A BAE Systems Big Boys Toy
What weighs 150 kilograms and has a wing-span of 35 meters? Another terrifying drone innovation out of the aerospace industry. Meet the PHASA-35! It’s the latest invention BAE Systems has to show for its recent electric kick!
BAE Systems is Britain’s leading aerospace and defense player. It’s a massive employer, serving Her Majesty’s Armed Forces with all the machines and heavy missiles it needs. With such an important customer, investors know their company should never go obsolete. However, that still makes BAE a wartime winner and a peacetime pauper. The company needs a commercial breakthrough. So, that’s why it’s pouring millions into the PHASA-35!
The PHASA-35 is a big boys toy! It’s an electric drone that’s semi-powered by the sun and can fly for a year above Earth at 65,000 feet before needing to come back down. Awesome, right? Investors can’t fault the engineering achievement, but the business possibilities are… vague. BAE teamed up with start-up Prismatic to build the drone, and a deal announced yesterday to buy that company outright will have set the blue-chip giant back a pretty penny!
To start paying itself off, the PHASA-35 could be used to deliver 5G around the world. The completion of test flights will collide with the rollout of the new network tech, which has many in the market filled with excitement. Longer-term, the drone could be put to work doing surveillance along country borders, or in disaster relief situations. Lofty ambitions then, and as shares in BAE Systems make a comeback, investors are throwing all their money at the remote-controlled plane!