UAV

[RPK]

Current: RQ-11B Raven (AeroVironment)
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Guillory

Habitat: As the most prevalent UAV on the planet, with more than 7,000 units in service, you’d be hard pressed to find any Army combat brigade in Afghanistan or Iraq that doesn’t have one. Behavior: Three feet long and 4.2 pounds, the Raven is typically fitted with an electronically stabilized color video camera or an infrared video camera for night missions, which pan, tilt and zoom digitally to provide ground troops with “situational awareness.” The fleet is getting a digital upgrade that turns each one into a comm relay, effectively extending its six-mile range. Notable Feature: Light and durable, if it crashes, the wings just pop off, and are easily replaced.

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Current: Wasp III (AeroVironment)


Habitat: Anywhere U.S. Air Force Special Ops forces might be lurking Behavior: Weighing in at one pound, this hand-launch flying wing is outfitted with a day and night camera and can be programmed to fly an autonomous mission between takeoff and recovery. It flies 20 to 40 mph up to 500 feet, and is meant to be expendable once it gets its eyes on a target. Notable Feature: Its electric, two-bladed propeller makes it sneaky quiet. Its inventory is classified.

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Current: Desert Hawk (Lockheed Martin)


Habitat: In the realm of British and American troops in Afghanistan. Behavior: Once it’s chucked into the air, Desert Hawk follows pre-programmed coordinates to give troops an “over-the-hill” view, day or night, up to six miles away. At two pounds (with a collapsible 4.5-foot wingspan), it’s easy to transport. Notable Feature: Built of injection-molded expanded polypropylene and fitted with Kevlar skids, the Desert Hawk is as durable as a Nerf.

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Current: MD4-200 (Microdrone)


Habitat: The surrounds of Liverpool, UK, flown by officers of the Mersyside police department’s Anti-social Behavior Task Force. Behavior: The four-rotor design of the battery-powered, carbon-fiber pod, which weighs just 2.2 pounds, allows it to take off and land vertically. Brushless, direct-drive electric motors keep the noise level below 64 decibels, according to the company. Notable Feature: If it loses signal or senses a low battery, it will land itself autonomously rather than crash.

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Current: T-Hawk/gMAV (Honeywell)
Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth G. Takada

Habitat: With U.S. Army infantry in Iraq. Behavior: Looking like a mini Webber grill with four coat hangers for landing skids, the VTOL T-Hawk can zip up to 10,000 feet for up to 45 minutes. At 16.5 pounds its backpackable. Notable Feature: Did we mention the Webber grill?

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Current: Aerosonde (AAI Corporation)


Habitat: Stormy seas, or any other inhospitable or inaccessible spot scientific researchers want to study up close. Behavior: The first UAV to cross the Atlantic Ocean, back in 1998, the 9.8-foot, 28-pound research craft can fly up to 30 hours on a single tank of gas. In 2007 it delivered unprecedented weather readings from Hurricane Noel, loitering as low as 300 feet above the surface, and streaming data for more than seven hours before it was ditched in the ocean. Notable Feature: The inverted V tail combines functions of what would be the horizontal and vertical parts of the tail wing, saving weight. It has one horsepower.

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Current: FINDER (Naval Research Laboratory)


Habitat: The wing-mounted weapons pylons beneath Predator drones, from which it is launched. Behavior: About the size of Nicole Richie, at 5-foot-3 and 58 pounds, the FINDER, or Flight Inserted Detection Expendable for Reconnaissance, it can be flown via the Predator controls and directed to a smoke plume to sniff out chemical weapons or under a cloud bank to get a closer view of a potential target. Notable Feature: It launches like a rocket, and then its wings unfold. Plus, it’s a drone launched by another drone—spooky.

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Current: ScanEagle (Insitu)
Gunnery Sergeant Shannon Arledge

Habitat: With Marine Corps troops in Iraq or aboard U.S. Navy ships anywhere in the world. Behavior: It’s about 40 pounds and four-feet long with a 10.2-foot wingspan, and is powered by a gasoline engine for 15 hours. Its catapult launch makes it ideal for tight spaces, like the deck of the ship that rescued Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates last April. Notable Feature: To land, the ScanEagle’s navigation points it toward a sky hook that snares it out of the sky.

