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20 In conversation | Jonathan Bailey regulations as well as the requirements laid out in contracts, then signing them off at the end to declare that they meet airworthiness standards and are safe to be delivered to the customer. Managing a team of 50 people to do this, he reports to the managing director of the business, Paul Campbell. As the Accountable Manager (Military Flying) at the West Wales UAV Centre, a role to which he was appointed jointly by Thales and the MAA, he is responsible for making sure the risk to life from Watchkeeper operations is ‘ALARP and Tolerable’, ALARP standing for As Low as Reasonably Practical. The role involves dealing with qualitative and quantitative evidence to manage risk to life and making decisions after taking SQEP advice. “This gets my adrenaline going, because I’m legally responsible, together with the chairman of the company,” he says. “It does hone the thought processes. When we review safety, we sometimes ask ourselves what a coroner would say in a particular situation – we have to ask ourselves those questions.” He clearly relishes the responsibility, as one of his career goals is to move within Thales into that kind of role full time, possibly working with the Army more or on new contracts. Watchkeeper enhancements The Watchkeeper achieved its initial Release To Service (RTS) with the first build standard in 2014, acquitting itself well in Afghanistan and generating excellent imagery with its radar, he says. The RTS for the second build standard followed in 2019, and led the Army to declare Full Operational Capability. “As far as the Army is concerned, they have what they wanted,” Bailey says. The new build standard integrates the Watchkeeper with the Bowman comms system, switches the C2 data link from the S to the C band, and integrates other data bearers. It also improves sensor exploitation, threat/target management and data preparation while increasing reliability and cutting turnround times and workload. His main goal on the programme now is supporting the Army as it deploys the system operationally and in training. “I maintain a close personal link with the Army Watchkeeper commander because we both fly the system and hold the same legal liability for safety. It’s good to share our challenges,” he says. Improvements to the Watchkeeper’s capabilities are also in the pipeline, and Thales is now under contract to build a full mission simulator for the system, to reduce the amount of live flying and improve the training throughput. That is to be delivered over the next few years on an incremental basis, adding fidelity with regular updates, Bailey says. The Watchkeeper is not yet cleared to fly in icing conditions, a capability he describes as close to the edge of the envelope for the aircraft. “We still need to demonstrate that in flight, and that will happen later this year,” he says. “As we go forward, we will see more manned-unmanned teaming, and we will be flying the Watchkeeper with manned aircraft in its vicinity and trying to coordinate between them.” Doubtless, ensuring that all happens safely will keep Bailey’s adrenaline flowing. February/March 2020 | Unmanned Systems Technology Chartered engineer Jonathan Bailey, 53, is ISR Technical Director and Accountable Manager, (Military Flying) at Thales UK. He was educated at Boston Spa school, near Leeds in Yorkshire, and then the nearby Kitson College, where he earned a Higher National Diploma that led to an electronics apprenticeship with Royal Ordnance, which subsequently supported him through his bachelor’s degree in electrical, electronic and communications systems engineering at Leeds Metropolitan University. He stayed with Royal Ordnance through a series of privatisations in the early 1980s by which it became Vickers Defence Systems. He remained there until 1998 and ended up as chief engineer on the Challenger 2 main battle tank. He moved to BAE Systems in that year to work on the British Army’s Bowman digital comms system, developed under the Archer Communications joint venture, of which Racal was also a part. He joined Racal in 2000 to work on the initial Army UAS study that was to become the Watchkeeper, serving as chief systems engineer on the programme feasibility study and project development proposal. Within three weeks of his move to Racal, the company became Thales. A passion for yachting led him to a position as race director at Clipper Ventures from 2004 to 2012, where he took responsibility for the organisation, management and safety of the Clipper Round The World Yacht Race. He then spent nine months at Garmin International, where he ran the systems integration activities in the company’s new marine engineering department, rejoining Thales in his current role in 2013. He is also a voluntary STEM ambassador, helping to inform local Year 12 and 13 students about careers in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Jonathan Bailey