Hej I work at Saab UK: Luke Cowan
This addition of Hej I work at Saab UK highlights Luke Cowan, Head of Mission Systems at BlueBear, Saab UK’s autonomy accelerator. Luke has recently celebrated 10 years of service, playing a key role in a number of significant projects during his time, from rapid plane inspection, the Integrated concept evaluation (ICE) trials and project convergence-capstone 4 (PCC4) in California.
How do you describe your job to friends and family?
I tell them that I make drones autonomous but not in the sense of entertainment or light displays!
What did you do before joining the company?
I joined BlueBear straight after university. I completed a three-month summer placement here while studying Aerospace Engineering at the University of Sheffield. After graduating, I was offered a job at BlueBear and have been here ever since.
Why do you enjoy working for Saab?
The main thing I enjoy about working here is being able to work with like-minded people and solve problems together as a team.
How does your job keep people and society safe?
I’d say creating and providing software systems that enables our customers to work with unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV’s) and swarming capabilities is the main way that I contribute to keeping people and society safe.
Finish this sentence: 'For me, Saab UK is ...’
For me, Saab UK is fun! There are lots of opportunity to work on all kinds of projects, and to be able to be involved with them from start to finish is always exciting to be a part of.
Which achievements are you most proud of?
One achievement I am particularly proud of is a project we worked on called PCC4, where we used our software to operate a swarm of drones to detect opposition forces in the Californian desert in 2024.
This was a great achievement to me as we spent three to four years preparing different components for the exercise. To then see it all come together in a representative environment was very fulfilling.
Why do you enjoy being part of a Swedish company?
The culture and work-life balance are something I enjoy the most about working for a Swedish company, the culture is great!