 

[RPK]

Current: RQ-7 Shadow (AAI)


Habitat: Iraq and Afghanistan, where Army battalions need tactical surveillance. It has flown hundreds of thousands of hours. Behavior: It launches from a catapult, can stay aloft for five to six hours up to 14,000 feet, and lands autonomously on wheels, with the help of a net. It’s a little more than 11 feet long, weighs 375 pounds and has a wingspan of 14 feet. Notable Feature: With its infrared illuminator, it can laser-pinpoint targets for laser-guided missiles and bombs.

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Current: Heron (Israeli Aerospace Industries)
SSGT REYNALDO RAMON, USAF

Habitat: Watching over Israel, patrolling India’s borders with Pakistan and China, looking for drug traffickers in El Salvador, and dozens of other missions around the globe, where the unarmed surveillance craft is used by countries importing it from Israel. Behavior: With a 54-foot wingspan and max altitude ceiling of 30,000 feet, the Heron uses an advanced collection of sensors to stream data to its handlers. It can stay aloft for 52 hours. Notable Feature: I can take off and land autonomously, even in poor weather conditions.

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Current: Hermes 450/Watchkeeper (Elbit Systems)
Gerald L. Nino

Habitat: Providing target coordinates over Israeli battlefields, and reconnaissance for British troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Behavior: It can loiter for about 20 hours on its 34-foot wing, up to an altitude of 18,000 feet, providing real-time surveillance to battlefield commanders. Notable Features: The odd, torpedo-on-a-popsicle-stick design give the craft a high payload to weight ratio: one third of its 992 pounds. It has two gimbals, fore and aft, for surveillance gear.

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Current: MQ-1 Predator (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems)
Lt Col Leslie Pratt

Habitat: The skies of Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq. Behavior: As one of only two major U.S. unmanned systems that carry weapons (in this case, two Hellfire air-to-ground missiles), the Predator bears the brunt of the hunter-killer role with its successor, the beefier MQ-9 Reaper. It has a range of 400 nautical miles, and can hover over a target for 20+ hours. Notable Features: The Predator was first drone system to see heavy use both as a reconnaissance platform and in an attack role, first seeing action in Bosnia in the mid 1990s. The name "Predator" is now almost synonymous with hunter-killer UAVs.

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Current: MQ-9 Reaper (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems)
Lt Col Leslie Pratt

Habitat: Hunting and killing insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. Patrolling the U.S. Mexican Border out of Fort Huachuca, Arizona. Behavior: With a wingspan of 66 feet, it’s twice the size of its precursor MQ-1 Predator, and can loiter at 5,000 feet for up to 24 hours. Loaded with 3,000 pounds of munitions, including the GBU-12 laser-guided bomb and Hellfire tank-penetrating missiles, military commanders say it has become one of their most effective weapons in the current war. Notable Feature: After being launched by operators using radio-control equipment, it’s flown via satellite link from pilots on safe soil in the U.S.

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Current: MQ-5 Hunter (Northrup Grumman)


Habitat: Flown by the Army in Iraq and Afghanistan. Behavior: The Hunter has been in service since just before the Balkans war, and was recently retrofitted in the MQ variant to run on heavy fuel and carry Viper Strike munitions. It has a 34-foot wingspan and can fly 18 hours, up to 18,000 feet. Notable Feature: It can be flown with the same ground control station as the Shadow and the Army’s version of the Predator.

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Current: RQ-4 Global Hawk (Northrop Grumman)


Habitat: High above Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan—or anywhere else the U.S. Central Command wants to keep under watch. Behavior: Soaring at 65,000 feet with an endurance of 36 hours, the Global Hawk can keep watch over 40,000 nautical square miles per mission. Carrying a full suite of electro-optical, infrared and synthetic aperture radar sensors, it can operate day and night in all weather conditions. The larger variation has a 130-foot wingspan. Notable Feature: The fact that it can take off and land autonomously greatly reduces the potential for crashes, which have handicapped the Predator and Reaper.

