The newly formulated Strategic Defense Assessment report readjusted this plan into the Future Air Attack System (FOAS) plan in 1997 to meet the new expedition strategy and the future operational needs of the British Air Force.
In the FOAS plan, the British Ministry of Defence put forward the development prospect of unmanned combat aircraft for the first time, focusing on the key technologies needed by various unmanned combat aircraft in equipment development, and encouraged BAE Systems to engage in relevant pre-research with reference to the American model of developing unmanned combat aircraft. BAE Systems began the preliminary research of UAV technology in the early 1990s, and set up Advanced Technology Verification Center (ATDC) for this purpose, and successively put forward a variety of UAV schemes with low detectability. On this basis, according to the requirements of the FOAS plan, BAE Systems has made a preliminary study on a series of advanced layout concepts, trying to find a feasible scheme combining low observability with high agility, and vigorously exploring autonomous flight technology. After 2000, with the support of the Ministry of National Defense, BAE Systems has successively engaged in the European Nighthawk and Chameleon projects, which have made great progress in the field of stealth technology and put forward the modular design concept. At the beginning of the 20th century, with the breakthrough in some core technologies made by BAE Systems, the British Ministry of Defence set out to formulate an extremely confidential development plan to meet the future operational needs of the British Air Force for deep attack and high-altitude surveillance. It was not until May, 2005 that the British Ministry of Defence first publicized the plan called Strategic UAV Testing (SUAVE) and officially announced the decision to terminate the FOAS plan.
On the basis of FOAS project, the main goal of SUAVE plan focuses on risk reduction of key technologies, which provides decision-making basis for British Ministry of Defence in the future development strategy of UAV/UCAV/URAV. The research fields involved in this project include autonomous command and control, super endurance power plant, autonomous aerial refueling system and directed energy weapon load. , respectively, by the British company. At the beginning of 2006, BAE Systems Company disclosed some basic information about UAV technology verification. According to reports, BAE Systems first verified the feasibility of the wing-body fusion layout by using the "Soaring" scale model, then further studied the related stealth technology by using the Chayu drone, and finally synthesized it on the raven verification machine. For the first time, the Raven Verification Machine adopts modular design, which can easily realize one machine and two types, which are used to perform attack and reconnaissance tasks respectively. Therefore, based on years of exploration, BAE Systems has formally put forward the design scheme and development plan of unmanned combat aircraft, waiting for the formal approval of the British Ministry of Defence.
On February 7th, 2006, 65438, the British Ministry of Defence formally awarded the contract worth 65438+24 million pounds to the research team led by BAE Systems after a comprehensive and detailed review of the overall scheme of this full-scale verification machine. In order to highlight the status and role of this plan, the British Ministry of Defence borrowed the word Raytheon from Celtic mythology and named the plan Taranis, hoping to develop a new unmanned attack platform comparable to Vulcan bombers in the future. As a result, the British UCAV verification machine plan is officially launched, and the unmanned platform will be manufactured and tested within four years, with emphasis on evaluating the key technologies needed for autonomous combat capability. It provides decision-making basis for the composition of the future offensive force of the British Air Force.