v1.4.1 / chapter 16 of 19 / 01 mar 08 / greg goebel / public domain
* One of the latest trends in UAVs is the "uninhabited combat air vehicle (UCAV)", or robot strike aircraft. This chapter outlines current developments in UCAVs.
* If UAVs could be used for reconnaissance, it was obvious that they could also be used for active combat missions, at least in principle. In 1964, Ryan conducted experiments under "Project CeeBee" using a Firebee fitted with underwing pylons to carry two 115 kilogram (250 pound) bombs, later fitting the machine with longer wings to carry two 225 kilogram (500 pound) SUU-7 cluster munitions. The Firebee was ground-launched, using a hefty RATO booster taken from an ASROC antisubmarine rocket, with test flights performed in the White Sands missile range in New Mexico.
The CeeBee experiments didn't go anywhere, it appears because shooting at a specific target is much trickier than flying over an area and taking pictures, and it wasn't until 1971, when more sophisticated guided munitions were available, that the Air Force came back to the concept. The objective was to study an attack system to perform the dangerous "suppression of enemy air defenses (SEAD)" mission, or in other words to destroy enemy anti-aircraft gun and SAM sites. The project was known as HAVE LEMON, a somewhat odd choice of name, since in US slang a "lemon" is a troublesome and worthless automobile or similar disagreeable machine.
HAVE LEMON involved a number of Ryan Firebees equipped with a weapons pylon under each wing, a forward-looking TV camera, and a datalink mounted in a pod on top of the vertical tailplane. These UAVs were given the designation "BGM-34A" and used beginning in late 1971 to perform remote-control strikes on simulated air-defense sites with Maverick missiles and HOBOS TV-guided glide bombs. Both the weapons had imaging seekers, allowing a remote control "pilot" to target the weapons. The very first launch of a missile, a Maverick, from a UAV was on 14 December 1971. Experiments were also performed with Firebees carrying Shrike antiradar missiles.
The results were interesting enough to permit follow-on development, resulting in the "BGM-34B", which featured an extended nose to accommodate an infrared imaging system (some sources say low-light-level TV, maybe it could fit either) and laser target designator for targeting and control of laser-guided bombs. Tests performed with in 1973 and 1974 with the BGM-34B were also successful, and led Teledyne-Ryan to develop a "BGM-34C" as a conversion of existing Lightning Bug airframes. The BGM-34C could be used for reconnaissance or strike missions by swapping out nose modules and other elements.
The concept proved to be a little too far ahead of its time. Nobody in the Air Force hierarchy stepped forward to take ownership of the issue, and the HAVE LEMON exercise faded away. The test squadron was disbanded in 1979 and its roughly 60 UAVs were put into storage. However, in the summer of 2003 a UAV "airshow" of sorts was conducted, in which a Firebee was displayed carrying two Hellfire anti-armor missiles, as well as a pod for dispensing remote battlefield sensors; apparently Northrop Grumman was running the idea back up the flagpole to see if anyone would salute. It seems nobody did.
* UAV advocates claim the Air Force abandoned UAVs for strike missions because of inclination of "hotshot flyboys" to keep the mission for themselves, but in fact the concept has always suffered from "command and control" problems, such as the vulnerability of communications links to jamming and spoofing, and the need to hit specific targets and not accidentally kill civilians or friendly troops.
Over the next two decades, more reliable communications links were developed, the GPS navigation system was introduced, automated systems came into much wider use, and the military learned to be much more comfortable with such new technologies. In the late 1990s, the concept of using UAVs for performing actual combat, was revived in the form of various designs generally designated as "uninhabited combat air vehicles".
One of the initial concepts was to develop a UCAV on a fast track for "air occupation". The idea was to use unpiloted aircraft to fly continuous patrols over hostile territory, with some of the aircraft fitted with sophisticated sensors to identify enemy activities and target them, and other aircraft following up with attacks. The idea was obviously inspired by USAF air patrols over Iraq and the Balkans. Lockheed Martin suggested rebuilding old F-16A fighters as UAVs, fitting them with a wide wing to provide additional fuel, and also permit carriage of six or more air-to-surface weapons to provide the air-occupation strike element. The modified F-16As would have had endurance of 8 hours over a target area, and three sets of them could maintain 24-hour coverage.