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Future: Phantom Ray
The Boeing Company

Class: Stealth
Habitat: Edwards Air Force Base, Lancaster, California
Behavior: Spawn of Boeing Phantom Works’s defunct X-45C, this prototype jet-powered flying wing has morphed into a test bed for advanced UAV technologies, including electronic warfare tools like radar jamming, autonomous aerial refueling, air-missile defense and surveillance. Engineers expect it to fly at up to 40,000 feet. With an anticipated cruising speed of up to 610 mph, the Phantom Ray will be one of the fastest UAVs on record.
Notable Feature: Its unusual shape allows it to evade radar.

 

[RPK]

Future: Demon
BAE Systems

Class: Autonomous
Habitat: Defense giant BAE Systems laboratory in London
Behavior: The Demon flies with no fins and almost no moving parts, so it rarely needs repairs. Software makes it partially autonomous.
Notable Features: The entire body of the craft is shaped like a wing. Dozens of thrusters situated on its top and bottom shape airflow, replacing the work typically done by tail fins and ailerons. Onboard software varies the strength of each thruster to control pitch, side-to-side movement (yaw) and roll. BAE Systems engineers hope to begin test flights this month.

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Future: Vulture
Jim Wilson/Lockheed Martin

Class: High-Altitude
Habitat: A belt of relatively calm air around 55,000 feet
Behavior: Lockheed Martin’s design for Darpa’s Vulture program can stay aloft for five years, turning lazy circles above any patch of ground that needs continuous monitoring. A suite of day-and-night cameras can scan a 600-mile swath, sending data back to handlers on the ground. The craft will have to beat out species from a Boeing-led consortium and Virginia-based Aurora Flight Sciences for a second round of funding.
Notable Feature: The craft’s semiflexible structure bends instead of breaking when winds cause the long span to oscillate violently.

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Future: RQ-170 Sentinel
Jean-Dominique Merchet

Class: Stealth
Habitat: Migrating from its suspected home base at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, this top-secret military spy drone makes classified sorties into enemy terrain.
Behavior: An offspring of Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works program, the RQ-170 Sentinel flies via satellite link from a base in Tonopah, Nevada, but little else is know about it. In unofficial photographs, it closely resembles a 1945 Luftwaffe design called the Horten Ho 229.
Notable Feature: Sensor pods built into the edge of its wings probably give it surveillance capabilities, and the absence of a wing-mounted weapons payload likely keeps it light and off the radar.

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Future: Embla
Aesir

Class: Hovercraft
Habitat: Afghanistan and disaster zones, starting in June, according to British manufacturer Aesir. About the size and shape of a spare tire, the Embla lifts straight up from the ground without the need for a runway, making it more useful to combat soldiers stationed in rough terrain. Its diminutive size lets it zoom down urban canyons to find hard-to-reach enemy hideouts, and it can send video to a remote PDA-size controller, revealing potential ambushes. Loaded with explosives, it could even enter an enemy compound on a suicide mission. Yet it’s not exclusively a military breed—Embla’s maneuverability makes it a good scout in emergency scenarios too dangerous for humans to enter.
Behavior: The Embla can change direction on a dime, fly at 50 mph, and climb to 10,000 feet. It also has the ability to hover in place to, for instance, transmit encrypted HD video. Notable Feature: Whereas a ducted fan funnels air straight down to generate lift, the Embla’s turbine sucks air in through its top and forces it out through a skirt-like wing. This design bends the flow toward the ground. This makes Embla strong enough to carry cameras, weapons and sensors on its belly, oriented toward the terrain it’s watching.

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Future: Ion Tiger
Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, D.C.

Class: Endurance
Habitat: European airfields, potentially, from which it could reach the Middle East, once the Navy perfects the fuel-cell technology inside. It could fly as low as 1,000 feet without being heard on the ground, or as high as 14,000 feet.
Behavior: Its ability to stay aloft for 24 hours allows the Ion Tiger to encroach on the terrain of much bigger birds, such as the Predator, and its small size lets it get closer to a target to shoot footage with its lighter, cheaper camera.
Notable Feature: Its carbon-wrapped aluminum hydrogen tanks weigh only about nine pounds each, which helps this UAV stay airborne longer.

