The American start-up "Regional Electric Ground Effect Nautical Transport" (REGENT) recently announced that its autonomous wing ground effect aircraft "Squire" for military logistics scenarios has successfully completed its first flight test, officially demonstrating to the US military the potential of this new "Seagull glider" in maritime supply and mission support.
Currently, Western countries are accelerating their arms expansion in the context of geopolitical tensions. They are not only investing resources in cutting-edge weapons such as lasers and missiles, but are also actively introducing new technologies in areas such as ammunition and spare parts reserves, and logistical resilience, in an attempt to create a faster and more difficult to destroy supply system.
REGENT’s Squire project brings together three key technologies: autonomous flight systems, Wing-in-Ground Effect (WIG), and electric propulsion. The company has been developing an electric fixed-wing aircraft since 2020 that uses the principle of wing-ground effect to fly at very low altitudes - flying at a height of about half the wingspan length or less - significantly reducing drag by flying close to the water or surface. In this flight state, a high-pressure "air cushion" is formed under the wings, making the lift-to-drag ratio much higher than that of traditional aircraft, allowing them to carry larger loads and fly farther under the same energy conditions. This is especially critical for electric aircraft with limited cruising range.
The "Viceroy" prototype REGENT showed last year is a civilian passenger version of this route. It is an electric passenger aircraft that can carry two crew members and 12 passengers. It has a wingspan of about 20 meters, a top speed of 160 knots (about 180 mph, 290 km/h), and a range of about 160 nautical miles (about 180 miles, 290 kilometers). On this basis, REGENT has now launched Squire, an unmanned autonomous version tailored for military logistics.
The Squire is also a sea glider that takes off and lands on the water, but is significantly smaller in size, only about a quarter of the size of the Viceroy, with a wingspan of about 5 meters. Compared with Viceroy, Squire’s speed is half and its range is shortened to about 100 nautical miles (about 115 miles, 185 kilometers), but it can carry about 50 pounds (23 kilograms) of payload and is suitable for small-volume, high-time-efficient material delivery and mission support. The aircraft body is designed in accordance with military specifications and fully adopts an unmanned and autonomous control architecture to adapt to high-risk sea areas and distributed deployment requirements.
During its first flight on April 13, Squire demonstrated full automatic switching capabilities between three operating modes. First, the aircraft floats on the water with a hull-like fuselage; then during the acceleration and taxiing phase, the hydrofoil structure under the fuselage gradually lifts the fuselage away from the water, greatly reducing water resistance. When the speed reaches a critical value, the wing-to-ground effect begins to take effect, and Squire relies on the high-pressure air cushion formed under the wings to enter a water-based flight state, achieving true "gliding off the water." REGENT said that this test proved that Squire can autonomously complete the necessary state transitions between these three modes, which is a key prerequisite for practicalization and military deployment.
The U.S. Department of Defense has expressed interest in the Squire or its variants, hoping to use such platforms to close logistical gaps during critical time windows on the battlefield, the company said. Tom Huntley, general manager of REGENT’s defense business, pointed out that what defense users need is a platform that can operate at high speed, long range and mission flexibility in a wide range of sea areas, while minimizing reliance on traditional and vulnerable ports, airports and other infrastructure. He said that Squire is designed to meet this demand and aims to provide high-speed autonomous capabilities that can be used in a variety of mission scenarios such as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), customized logistics supplies, and anti-submarine warfare.
REGENT believes that as the demand for maritime supply and island support operations increases in various countries, maritime gliders that combine electric low cost, unmanned operation, and high wing-to-ground efficiency are expected to become an important part of the new generation of tactical and theater-level logistics support systems.