The US Navy also began studies for UCAVs at about the same time. The Navy saw that UCAVs had a number of potential benefits. They promised to be cheaper than manned aircraft, with a lower purchase cost and much lower operating costs, since operators could be given much of their training through simulations. UCAVs would also be smaller and so stealthier than manned aircraft, and could perform high-gee maneuvers impossible with piloted aircraft, allowing them to dodge missiles and enemy fighters.
Indeed, since the Navy found themselves increasingly committed to the use of expensive cruise missiles to perform punitive strikes and other "limited" military operations, UCAVs offered a potentially cheaper alternative, a "reusable cruise missile". One UCAV could carry a number of smart GPS-guided munitions and hit multiple targets on a single sortie, and then return home to be used again. Even with a high operational attrition rate, the cost would be less than that of a barrage of cruise missiles.
Lockheed Martin performed studies that envisioned a number of different naval UCAV configurations, including "short takeoff and landing (STOVL)" aircraft that could be operated off of aircraft carriers, or "vertical attitude takeoff and landing (VATOL)" or "pogo" aircraft that could be operated off destroyers and other surface combat ships, or even submarines.
Piloted pogo aircraft were flight-tested in the 1950s and proved a technological dead end at the time, since they couldn't carry a useful payload, and were extremely difficult to land even under benign conditions. The payload limitations can be addressed with lighter materials and RATO-boosted takeoff, and modern digital flight control systems can address the landing issue. The Navy envisioned using pogo UCAVs to arm a guided-missile destroyer "unmanned air wing" with 20 pogo UCAVs for strike, and five pogo UAVs for reconnaissance.
The submarine launch concept was even more speculative, since recovery was a problem. The Lockheed Martin UCAV concepts were in the 4.5 tonne (10,000 pound) weight class and carried a warload of 450 kilograms (1,000 pounds). Weapons were carried internally to improve stealth and consisted of 45 kilogram (100 pound) and 115 kilogram (250 pound) small smart bombs, now under development.
Range would be about 1,100 kilometers (680 miles), with capability for probe-and-drogue aerial refueling. Top speed would be in the high subsonic range, and ceiling would be about 12.2 kilometers (40,000 feet). The UCAVs would be equipped with fairly simple radar or electro-optical sensors to give the operators imagery of the target. Long-range sensing would be provided by other platforms in air or space.
One Lockheed Martin UCAV concept was an arrowhead-shaped vehicle with no vertical surfaces and the air intake on top. A shaft-driven lift fan would exhaust through the nosewheel door for vertical landings, while the nose sensor array would pivot forward to expose the intakes for the lift fan. The UCAV would have a retractable refueling probe, communications antennas mounted on the aircraft's spine, and lights for navigation and refueling operations. Moveable wingtips and control surfaces along the sawtooth rear edge of the UCAV would eliminate the need for vertical stabilizers.
Another Lockheed-Martin UCAV concept envisioned a diamond-shaped tailless flying wing, with an engine buried down the centerline, and conformal weapons bays flanking the engine. For greater stealth, the UCAV would flip onto its featureless back and fly upside-down.
Such UCAVs could be available in several versions: one with an afterburning engine for maximum performance; one with a non-afterburning engine, but with a thrust-vectoring exhaust for better maneuverability; and one with a conventional non-afterburning engine for low cost. UCAVs missions would be conducted by an operator in a ground vehicle, warship, or control aircraft over a high speed digital data link. The operator would not really be flying the UCAV directly, however, since the robot would be able to handle the details of flight operations by itself, leaving the operator in a supervisory role. The UCAV would be able to complete its mission autonomously if communications were cut.
* UCAV speculations were impressive for their imaginativeness, but had a taste of science fiction. Real-world UCAVs are just now starting to emerge.
In March 1999, DARPA awarded a contract to Boeing for two "X-45A" UCAV technology demonstrators. Northrop Grumman and Raytheon also submitted designs, but lost the bid. Boeing rolled out the first prototype for public presentation at Saint Louis, Missouri, in September 2000. First flight was on 22 May 2002, from Edwards Air Force Base in California, and was followed a few months later by the second prototype.
Boeing's X-45A was a stealthy tail-less aircraft, with composite outer
structures and an aluminum internal structure. It had a midbody-mounted wing
with a straight leading edge and a sawtooth trailing edge, all with 45-degree
sweep angles.