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Future: Excalibur
McArdle Productions

Class: Hunt-and-kill
Habitat: Future war zones, on land and at sea. If Aurora Flight Sciences can scale up the prototype, Excalibur could be deployed on the battlefield within five years.
Behavior: Unlike Air Force drones, which are flown by operators stateside and are in short supply, the Excalibur can be remotely operated from wherever it’s deployed—the mountains of Afghanistan or the helipad of a ship—providing immediate tactical support to Army, Navy and Marine troops. It can take off and land without a runway and flies at 30,000 feet. Fitted with 400 pounds of laser-guided munitions, including Hellfire missiles, the hybrid turbine-electric Excalibur strikes enemy targets up to 600 miles away from its handler. It can loiter and inspect the damage with a suite of infrared or electro-optical surveillance cameras and follow anyone who gets away.
Notable Feature: After takeoff, the jet engine pivots in-line with the fuselage, and the lift turbines retract inside the wing section for forward flight. It travels at a brisk 530 mph—twice as fast as a helicopter.

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Future: S-100 Camcopter
Franz Pfluegl/Schiebel

Class: Hovercraft
Habitat: Warships, borders, forest fires, mob scenes
Behavior: Made by Austrian electronics manufacturer Schiebel, the helicopter can take off and land autonomously from a half-sized helipad and fly for six hours with a 75-pound payload at 120 knots. Fitted with its standard infrared and daytime cameras, it can hover at up to 18,000 feet and watch anything from troop movements to illegal border crossings to spreading forest fires.
Notable Feature: Separate controls for the vehicle and the cameras or payload allow for complex missions, such as deploying tear gas over a crowd.

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Future: Skylite
BAE Systems

Class: Stealth
Habitat: Israeli borders
Behavior: Equipped with cameras and sensors, SkyLite typically flies up to 36,000 feet, the same altitude as commercial airplanes, providing a bird’s-eye view of enemy terrain and movement.
Notable Feature: Fits in a backpack and can stay aloft for four hours on a single charge

 

[RPK]

Future: Mantis
Ronen Nadir/Bluebird Aero Systems

Class: Autonomous
Habitat: Up to 40,000 feet above any battlefield, disaster site or border, relaying intelligence data back to controllers on the ground
Behavior: All a soldier will have to do to send the self-piloted Mantis on a mission is push a button. From there, it can calculate flight plans, fly around obstacles, and check in with ground controllers when it spots something interesting, like smoke or troop movement. At the end of the mission, it flies home and lands itself. Mantis’s maiden flight went off without a hitch in Australia last October, an astoundingly fast development—it didn’t even exist in 2007. BAE Systems expects it to be ready for sale within two years and hopes to use it as a proving ground for systems in its forthcoming automated stealth bomber, the Taranis.
Notable Feature: Mantis is the first in a new breed of smart drones. A craft that can hone its searches requires less bandwidth than those that constantly stream images. Mantis can also monitor itself for damage—a sputtering engine, for example—and adjust its electronics to complete a mission. It can fly up to 345 miles an hour and operate for up to 36 hours.

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Future: Avenger
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems

Class: Hunt-and-kill
Habitat: Flight-operations center for General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in Palmdale, California, where it’s performing final test flights for prospective buyers
Behavior: The stealthy jet-powered Avenger is packed with 3,000 pounds of surveillance equipment and lethal munitions, such as laser-guided Hellfire missiles and 500-pound GBU-38 bombs. It can reach speeds of up to 530 mph, far faster than its spindly predecessors, the Predator and Reaper. With fuel packed into every available nook of the fuselage, it can loiter above a target for nearly 20 hours.
Notable Feature: Its internal weapons bay allows for interchangeable payloads, such as next-gen wide-area surveillance sensors.

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Future: Zephyr
QinetiQ

Size: Less than 100 pounds, 75-foot wingspan Habitat: 50,000 feet above Yuma, Arizona, where London-based manufacturer QinetiQ is testing prototypes Notable Feature:

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Future: Boeing HALE (High Altitude Long Endurance) Concept
Boeing

Size: 7 tons, 250-foot wingspan Habitat: 65,000 feet above future battlefields, where it will provide 24/7 surveillance and data communication Notable Feature: The plane stays up for 10 days, powered by a Ford truck engine modified to run on hydrogen fuel.

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Future: Global Observer
AeroVironment

Size: Weight undisclosed, 175-foot wingspan Habitat: Made by Monrovia, California’s AeroVironment, Global Observer will circle up to 65,000 feet above battlefields, disaster sites, borders—any locale in need of aerial surveillance or a wireless data link Notable Feature: Liquid hydrogen powers an electric generator, which drives four propellors.

