Area.

A gradual easing of restrictions covering Woomera, a name derived from an Australian Aboriginal spear-throwing device, has been driven by government estimates that more than $30 billion in mine developments could be possible over the next decade, if mineral prices do not collapse.

Interesting as the surface (and below surface) work is inside the Woomera Prohibited Area all eyes will be looking skyward soon for a glimpse, however unlikely, of Taranis which has been dubbed the super-drone.

Limited information released by its developers, a consortium led by BAE Systems and including GE Aviation, Rolls Royce, QinetiQ and the British Ministry of Defence, claims that Taranis with its flying wing design will have an intercontinental range.

The sole public viewing of Taranis was three years ago and the only illustration available, apart from a model shown at an air show in 2008, is on the BAE website at http://www.baesystems.com/product/BAES_020273/taranis?_afrLoop=336750583714000 not that it shows much.

Incorporating stealth technology, Taranis is named after the Celtic God of Thunder and is roughly the same size as the BAE Hawk jet which is mainly used as a trainer.

The drone is said to incorporate radar-evading design, has two weapons carrying bays, is able to fly on a fully autonomous basis (no human involvement) once in the air, and has defensive technologies designed to evade hostile aircraft and missiles.

By choosing the Woomera Prohibited Area for its maiden test flight, BAE and partners will have plenty of room for privacy during the super-drone’s early trials, and possible errors.

The weapons testing zone covers an area of 127,000 square kilometres (49,000 square miles) and is roughly the size of England, or more than four-times the size of Belgium.