BOEING X-45A UCAV DEMONSTRATOR:
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
spec metric english
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
wingspan 10.3 meters 33 feet 10 inches
length 8.08 meters 26 feet 6 inches
height 2.94 meters 6 feet 8 inches
empty weight 3,630 kilograms 8,000 pounds
gross weight 5,528 kilograms 12,190 pounds
maximum speed subsonic
range 600 kilometers 375 MI / 326 NMI
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
The X-45A was powered by an Allied-Signal F124 turbofan with a rectangular
thrust-vectoring exhaust that swivels in the horizontal plane, helping to
compensate for the aircraft's lack of a tail assembly. The engine was
mounted in the center of the fuselage.
The X-45A had two weapons bays. One of the weapons bays was used to store a pallet of flight test systems. The other weapons bay was used to carry test stores, such as a single 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) GPS-guided bomb, or a "multipurpose bomb rack" to allow it to carry a wide range of smaller munitions, such as six 113 kilogram (250 pound) bombs. The rack allowed reloading the X-45A with a new set of munitions in about a half hour.
The first demonstrator was built to a "Block 1" standard, with a UHF control link and an L-band telemetry link. The second demonstrator was built to "Block 2" standard, with an added UHF satellite communications link and a "Link 16" high-speed data link, and the first machine was updated to that standard. The two demonstrators were then flown on cooperative test missions. The tests investigated operation of multiple UCAVs in military operations; integration of UCAVs with other military operations; and the feasibility of using reservists to fly the robot aircraft. The test program was completed in August 2005, with one prototype handed on to the USAF Museum in Dayton, Ohio, and the other handed on to the Smithsonian Museum of Air & Space in Washington DC.
* The US Navy did not commit to practical UCAV efforts until the summer of 2000, when the service awarded contracts of $2 million USD each to Boeing and Northrop Grumman for a 15-month concept-exploration program.
Design considerations for a naval UCAV included dealing with the corrosive salt-water environment, deck handling for launch and recovery, integration with command and control systems, and operation in a carrier's high electromagnetic interference environment. The Navy was also interested in using their UCAVs for reconnaissance missions, penetrating protected airspace to identify targets for the attack waves.
The Navy went on to hand Northrop Grumman a contract for a naval UCAV demonstrator with the designation of "X-47A Pegasus", in early 2001. The Pegasus demonstrator looks like a simple black arrowhead with no tailfin. It has a leading edge sweep of 55 degrees and a trailing edge sweep of 35 degrees. The demonstrator has retractable tricycle landing gear, with a one-wheel nose gear and dual-wheel main gear, and has six control surfaces, including two elevons and four "inlaids". The inlaids are small flap structures mounted on the top and bottom of the wing forward of the wingtips.
Pegasus is powered by a single Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-5C small
high-bypass turbofan engine with 14.2 kN (1,450 kgp / 3,190 lbf) thrust.
This engine is currently in use with operational aircraft such as the Agusta
S211A trainer. The engine is mounted on the demonstrator's back, with the
inlet on top behind the nose. The inlet duct has a serpentine diffuser to
prevent radar reflections off the engine fan. However, to keep costs low,
the engine exhaust is a simple cylindrical tailpipe, with no provisions for
reducing radar or infrared signature.
NORTHROP GRUMMAN PEGASUS UCAV DEMONSTRATOR:
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
spec metric english
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
wingspan 8.48 meters 27 feet 10 inches
length 8.51 meters 27 feet 11 inches
height 1.74 meters 5 feet 8 inches
empty weight 1,740 kilograms 3,835 pounds
gross weight 2,495 kilograms 5,500 pounds
maximum speed subsonic
endurance > 1 hour
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
The UCAV's airframe is built of composite materials, with construction
subcontracted out to Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites company, which had the
expertise and tooling to do the job cheaply. The airframe basically consists
of four main assemblies, split down the middle with two assemblies on top and
two on bottom.