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Future: Samarai
Lockheed Martin

Class: Biomimetic Size: 150 grams, 12-inch wingspan Habitat: Lockheed Martin’s Advanced Tech Laboratories in Bethesda, Maryland Behavior: Like the spiraling maple-leaf seedlings—more commonly known as whirlybirds—that inspired it, the single wing spins around a central hub to create lift. A miniature jet engine provides thrust. A tiny flap on the trailing edge of the wing, its only moving part, controls direction. If engineers can shrink it to three inches and 15 grams, the autonomous device could be used to spy indoors. Notable Feature: In the future, a camera mounted on the central hub that snaps a picture once every rotation will collect enough images to stitch together full-motion video. Diet: Today, batteries; but engineers plan to feed the next version propane, which is light and readily available in the military supply chain

 

[Tuahaa]

Some of them look quite bizarre

 

[500]

Some MALE UAVs which u missed:

Hermes 900: Weighing 1.1 tons on takeoff, Hermes 900 is more than twice heavier than the current Hermes 450. It has a wing span of 15 meter and fuselage length of 8.3 meters. The aircraft is powered by a single Rotax 914 engine certified engine, modified forunmanned high altitude operation. The larger platform is based on the successful track record of the Hermes 450 system that has accumulated over 170,000 flight hours. The new Hermes 900 offers additional capabilities. It can operate on missions up to 36 hours, at altitude up to 30,000 ft, carry payloads up to 300kg capacity). Furthermore, the modular design allows fast payload replacement and flight capabilitiesin adverse weather conditions. The vehicle is designed for maximum speed of 120 knots, its typical loiter speed is 60 knots.

Heron TP: With maximum takeoff weight of 4650 kg, the 14 meter long aircraft can carry over 1,000 kg of sensors in its forward section, main payload bay, and the two bulges located at the end of each tail boom, offering optimal separation for specific systems. HERON TP is powered by a single 1,200HP Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6A Turbo-Prop engine, powering a four blade propeller. The use of such powerful turbo-prop engine enables the aircraft to climb and operate at altitude above 40,000 ft avoiding any airspace conflict with commercial aircraft traffic. Using on board fuel and power resources, Heron TP is able to sustain continuous missions for over 36 hours with full mission payload.

TAI Anka: To offer an endurance of 24h at altitudes up to 30,000ft (9,150m), the Anka will deliver real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance services from early 2012. The UAV is 8m long, has a wingspan of 17.3m and has a maximum take-off weight of 1,600kg (3,530lb).

 

[RPK]

With a wingspan of 14 feet, the U.S. Marine Corps' new unmanned aerial vehicle can locate, recognize and identify targets from an altitude as high as 15,000 feet. And because of its small size, it produces little noise and has a very low radar signature.

Known as the RQ-7B Shadow, the unmanned aircraft can also recognize targets day and night from as far away as 67 miles from its ground control station. And it's here in Yuma.

Lance Cpl. James Smith, an air vehicle operator, said the Shadow UAV-7B is geared toward saving lives by providing commanders with what he called an “eye into the unknown” on the battlefield.

“It gives us a heads up of what is ahead of us on the battlefield,” Smith said. “If we send this bird out three or four miles ahead of where our guys are, we can tell them from flying up ahead and looking down exactly what is out there.”

He noted, “Our lives are not at risk and there is no one in the aircraft. You are not in the aircraft flying by at 10,000 feet. You are on the ground, safe at the ground control station many miles away.”

Marine Corps Air Station Yuma was recently selected as the site for the Corps' newest squadron, Marine Unmanned Aerial Squadron 4, or VMU-4, which became operational in June. When fully activated, the Yuma-based detachment will consist of four unmanned aerial vehicles and approximately 40 Marines.

According to Brigadier Gen. Rex C. McMillian, USMC Reserve and commander of the 4th Marine Aircraft Wing, the squadron is the first of its type in the Marine Corps Reserve. While there are three other squadrons, he said, VMU-4 will be made up of both active duty and reserves.

The squadron received much of its equipment, including its aircraft, on June 25 and is still assigning Marines to it. McMillian said the goal is to be squadron-trained, fully operational and into the deployment rotation as soon as possible.

