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UAVS Member News Date Line: 28 June 2010News Line: EuroUSC co-ordinates UAS Flying Stand at Farnborough 2010 Source: FIA/EuroUSC European UAV Systems Centre Ltd (EuroUSC), a UAVS member, has responded to a last minute call from FIA to organise and co-ordinate Stand 19, Hall 3, UAS Flying at Farnborough 2010. During the week, EuroUSC supported by Kiln Group, another UAVS member, Windsor Partners and UAVS itself will be giving regular presentations on developing safe and cost effective commercial UAS operations based on the latest regulations from the CAA. Manufacturers, Distributors, Operators, and Pilot qualification programmes run by EuroUSC will be discussed. EuroUSC is also sponsoring a drop-in advice clinic each day of the show between 12:00 and 16:00, when there will ample opportunity to ask questions and get clarification on different aspects of UAS operations including Insurance and EuroUSC's Manufacturers, Distributor and Operator programmes. Also, find out about the new BNUC-STM crew qualification. Stand 19 will have a purpose-built indoor UAS display area, the first of its kind at a UK Aerospace exhibition. This dedicated area consists of open flying space, as well as a UAS obstacle course. Surrounded by netting, the area will ensure that manufacturers and operators can demonstrate the capabilities of their systems in a safe, controlled environment. The demonstration area measures 15m long x 9m wide x 6m high. Seats surrounding the display area will encourage visitors to stay and watch the displays. Flying will take place between 10:00 and 12:00 daily. Date Line: 6 April 2010 News Line: BAE Systems Looks Beyond Mantis Spiral 1 Source: Aviation Week In October 2007, not even the design concept had been selected, but 24 months later the Mantis medium-altitude long-endurance unmanned air vehicle demonstrator flew for the first time - even allowing for some non-program-related distractions. The BAE Systems-led Mantis program, the first phase of which has been jointly funded by industry and the U.K. Defense Ministry, is aimed at addressing British military needs for a deep and persistent surveillance platform, coupled with a weapons delivery capability. The ministry has a notional in-service date of 2015-16 for such a system. The Mantis program was put together at BAE’s Lightning Works, the company nickname for the highly secure hangar at its Warton site in the northwest of England, a rapid prototyping environment that is also the incubator for a number of past and present U.K. classified programs. The most recent of these, the Mantis Advanced Concept Technology Demonstrator (ACTD), was made public by the ministry and industry in July 2008, with the award of the Mantis Spiral 1 contract. Industry worked alongside ministry officials and the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory on this first stage of the program. The basic air vehicle concept selection, however, had been made in November 2007, though at that time the project was being privately funded by BAE. The flight trials at the Woomera test range in Australia marked the culmination of Mantis Spiral 1 development. In industrial terms, Mantis is a key program, not just for BAE Systems, but for the broader U.K. sector as it tries to establish a position in the medium-altitude long-endurance (MALE) UAV arena. The U.K. is the first of the main European players to fly an indigenously developed MALE demonstrator, though there are similar requirements in France, Germany and Italy. Mantis provides one option around which a wider European effort could coalesce. At the domestic industrial level, large-platform and combat UAV technology is seen as crucial to sustaining a military aerospace design and engineering national base, as made explicit in the government’s 2005 Defense Industrial Strategy. The Mantis project is also aimed at gauging the U.K.’s capacity in terms of MALE design and development. The Defense Ministry’s interest in a MALE capability initially emerged from an element of its over-arching Project Dabinett intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance (Istar) requirement. A deep and persistent capability was one envisaged collection element of this program. BAE’s Corax, a long-endurance stealthy UAV design, was at first pursued to meet this requirement. Unlike Mantis, Corax had some obvious low-observable (LO) characteristics, with a concept of operation similar to the U.S. DarkStar program, for survivability in heavily defended air space. A sub-scale airframe was flown, but a full-scale air vehicle would have been far larger. Corax was modular in concept, using the central airframe section and systems from the Raven unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator. British operational experience with the General Atomics Predator B/Reaper in Afghanistan has influenced ministry thinking on near-term needs, as has considerable pressure on overall defense spending. It also prompted BAE Systems to consider: “Could we come up with a competitor to the Predator B for Istar and the Dabinett role?” says Chris Clarkson, BAE’s engineering director for autonomous systems. The Defense Ministry continues to acquire Predator B airframes for combat operations in Afghanistan, both to increase the size of its small fleet and as attrition replacements. Ministry officials explained late last year, however, it had decided against bringing the Predator B within its core program lest the ministry limit its maneuvering room in a pending acquisition program it now dubs Operational Unmanned Air System (OUAS). Date Line: 25 February 2010 News Line: QinetiQ's Zephyr solar-powered unmanned aerial system is flown by US Naval Air Warfare Center personnel Source: QinetiQ QinetiQ's Zephyr