The Pegasus was rolled out on 30 July 2001 and performed its first flight on 23 February 2003 at the US Naval Air Warfare Center at China Lake, California. The flight test program did not involve weapons delivery, but Pegasus does have two weapons bays, one on each side of the engine, that may be each loaded with a single 225 kilogram (500 pound) dummy bomb to simulate operational flight loads. The Pegasus has also been used to evaluate technologies for carrier deck landings, though the demonstrator did not have an arresting hook. Other issues related to carrier operations involve adding deck tie-downs without compromising stealth characteristics, and designing access panels so that they wouldn't be blown around or damaged by strong winds blowing across the carrier deck.
* While the US Air Force and US Navy had been proceeding with their UCAV demonstrator programs, the enthusiasm of the two services for the UCAV concept grew by leaps and bounds. UAVs were star performers in the US intervention in Afghanistan in 2001:2002, with the Hellfire-armed Predator having a particularly high profile, and UAVs also proved their value during the US invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003.
Both the Air Force and the Navy had been developing plans for operational follow-ons to their respective demonstrator programs, but pressures rose for the two services to merge their efforts, resulting in the formation of the "Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS)" program in October 2003 under DARPA direction. Of course, the candidates for the J-UCAS program included follow-ons to the X-45A and the X-47A. DARPA and Boeing had been working on the "X-45B", a scaled-up X-45A that was seen as the prototype for an operational machine that would reach service in 2008, and would carry a 1,590 kilogram (3,500 pound) warload to a combat radius of 1,665 kilometers (900 nautical miles). Two were to be built, but before any metal could be bent for the two X-45B prototypes planned, the Air Force redirected the effort to an even more capable machine, the "X-45C".
Partly because of the pressure from Boeing, in the summer of 2003 Northrop Grumman formed an alliance with Lockheed Martin to help develop the "X-47B", a follow-on to the X-47 that would compete against Boeing efforts. The alliance was focused on building a modular stealthy UCAV that could be adapted to a wide range of missions.
A Navy UCAV would have a stronger airframe and landing gear for carrier takeoffs and landings; an arresting hook; and avionics for automated carrier approach and landing, along with a "relative navigation system" that will tell the UCAV where it is relative to the carrier.
However, as it turned out, the joint program was doomed. In an abrupt turnaround, in late 2004 the J-UCAS program was reassigned to the Air Force, removing DARPA from the driver's seat. Then, in early 2006, the USAF decided that requirements had changed and dropped out of the program, cancelling the X-45C prototypes. That killed the J-UCAS program. The Air Force is currently in preliminary stages of defining the service's new requirement.
The UCAV program had been noted by shifts in definition and requirements from the early days, and the abrupt collapse of the J-UCAS program didn't come as any major surprise. In early 2007, the Navy began a competition for a "UCAS Demonstrator (UCAS-D)" program, with Boeing and Northrop Grumman jumping in. The Northrop Grumman X-47B won the competition in August 2007. The UCAS-D program is strictly and evaluation and Navy officials have stated there will be a competition for a production machine after UCAS-D ends in 2013, but Northrop Grumman officials feel their win gave a company a big leg up in the emerging UCAV business.
As envisioned, the X-47B will have a length of 11.6 meters (38 feet) and a wingspan of 18.6 meters (61 feet). It will be highly stealthy, with a low radar cross section over a wide range of radar bands; it will stow an inflight refueling probe in a landing gear well and will have a connection over the wing fold to ensure it doesn't compromise stealth. It will be able to operate from a carrier in weather too foul for piloted flight, will have an endurance with inflight refueling of up to a hundred hours, and will be able to carry a total of 12 SDBs in two weapons bays. Work is also being done on plugging fuel tanks into the two weapons bays to permit the UCAV to be used for inflight refueling -- a scheme which has been greeted with enthusiasm by Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet pilots, who are currently tasked with the tanker mission. First flight will be in late 2009 at earliest.
* The excitement over UCAVs is certainly welcome given the decades it took for the idea to catch on, but on the other hand there is a certain exasperation in watching the cost and complexity of the concept spiral upward while the schedule slips out. Of course, the armed services involved understand this perfectly well, and the US UCAV effort has branched off in several directions to meet immediate needs.
Although the J-UCAS concept is a long ways from the early idea of a "reusable cruise missile", that notion is apparently alive and well. In September 2003, an announcement was made that Lockheed Martin's famous "Skunk Works" was developing an air-launched UCAV named the "Minion". Details released describe it as having a launch weight of 3,400 kilograms (7,500 pounds) and able to carry a reconnaissance payload, a jammer system, a high-power microwave weapon, or four 100 kilogram (220 pound) GPS-guided small-diameter bombs. It could also be used as a decoy, though it would need to have radar-enhancement payload since it is described as extremely stealthy.
