Sensors - Wescam

45,000 ft, a cruise speed of only 465 km/h
and a range of only 925 km.
Lockheed Martin continued to work
(reportedly under company funding) on
a stealthy high-altitude drone, returning
to a conventional sweptback flying-wing
design. The twin-engined P-175 Polecat
flew in 2005, but crashed in December
2006. It is believed to have had a span of
27.5 metres and a GVW of 4090 kg.
In 2007 there were reports of an
unidentified single-engined flying-wing
drone at Kandahar, Afghanistan. In late
2009 this was identified as a Lockheed
Martin RQ-170 Sentinel, owned by the
US Air Force’s 30th Reconnaissance
Squadron, based at Tonopah, Nevada. Its
purpose may be to make ISR penetrations
into Iranian airspace.
Combat Drones
America’s J-Ucas (Joint – Unmanned
Combat Air System) project, an ill-conceived
attempt to develop a common air
vehicle for both the US Air Force and US
Navy, collapsed in 2006. However, in 2007
the Navy decided to continue with a
Ucas-D (demonstrator) programme,
using the 20,865-kg Northrop Grumman
X-47B prototype, derived from the
X-47A, which flew in 2003. Powered by
a single Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220U
engine, the X-47B is estimated to have
a nine-hour endurance and a 3000-km
radius and boasts a maximum speed of
around Mach 0.8.
In May 2009 an
EADS-led team
completed a € 60
million risk-reduction
study of the Talarion
ISR drone, funded by
the defence ministries
of France, Germany
and Spain. (Y. L.
Mao)
rier-based Ucas demonstrator, not necessarily
derived from Ucas-D. Major funding
is to start in FY13, and flight trials are
to begin in 2018.
Recognising the potential value of the
future combat drone market, Boeing is
continuing development of the X-45C (a
larger derivative of the X-45A flown in
the J-Ucas programme) under the name
Phantom Ray, using its own funds. A
smaller aircraft than the X-47B, the X-45C
Bearing French military registration F-SDAU and Israeli AF serial 1021, this Armée de
l’Air IAI Heron is the first ‘Harfang’ of the service’s four delivered to Bagram Air Base
in Afghanistan. (US Air Force)
The first of two X-47Bs is scheduled to
fly in the second quarter of 2010 at
Edwards AFB and commence carrier trials
in 2012, followed by in-flight refuelling
tests. The US Navy plans to issue an
RFI (request for information) in late
2010 for an armed, sensor-equipped, carhas
a gross weight of 16,555 kg and is powered
by a General Electric F404-GE-102D
engine. First flight is expected to take
place in December 2010 at the White
Sands Missile Range, New Mexico.
Other countries are following the US
lead. The BAE Systems Taranis project is
aimed at a British deep strike requirement
possibly arising around 2025. The
Dassault-led Neuron, due to fly in 2011,
brings together the aerospace industries
of France, Greece, Italy, Spain, Sweden
and Switzerland.
Russia’s Rac-MiG unveiled the Skat
(Skate) at Maks 2007, and in the following
year China exhibited models of the
Warrior Eagle and Shenyang Dark
Sword. In 2009 Korea Aerospace Industries
(KAI) unveiled at Seoul a model of
the K-Ucav, designed for both the air-toair
and air-to-ground missions.
The Male Patroller
being prepared for
flight in June 2009,
featuring a bellymounted
Euroflir
turret. The small pods
under the tail boom
and on the tail fin tip
are Ku-band datalink
aerials, which, thus
positioned, enable the
aircraft to remain in
contact in all flight
attitudes. (Sagem)
Ground Attack and Males
The Pentagon’s 30-year combined aviation
plan for the US Air Force and US
Navy refers to a total of 72 ’multi-role
UAVs‘ (MQ) in 2011, growing to 223 by
2015 and 476 by 2020.
The current standard in the ‘persistent
strike function’ (US Air Force-speak) is
set by the turboprop-powered General
Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. The first of two
pre-production YMQ-9s flew on 17 October
2003 (the proof-of-concept Predator
B having flown on 2 February 2001). Both
YMQ-9s were sent to Afghanistan in
2005, but production MQ-9s began operations
in Afghanistan only in 2007, and in
Iraq in 2008.
The US Air Force is planning to phase
out its piston-engined MQ-1 Predators
and operate an all-Reaper fleet. The service
hopes to buy at least 319 Reapers.
Some 45 MQ-9s had been delivered to
the US Air Force (out of 60 produced) by
the end of 2009, for operation by the 42nd
Attack Squadron, based at Creech AFB,
Nevada. The US Air Force FY11 request
includes 48 MQ-9s, twice the current production
rate.
The 4763-kg MQ-9 has an endurance
of 18 hours and can carry 1360 kg of
stores. Automatic take-off and landing
capability (ATLC) and the first stage of
electronic attack (EA) are scheduled for
FY10. The second stage (with the Mald-J
10 armada Compendium Drones 2010