A ceremonial “first” flight for the squadron took place Wednesday morning as one of its four unmanned aerial vehicles was launched from Auxiliary Airfield 2 on the Barry M. Goldwater Range.

During the flight, the RQ-7B Shadow was flown to the nearby Yodaville target complex then returned about 20 minutes later to land back at the launch site. A camera mounted on the underside of the unmanned aircraft relayed images of the ground view over which the Shadow was flying to monitors back at the ground control station.

“It was a fantastic demonstration of this vehicle's capabilities,” McMillian said. “It brings another tool that we can use to help out the Marine rifleman that is on the deck engaged in combat. Everything we do in the Marine Corps is to support that individual.”

Smith explained that the Marines who fly and control the unmanned vehicles aren't called pilots. Instead, they are referred to as operators because they are trained to both fly the aircraft and operate its cameras.

Smith likened operating an unmanned aerial vehicle to playing a video game.

“It is a lot more complicated than that, but very similar,” Smith said. “You are controlling an aircraft that you aren't really inside of, so that is what gives it the video game effect.”

The Shadow UAV-7B weighs 375 pounds and can fly for up to six hours nonstop on a single tank of gas. Smith said he takes pride in knowing that someday he will be saving lives.

 

[RPK]

Northrop Grumman 's Fire-X passes key test - SignOnSanDiego.com

In an important milestone, engineers recently turned the power on for the first time in Fire-X, an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) that Northrop Grumman's Rancho Bernardo plant is developing with Bell Helicopter.

Northrop believes it can expand its product line by creating a vertical take off-and-landing UAV that the military could use to transport cargo or carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions. Northrop also produces Global Hawk, a UAV that's already in wide use around the world.

Global Hawk is a fixed-wing aircraft. Fire-X will be an unmanned helicopter. Engineers have installed such things as Northrop flight computers, navigational equipment and acuators in a Bell 407 helicopter.

The Fire-X was powered up for the first time on Sept. 17th. The demonstration "went well," said George Spongberg, who manages the Fire-X program for Northrop Grumman.

Spongberg said that a pilot will test fly the Fire-X next month, using the Northrop avionics systems. If that goes well, the medium-range vehicle will be put through a series of unpiloted flights in November or December at the U.S. Army's Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona.

Many companies, including General Atomics Aeronautical Systems in Poway, design or build UAVs. Northrop is trying to expand its presence in this field with the Fire-X, which is designed to be capable of operating from Navy ships, as well as from land sites. Northrop also is promoting Fire-X as a comparatively low-cost UAV that's capable of carrying cargo inside the helicopter, or from a sling beneath the aircraft.

 

[RPK]

IAI reveals innovative UAV design | Shephard Group

IAI will unveil its new Panther family of UAVs at the Latrun conference in Israel on 5 October, designed to encompass both conventional runway and vertical takeoff and landing (VTOL) operations. The Panther design comprises three tilt-rotors fitted to what would otherwise look like a regular tactical UAV.

The system is also due to be exhibited internationally for the first time at the AUSA exposition in Washington, DC on 25 October.

The concept, which IAI said it had patented already, also includes an automatic flight control system for transitioning between VTOL and forward flight. According to the company, Panther is capable of taking off and landing ‘automatically’ with utilisation of the operator console.

Weighing in at around 65kg, Panther’s three ’ultra-quiet’ electrical motors provide an endurance of around six hours at altitudes of up to 10,000 ft with a range greater than 60km. The family also includes the ‘Mini-Panther’ UAV which weighs 12kg with loitering capability of some two hours. This, according to IAI, can be carried in separate backpacks by two operators. Each Panther system will include two airframes and a command and control unit.

Both systems are capable of carrying IAI’s Mini-POP (Plug-in Optronic Payload) system, which includes a day/night stabilised camera, laser rangefinder and pointer or designator.

A single operator can control both platforms by way of a control station, which can be transported in any ‘midsize’ vehicle. This is capable of storing a total of three airframes, ground data link and support equipment. However, two operators are required to operate both the control station and command and control elements of an operation by way of separate and redundant consoles, IAI added.

IAI said prototypes of both vehicles had already conducted ‘successful flight tests’ and would be operational with undisclosed forces by 2011. However, IAI’s president Itzhak Nissan, said Panther’s ISR capability would prove suitable for the Israel Defense Forces and ‘foreign customers’.