Range was given as up to 1,850 kilometers (1,000 nautical miles). Two would be carried into combat by a single strike fighter such as a Lockheed Martin F/A-22 Raptor, with one under each wing, and launched from standoff distances to attack heavily defended targets. In practice, two strike fighters are expected to be used, launching four Minions, with the pilot of one aircraft watching out for threats while the other directed the UCAVs over a line-of-sight communications link. After the mission, the Minions would return to base and land conventionally on retractable landing gear.
Pictures showed the Minion to have a certain broad resemblance to various air-launched cruise missiles, such as the Anglo-French Matra-BAe Dynamics APACHE / Storm Shadow or the US AGM-158A Joint Air to Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), which is also built by Lockheed Martin and may have some degree of commonality with the Minion. The picture showed the Minion to have a spikelike, square-sided fuselage, with pop-out wings and twin tailfins, with the engine inlet just forward of the tailfins and the exhaust just behind the tailfins. Both the intake and the exhaust are shielded by triangular covers.
Despite the stealthiness of the Minion, Lockheed Martin is designing it for low cost, to be substantially cheaper than the $400,000 USD JASSM. Rumors about a Skunk Works project involving a cruise-missile-like UCAV had been circulating for a year or two before the announcement. There were also very vague and unconfirmed rumors that the Minion was used in an operational evaluation during the invasion of Iraq in the spring of 2003. There has been little or no mention of the Minion since that time. It is unclear if the program has been abandoned, or if it has just been placed under deeper secrecy.
* Somewhat more visibly, in the summer of 2004, the Air Force, in need of a less expensive short-term UCAV solution with a focus on endurance, issued a request for a "Hunter-Killer" UCAV. Specifications included:
Cost specifications were given as $10 million USD per aircraft and $30 million USD per "system", with each system including two aircraft and the necessary support kit. The Hunter-Killer program attracted considerable interest and a number of interesting proposals.
Northrop Grumman came up with two concepts. The first was the "Model 395", a militarized version of the Scaled Composites Proteus modified to a pure UAV configuration, with a sensor turret under the nose and a SAR-MTI pod under the forward fuselage, and carrying munitions on the centerline, for example tandem triple racks to carry six 225 kilogram (500 pound) munitions. With reduced fuel, it could even carry a single 2,270 kilogram (5,000 pound) bunker buster. At maximum takeoff weight, it would have a ceiling of 15,000 meters (49,000 feet).
The other Northrop Grumman proposal was effectively a half-weight Global Hawk, the "Model 396", with a wingspan of 10.7 meters (35 feet), a length of 27 meters (88.6 feet), and a gross weight of 6,800 kilograms (15,000 pounds), half that of the Global Hawk. It would be powered by a single Pratt & Whitney 545 bizjet turbofan.
Lockheed Martin also submitted a proposal but didn't release details publicly, and Aurora Flight Sciences and IAI submitted an armed Heron 2. General Atomics offered the turboprop-powered Predator B for the role. The Predator B was of course very attractive, since it was already flying, and General Atomics was working on the twinjet Predator C for a growth path. The Air Force was in a hurry, with plans to field the Hunter-Killer by 2007, and so the Predator B was selected as the MQ-9 Reaper without a competitive flyoff. It is possible that the request for a competition was just a formality, with the Air Force intending to buy the Predator B all along.
The Air Force may order up to 60 machines. Grumman, believing the demand is out there, has continued work on their Proteus Hunter-Killer, performing weapon drop tests with a manned Proteus. Given the popularity of the IAI Heron, it also seems likely an armed Heron will be available sooner or later. Fans of Arnold Schwarzenegger's TERMINATOR movies may find the "Hunter-Killer" name a bit sinister, since that is the name of the ducted-fan attack UAVs used by the machines in their war of extermination against the humans.
* The US Army obviously has no direct need for a large UCAV such as the J-UCAS, but in 2005 the service did issue a contract to the Aurora Flight Sciences company to build a small 450 kilogram (1,000 pound) tactical UCAV demonstrator named "Excaliber". The demonstrator is scheduled to perform its first flight in 2007, with evaluations through 2009. It will carry light munitions such as Hellfire and Viper Strike. There is no commitment to production at this time.
