DSEI 2025: UK BAE Systems reveals T-650 heavy lift drone with 300 kg payload for frontline logistics
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At DSEI 2025 in London, BAE Systems presents the T-650, a heavy lift uncrewed aircraft system built for logistical operations. The context this year is all about contested logistics and the need to move supplies across broken roads, mined approaches and choppy seas. Many armed forces are now looking at electric multirotors as the quick bridge between depots and fighting units, especially for the last ten or twenty kilometers where trucks and boats run into danger. With this UAV, BAE Systems aims to provide a viable solution to the problem, mostly highlighted during the war in Ukraine.Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
T-650 at DSEI 2025, a 300 kg-class cargo drone reaching up to 40 m/s, designed for BVLOS logistics in contested areas, deck operations, and modular mission kits including ISR and guided-effect delivery (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
The aircraft itself is a straightforward proposition on paper but unusually ambitious for an all-electric airframe. Payload is quoted at 300 kg. At maximum payload, a 30 km range is announced, with top speed up to 40 m/s, which puts it roughly in the 140–145 km/h bracket. Dimensions are compact enough for deck and vehicle transport, about 4.15 m long, 3.70 m wide, and just over one meter tall. It is runway-independent, designed for vertical take-off and landing, and intended to operate beyond visual line of sight. The architecture is kept deliberately simple to drive down maintenance, with hot-swappable batteries to cut turnaround between sorties. The aim is low operating cost compared to crewed rotary platforms while preserving enough performance to matter for frontline formations.
The T-650 sits atop a family that includes the smaller T-150 and T-400 and the T-600 testbed. That lineage matters because the T-600 has already been used to prove out naval carriage and release profiles, including trials with an inert Sting Ray training torpedo during NATO’s REPMUS series. In other words, the weaponization path has not come out of nowhere. There are additional options such as precision payload release, open architecture integration, and mission computing to support more complex effects. For end users, that translates into an aircraft that can haul crates today and accept guided stores or sensors tomorrow without returning to the drawing board.
Electrification is not just a sustainability talking point here; it shapes the concept of operations. With batteries swapped rather than recharged on the airframe, small teams can keep a pair of vehicles cycling through short-haul tasks without a sprawling support footprint. The company also flags hardened navigation, autonomous landing, and anti-GPS-jamming measures, acknowledging that logistics drones will be targeted as soon as they become useful. Malloy Aeronautics, now a wholly owned BAE Systems subsidiary, brings the lift-and-endurance know-how from its earlier platforms, while FalconWorks, BAE’s advanced projects unit, pushes the systems integration, mission planning tools, and teaming behavior across fleets.
The T-650 can shuttle ammunition, rations, water, radios, spare barrels, even small generators across river lines or broken roads, including at night and in poor weather. In coastal or embarked roles, ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore runs remove risky boat transfers in high sea states and free up helicopters for missions where speed and reach truly matter. Casualty evacuation is on the roadmap too: short-range extraction out of immediate danger to a safer point of care, with a smaller landing footprint than a helicopter and without broadcasting the mission to everyone in earshot. The platform’s stated find-to-strike concept pairs laser designation with carriage of air-to-surface missiles for precision effects beyond small-arms range. Notably, the brochure also sketches an anti-submarine warfare option, where the airframe deploys a lightweight torpedo to extend a ship’s engagement reach when it lacks an organic helicopter. These are pointed, practical roles rather than speculative ones, and they mirror what armies and navies have asked for since contested logistics became the headline lesson of recent conflicts.
Commanders will treat a heavy-lift electric UAS like this as a consumable mobility layer. It is not a helicopter substitute; it is the courier that keeps mortars firing and forward repair teams supplied while keeping trucks and crews out of ambush corridors. A pair of aircraft rotating on hot-swap batteries can move a ton of materiel across short legs over the course of a sortie cycle, quietly and with minimal signature. On a frigate, the same airframe can run palletized spares to a nearby patrol craft or deliver a line-haul package ashore when the weather turns against small boats. Because the platform is runway-independent, it can land next to a trench, on a pier, on a narrow dirt track behind a ridge, or on a heaving flight deck. The more interesting piece comes with networked control: once mission computers and open interfaces are in service, users can start teaming multiple airframes for staggered drops, relay tasks, or paired strike-and-resupply missions.
The broader picture at DSEI 2025 is one of convergence. Heavy-lift cargo drones and autonomous combat air systems are not the same market, but they share the same industrial drivers: rapid iteration, modular payloads, and software-led control. For BAE Systems, showcasing the T-650 alongside that message signals where it believes value will accrue in the next cycle: not just in one airframe, but in a family of autonomous assets that can be configured for logistics, sensing, and precision effects under the same command layer. For the UK and allied customers, it adds one more option to harden supply lines and extend reach without committing scarce helicopter hours.
The demand signal for heavy-lift uncrewed logistics is coming from every theater where roads are cut, UAV attrition is high, and artillery and electronic warfare are dictating tempo. Electrically powered airframes will not solve range-on-range wars, but in the scramble to move ammunition and medical supplies under fire, they buy tempo. European militaries rearming under budget pressure will look twice at any system promising lower operating costs and lower training burden than crewed aviation, especially if it comes with ITAR-free components and quick local integration. The T-650 is entering that conversation at the right time. What comes next will depend on trials and production slots, of course, but the direction of travel is set. DSEI 2025 simply made it visible on the show floor.
Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
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At DSEI 2025 in London, BAE Systems presents the T-650, a heavy lift uncrewed aircraft system built for logistical operations. The context this year is all about contested logistics and the need to move supplies across broken roads, mined approaches and choppy seas. Many armed forces are now looking at electric multirotors as the quick bridge between depots and fighting units, especially for the last ten or twenty kilometers where trucks and boats run into danger. With this UAV, BAE Systems aims to provide a viable solution to the problem, mostly highlighted during the war in Ukraine.
Follow Army Recognition on Google News at this link
T-650 at DSEI 2025, a 300 kg-class cargo drone reaching up to 40 m/s, designed for BVLOS logistics in contested areas, deck operations, and modular mission kits including ISR and guided-effect delivery (Picture source: Army Recognition Group).
The aircraft itself is a straightforward proposition on paper but unusually ambitious for an all-electric airframe. Payload is quoted at 300 kg. At maximum payload, a 30 km range is announced, with top speed up to 40 m/s, which puts it roughly in the 140–145 km/h bracket. Dimensions are compact enough for deck and vehicle transport, about 4.15 m long, 3.70 m wide, and just over one meter tall. It is runway-independent, designed for vertical take-off and landing, and intended to operate beyond visual line of sight. The architecture is kept deliberately simple to drive down maintenance, with hot-swappable batteries to cut turnaround between sorties. The aim is low operating cost compared to crewed rotary platforms while preserving enough performance to matter for frontline formations.
The T-650 sits atop a family that includes the smaller T-150 and T-400 and the T-600 testbed. That lineage matters because the T-600 has already been used to prove out naval carriage and release profiles, including trials with an inert Sting Ray training torpedo during NATO’s REPMUS series. In other words, the weaponization path has not come out of nowhere. There are additional options such as precision payload release, open architecture integration, and mission computing to support more complex effects. For end users, that translates into an aircraft that can haul crates today and accept guided stores or sensors tomorrow without returning to the drawing board.
Electrification is not just a sustainability talking point here; it shapes the concept of operations. With batteries swapped rather than recharged on the airframe, small teams can keep a pair of vehicles cycling through short-haul tasks without a sprawling support footprint. The company also flags hardened navigation, autonomous landing, and anti-GPS-jamming measures, acknowledging that logistics drones will be targeted as soon as they become useful. Malloy Aeronautics, now a wholly owned BAE Systems subsidiary, brings the lift-and-endurance know-how from its earlier platforms, while FalconWorks, BAE’s advanced projects unit, pushes the systems integration, mission planning tools, and teaming behavior across fleets.
The T-650 can shuttle ammunition, rations, water, radios, spare barrels, even small generators across river lines or broken roads, including at night and in poor weather. In coastal or embarked roles, ship-to-ship and ship-to-shore runs remove risky boat transfers in high sea states and free up helicopters for missions where speed and reach truly matter. Casualty evacuation is on the roadmap too: short-range extraction out of immediate danger to a safer point of care, with a smaller landing footprint than a helicopter and without broadcasting the mission to everyone in earshot. The platform’s stated find-to-strike concept pairs laser designation with carriage of air-to-surface missiles for precision effects beyond small-arms range. Notably, the brochure also sketches an anti-submarine warfare option, where the airframe deploys a lightweight torpedo to extend a ship’s engagement reach when it lacks an organic helicopter. These are pointed, practical roles rather than speculative ones, and they mirror what armies and navies have asked for since contested logistics became the headline lesson of recent conflicts.
Commanders will treat a heavy-lift electric UAS like this as a consumable mobility layer. It is not a helicopter substitute; it is the courier that keeps mortars firing and forward repair teams supplied while keeping trucks and crews out of ambush corridors. A pair of aircraft rotating on hot-swap batteries can move a ton of materiel across short legs over the course of a sortie cycle, quietly and with minimal signature. On a frigate, the same airframe can run palletized spares to a nearby patrol craft or deliver a line-haul package ashore when the weather turns against small boats. Because the platform is runway-independent, it can land next to a trench, on a pier, on a narrow dirt track behind a ridge, or on a heaving flight deck. The more interesting piece comes with networked control: once mission computers and open interfaces are in service, users can start teaming multiple airframes for staggered drops, relay tasks, or paired strike-and-resupply missions.
The broader picture at DSEI 2025 is one of convergence. Heavy-lift cargo drones and autonomous combat air systems are not the same market, but they share the same industrial drivers: rapid iteration, modular payloads, and software-led control. For BAE Systems, showcasing the T-650 alongside that message signals where it believes value will accrue in the next cycle: not just in one airframe, but in a family of autonomous assets that can be configured for logistics, sensing, and precision effects under the same command layer. For the UK and allied customers, it adds one more option to harden supply lines and extend reach without committing scarce helicopter hours.
The demand signal for heavy-lift uncrewed logistics is coming from every theater where roads are cut, UAV attrition is high, and artillery and electronic warfare are dictating tempo. Electrically powered airframes will not solve range-on-range wars, but in the scramble to move ammunition and medical supplies under fire, they buy tempo. European militaries rearming under budget pressure will look twice at any system promising lower operating costs and lower training burden than crewed aviation, especially if it comes with ITAR-free components and quick local integration. The T-650 is entering that conversation at the right time. What comes next will depend on trials and production slots, of course, but the direction of travel is set. DSEI 2025 simply made it visible on the show floor.
Written by Evan Lerouvillois, Defense Analyst, Army Recognition Group.
Evan studied International Relations, and quickly specialized in defense and security. He is particularly interested in the influence of the defense sector on global geopolitics, and analyzes how technological innovations in defense, arms export contracts, and military strategies influence the international geopolitical scene.