 

[RPK]

Northrop might sell 3 Global Hawks to Japan - SignOnSanDiego.com

Northrop Grumman today confirmed that it is negotiating the possible sale of three of its high-altitude, long-endurance Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles to Japan. The company did not disclose the possible sale price of the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), where are developed in San Diego County.

Gemma Loochkharrt, a Northrop spokeswoman, said here company "continues to support the Japan Ministry of Defense (JMoD) studies on (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) enhancement. These studies have included Global Hawk as one of several options. Global Hawk is a uniquely capable (ISR) asset, providing long persistence and range, high altitude,and multiple sensors-payloads ..."

"Currently, JMoD has not selected Global Hawk or finalized its operational requirements. Using the U.S. Air Force operations as an example, three to four Global Hawk aircraft provide a longer term operating capability, including the ability to provide long periods of continuous, round-the-clock ISR coverage."

Northrop, which employs about 4,800 people in San Diego County, has been hustling to expand the market for Global Hawk beyond the U.S. military market. Loochkharrt says Germany has already contracted for a Global Hawk (which is known as Euro Hawk). The UAV flew for the first time earlier this summer.

"Germany's plans include four to eight additional aircraft."

Loochkarrt added that, "NATO has selected the Global Hawk Block 40 to meet Alliance Ground Surveillance requirements. Up to eight aircraft are expected to be contracted, beginning as early as 2011."

It is also possible that Korea will buy one or more Global Hawks.

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Carbon Fibre Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Set to Smash Its Own Endurance Record

Employing carbon fibre airframe components manufactured by Leafield-based Formtech Composites, QinetiQ's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) project, "Zephyr", is expected to go into the record books by quadrupling its own previous record of 82 hours.

Zephyr operates within the High Altitude, Long Endurance (HALE) sector and was successfully launched on July 9th at the US Army Yuma proving ground in Arizona and completed a flight time, yet to be officially confirmed by the FAI, of 14 days (336 hours).






This 22.5m wingspan UAV is little more than 50kg and launched by hand. It operates by day on solar power, generated by amorphous silicon arrays and by night it is powered by rechargeable lithium-sulphur batteries that are recharged during the day by the solar energy gathered.

Zephyr and QinetiQ provided Formtech Composites a unique entrance into the UAV sector of aerospace and, providing a complete solution from design receipt through to production, the team worked exclusively in carbon fibre from QinetiQ's original designs, the components being produced to specification and adapted as new innovations were delivered.

"We can offer our clients a one to one drawing board to runway solution by maintaining a high level of communication and contact throughout the process," says Mark Preston, managing director of Formtech Composites, "and the results speak for themselves; in just two years of business our expertise has grown to a level where we are able to supply such a high end client as QinetiQ."

Stuart Banyard, production manager at Formtech Composites, agrees that the key to the Zephyr project was communication: "With regular meetings and our ability to fast track client adaptations throughout the development stages, we were able to keep to accurate deadlines and strict budget parameters. We are absolutely delighted at the high level of results for Zephyr and wish to pass our congratulations to all the HALE team at QinetiQ".

 

[RPK]

AirMule UAV gains wheels for STOVL operations

Urban Aeronautics' AirMule ducted fan craft has been equipped with a wheeled landing gear to facilitate ground manoeuvring and to enable the unmanned air vehicle to perform short take-off and vertical landing operations.

The Israeli company's prototype AirMule has recently been undergoing a systems upgrade, after having performed 40 test hovers and accumulated 10h of flight time.

The upgrade activity has included the development and installation of the wheeled landing gear, which when used in STOVL mode has the potential to nearly double the aircraft's payload capacity.

According to information previously released by the company, a skid-equipped AirMule has a maximum take-off weight of 1,090kg (2,400lb), including a mission payload of around 400kg.

The AirMule is equipped with internal lift rotors and has a small footprint, qualities that make it suitable for vertical mobility in urban environments. The aircraft has multiple-mission capabilities, although the current emphasis is on unmanned casualty evacuation and cargo resupply tasks.

Urban Aeronautics plans to resume flight tests with its prototype AirMule before year-end.








PICTURES: AirMule UAV gains wheels for STOVL operations