* There is considerable interest in UCAVs in Europe and elsewhere. Beginning in 2000, the French Dassault firm performed trials of a subscale model of a stealthy UAV, designated the "Aeronef de Validation Experimentale (Experimental Air Vehicle / AVE", or "Petit DUC (Little Demonstrator UAV)". The AVE is intended to demonstrate Dassault's expertise in stealthy aircraft design, and could lead to UCAVs, reconnaissance UAVs, and high-speed expendable targets. The Petit DUC was a manta-ray-like black diamond of an aircraft, with twin tails and an engine intake on the back of the aircraft. It had retractable tricycle landing gear and was powered by twin AMT engines. Wingspan and length were both 2.4 meters (7.9 feet), empty weight was 35 kilograms (77 pounds), loaded weight was 60 kilograms (132 pounds), operational radius was about 150 kilometers (93 miles), and top speed was about 600 KPH (350 MPH).
The Petit Duc was to be followed by a "Moyen (Medium) DUC" demonstrator, and then a "Grand DUC" demonstrator. However, in late 2004 the direction of the effort changed somewhat. The French DGA defense procurement agency initiated a government effort to fly a UCAV demonstrator and stated that a contract would be awarded to Dassault. This led to a collaboration with five other European countries, including Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland, to develop an operational UCAV, named "Neuron".
A full-scale Neuron mockup was unveiled at the Paris Air Show in the summer of 2005. It was a manta-ray shaped machine with the engine on the back and stealthy features, including a serpentine inlet, infrared-masking exhaust nozzles, and use of radar absorbing material. Formal development contracts were issued in early 2006, with manufacture of the demonstrators to begin in 2008 and first flight in 2011. Work has been farmed out to Dassault, Thales, and Rolls-Royce Turbomeca in France; Hellenic Aerospace Industries in Greece; Alenia and Galileo Avionica in Italy; EADS CASA in Spain; SAAB and Volvo in Sweden; and RUAG in Switzerland.
The Neuron demonstrator will use a Rolls-Royce Turbomeca Adour 951 engine, like that used on the BAE Hawk trainer, as a powerplant, fed through a serpentine inlet to reduce radar cross section, The Neuron will be 9.3 meters (30 feet 6 inches) long and have a wingspan of 12.5 meters (41 feet), a maximum takeoff weight of 5 to 6.5 tonnes (11,000 to 14,300 pounds), a top speed of Mach 0.85 and an endurance of up to 12 hours. It will have a fly-by-wire control system; an electro-optic sensor system; a datalink; and two weapons bays, each capable of accommodating a Mark 82 900 kilogram (2,000 pound) bomb. A semi-autonomous flight-control system will be implemented, reducing flight support staff. The nose gear will be taken from the Dassault Mirage 2000 fighter and the main gear from the Dassault Falcon 900 business jet.
Neuron is being designed with cost in mind and will not be an operational system. An operational UCAV based on Neuron will be about a third larger, with a more modern engine and other systems. Neuron subsystems are being designed on an "open architecture" basis to ensure room for growth up to an operational UCAV.
* BAE Systems in the UK has flown a UCAV demonstrator design named "Raven", with the initial flight of the first of two demonstrators on 17 December 2003, which was incidentally the centennial of the first flight of the Wright Brothers. The Raven was a stealthy machine, built mostly of carbon-epoxy composite materials, with a general appearance roughly along the lines of the X-45. It led to the "Corax" endurance UAV demonstrator, which replaced the short swept wings of the Raven with long straight wings.
In 2007, BAE Systems began work on a demonstrator named "Taranis", after the Celtic thunder god, for an operational UCAV, with the same airframe to also be used as a reconnaissance platform. As envisioned, the Taranis has a configuration along the lines of the Neuron, and will also be powered by the Adour 951 engine. Flight tests are expected in 2010.
* The Swedish government has worked with the SAAB company to perform studies for a UCAV designated "SHARC", for "Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration". The study project was initiated in the late 1990s, and nine different configurations were considered, leading to selection of a single design. Low-speed wind tunnel tests were conducted in 1999, and included drop tests of plausible munitions fits from the SHARC's internal weapons bays. This was followed by a secret flight test of a subscale demonstrator in early 2002.
