A Bedfordshire-based autonomy and drone engineering company, now part of Saab as its UK Autonomy Accelerator, building uncrewed aircraft and swarm control software.
BlueBear designs, builds and rapidly prototypes uncrewed systems, mainly aircraft (drones) and the software that controls them. Its work ranges from cheap target drones that armed forces use for training, to surveillance aircraft, to counter-drone interceptors, and to software called SwarmCommand and FlightControl that lets one operator command many drones at once. A big part of what it offers is speed: the company says it has taken a concept to a flying prototype in as little as 90 days, then helped adapt that design for cheaper parts and larger production.
The company says it brings more than two decades of expertise in uncrewed aerial systems, autonomy, command and control software and swarming. The page we read states its mission as designing, developing and rapidly prototyping autonomous and uncrewed capabilities for government and industry defence customers, delivered "at pace". It has also done civil work: a local report notes integrated systems it supplied for the Fukushima nuclear plant clean-up. It has demonstrated autonomous containment technology for the RAF under Project CURBER, and supplied a target system for a British Army exercise in the Falklands.
BlueBear is based near Bedford, in Oakley, Bedfordshire. Local MP Richard Fuller visited and was told by managing director Ian Williams-Wynn about the company's 20-drone swarm controlled by a single operator, which the report said was a first. In August 2023 Saab, the Swedish defence and security company, announced it was buying BlueBear, and it now works as Saab UK's Autonomy Accelerator. ACQUIRED: by Saab (2023); it still trades in the UK under the BlueBear name.
The MP's report described the company as part of a group of high-tech Bedfordshire businesses offering highly skilled jobs, and praised the team's in-depth and interesting overview. We found no staff numbers or culture statements beyond the company's emphasis on speed and on prototyping. A team that can go from idea to flying aircraft in weeks is likely to be small, hands-on and used to working across disciplines, but that is our reading rather than a claim by the company.
Roles in a business like this include aerodynamicists, mechanical and electronics designers, avionics and flight-control engineers, software developers for autonomy and command systems, test and flight operations staff, and project managers. The work is mostly for defence customers, which is worth knowing if that matters to you. Maths, physics, computer science and engineering are the usual starting points.
Website: www.saab.com/markets/united-kingdom/BlueBear
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