High-Altitude Long-Endurance unmanned aerial system (HALE UAS) programme recently resumed flight testing and payload evaluations in Yuma, Arizona, when a joint US/UK Zephyr team undertook the first operation of the system with a US flight crew. This test sequence, jointly sponsored by MOD UK and OSD DDRE JCTD programme, focused on evaluating potential payloads as well as advancing the conops for operating long endurance persistent aircraft in excess of five days. The Zephyr concept is designed to offer solar-powered, persistent coverage with continuous mission durations of up to three. Capable of carrying a variety of payloads, the applications of the system include wide area surveillance, communications relay, specific target monitoring, anti-piracy efforts, route monitoring, counter-IED, border security, and local area security. The US Army's Yuma proving ground in Arizona was the site of Zephyr's world-beating three and a half day flight in July 2008 - the fourth of a series of flight trials that have been flown in the US since 2005. Date Line: 18 February 2010 News Line: EADS delivers second batch of Mini-UAVs to French MoD Source: Air Force Technology On 25 January 2010, EADS Defence & Security delivered 35 specially modified new unmanned air vehicle (UAV) DRAC systems to the French Army to enhance its capabilities in mountainous terrain. This delivery took place at the end of a series of ground-based and in-flight verification operations launched in November 2009 and carried out together with the French defence procurement agency DGA (Direction Générale de l’Armement). The new batch follows a first batch of 25 DRAC systems delivered to the Ministry of Defence in July 2008. The systems delivered this year will contribute to the safety of French troops deployed in very hostile theatres of operation and will improve the efficiency of their missions. As far as its design is concerned, the DRAC system combines highly advanced technology with flexibility in its implementation and use, providing the forces with enhanced military capabilities in its function as a short-range, cost-efficient drone adapted to the requirements of modern armies. DRAC is based on the Tracker system developed by EADS in collaboration with the French SME SurveyCopter in compliance with extremely strict specifications laid down by the French customer. SurveyCopter is supplying the aerial vehicle and the daytime and night-time cameras. EADS, as prime contractor, is integrating the system with a special ground station and a secure, high-speed, digital datalink with an automatic tracking function, which gives the system a genuine long-range capability even in severe weather conditions. DRAC’s high level of security will make it eligible for type certification as of this year. The DRAC system is very practically packaged in two separate rucksacks so that missions can be carried out fully autonomously. Tracker is undoubtedly among the mini-UAV systems that offer the best cost-performance ratio available in the market. In this way, the DRAC can operate by day or night for up to 90 minutes and at distances of more than 10 km from its user, transmitting in real time the images and data it has gathered through the precision of a miniaturised GPS code P(Y) receiver on board the UAV. Numerous foreign customers have already expressed a strong interest in the Tracker system, which incidentally has already been exported and is being supported by EADS in close collaboration with the customer, who is using it very intensively. EADS Defence & Security is consolidating its position as the only European industrial prime contractor capable of managing a portfolio of UAV systems and meeting the operational support needs not only of a system of MALE UAVs such as SIDM/Harfang but also of mini-UAV-type tactical systems such as Tracker/DRAC, while at the same time resolutely working side by side with the French, German and Spanish ministers of defence on the Talarion Advanced UAV programme. EADS Defence & Security is also developing the Euro Hawk system in cooperation with Northrop Grumman, the Atlante tactical UAV system, the Barracuda demonstrator, etc. Date Line: 10 February 2010 News Line: Outsourced QinetiQ staff operate drones in Afghanistan Source: The Times Civilian contractors are being sent to Afghanistan to operate military pilotless aircraft, a development that is likely to fuel a widening debate about the use of outscourcing in front-line operations. QinetiQ, the privatised British defence technology company, has operators working with the Royal Netherlands Army in Uruzgan province in central Afghanistan providing a system of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) that can be called on at any time by the Dutch forces. UAVs are being used increasingly by the Nato-led operation in Afghanistan, although American and British forces generally operate them themselves.As military chiefs scrutinise the recent defence Green Paper to try to work out where spending cuts may fall, turnkey systems provided by private companies - that is systems supplied and/or installed in a condition fit for immediate use, sometimes including providing the necessary operators - could help the Ministry of Defence to make difficult choices on what can be afforded.Outsourcing is expected to grow as pressure on defence spending rises, but it is controversial in conflict zones because it requires qualities such as flexibility, trust and mutual understanding that are difficult to write into a standard contract. It also raises ethical questions, since defence companies are developing combat UAVs to replace fighter aircraft. In future, the decision to pull a trigger could be part of a commercial contract. Date Line: 2 February 2010 |
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