* In the spring of 2003, Alenia Aeronautica of Italy unveiled a non-flying
ground-test prototype of a half-scale UCAV demonstrator. This led to the
initial flights of a prototype, designated "Sky-X", from Sweden on 29 May
2005. The Sky-X featured a high-mounted swept wing with squared-off
wingtips; a vee tail; a Microturbo TRI60-5 turbojet, with 4.4 kN (450 kgp /
990 lbf) thrust, mounted on the back between the tailfins; and retractable
tricycle landing gear.
ALENIA AERONAUTICA ITV:
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
spec metric english
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
wingspan 5.74 meters 18 feet 10 inches
length 6.84 meters 22 feet 5 inches
MTO weight 1,200 kilograms 2,645 pounds
payload weight 200 kilograms 440 pounds
maximum speed 815 KPH 506 MPH / 440 KT
ceiling 10,000 meters 33,000 feet
range 185 KM 115 MI / 100 NMI
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
Although Sky-X was originally supposed to lead to an operational machine, at
the present time it is mainly intended as a technology demonstrator for the
French-led Neuron project.
* The European Aerospace & Defense Systems (EADS) conglomerate, a merger of
Matra-Aerospatiale of France, DaimlerChrysler of Germany, and CASA of Spain,
has built a UCAV demonstrator, codenamed "Barracuda". The machine performed
its first test flight on 11 May 2006. It featured stealthy contours, with a
back-mounted Pratt & Whitney Canada JT15D-5C turbofan engine providing 14 kN
(1,425 kgp / 650 lbf) thrust, swept wings and tailplanes, twin tailfins, and
tricycle retractable landing gear. Its airframe was built of carbon
composite materials, and the machine flew using a triple-redundant flight
control system. It was fitted a payload bay for testing sensors and other
systems and could be fitted with pylons for external stores.
EADS BARRACUDA:
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
spec metric english
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
wingspan 7.22 meters 23 feet 8 inches
length 8.24 meters 27 feet
MTO weight 3,350 kilograms 7,385 pounds
payload weight 300 kilograms 660 pounds
_____________________ _________________ _______________________
Unfortunately, during trials in Spain during September 2006, the Barracuda
demonstrator crashed on its second flight and was destroyed. A second
demonstrator, generally identical to the first, is being built as part of the
"Agile UAV" program, which is intended to lead to an "Advanced UAV" platform
for tactical and strategic reconnaissance as well as strike, expected to be
available for use by German forces after 2010. The operational AUS will be
about twice the weight of the Barracuda.
* Israel is interested in armed UAVs and it is believed that IDF drones have been used to perform precision strikes in the prolonged squabbling between Israel and the Palestinians. However, Israel Air Force officials say that if they actually fielded a true UCAV it would probably be a drone modification of an existing aircraft, like an older F-16. IAI officials are also interested in a large, piston-powered UCAV that would loiter at high altitude and dispense smart munitions as required by ground or other forces, acting basically as a flying fire-support base.
At present the Israelis have not publicly committed to a UCAV in any form and are keeping very quiet about specifics. The Israelis are very enthusiastic about UAVs, seeing them as the way of the future, since they will permit Israel to perform surveillance, strike, and other missions with much less risk to personnel and at a fraction of the acquisition and operational cost of manned aircraft.
* The Tupolev Tu-300 UCAV was mentioned in a previous chapter. Both the Sukhoi and MiG OKBs have been working on UCAVs in recent years, and in 2007 the MiG organization displayed a mockup of a stealthy UCAV, not all that different in general layout from the Neuron or comparable UCAVs, named "Skat (Skate)". As described, Skat had a wingspan of 11.5 meters (27 feet 8 inches), a length of 10.25 meters (33 feet 7 inches), a maximum takeoff weight of 10 tonnes (11 tons), and a 2 tonne (2.2 ton) warload.
The Skat will have two weapons bays; the mockup was displayed with smart weaponry, such as the KAB-500 guided bomb. Two demonstrators are planned, to be powered by the Klimov RD-5000B, a nonafterburning turbojet with a two-dimensional vectored-thrust exhaust. The RD-5000B is being derived from the existing Klimov RD-93.
