UAV’s – also known as Remotely Piloted Vehicles (RPVs) — are used primarily for reconnaissance missions. However, they are capable of being used as assault vehicles as well. Investigators are looking at a possible transfer of a UAV to a weapons trade show in East Asia without a Defense Ministry permit. The company is suspected of intending to eventually send it, together with other sensitive vehicles, to China. In addition, the execs are suspected of leaking security information and forging authorizations for the export of the UAVs as well as other equipment.
Security-based sales from Israeli companies to China have been under a magnifying glass in the past few years. The U.S. nixed a deal to upgrade a Harpy drone ten years after its sale to China in 1994.
The 2004 transaction was cancelled and the drone, designed to destroy anti-missile batteries and radar systems, was returned to Beijing without the upgrade. The U.S. asked Israel to confiscate it, which the government refused to do.
A special branch in the Defense Ministry was established to deal with defense-related exports in the wake of the diplomatic crisis.
Source and more info: israelnationalnews
European aerospace group EADS expects to be ready to put its new unmanned aircraft into service for surveillance and reconnaissance roles as early as 2009, EADS’s military air systems chief said on Thursday.
EADS is aiming for a regular air traffic control license for the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), known as “Barracuda”, by the end of the decade to enable it to perform both military and domestic roles, Johann Heitzmann said at the Berlin air show.
Heitzmann said EADS planned to go ahead with a “full program” of test flights for the so-called UAV Demonstrator vehicle after it completed its first flight last month in Spain. The next flight was planned for the end of June or early July.
Key to winning customers will be the ability to offer several variants of the Barracuda, which may also offer the same role as EADS’s future EuroMALE (European long-range medium altitude long endurance) UAV.
“It is the basis for products we want to bring to the market in the future,” said Heitzmann. “We would need five to six different types of UAV to satisfy customers. So you have to come up with a certain modularity.”
This could include being able to offer different wings and different pay-load configurations.
And while the Barracuda was not initially intended to be armed and used as an unmanned combat aerial vehicle (UCAV), this could change based on requests from customers: “We believe this will come in some years, but not now.”
EADS defense chief Stefan Zoller sees the UAV market as a key part of the company’s plan to boost the group’s defense business and reduce its dependence on its Airbus plane division.
Source and more info: airwise
EADS and Northrop Grumman yesterday welcomed the Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) establishing the base conditions for US/German government cooperation concerning interoperability of the Global Hawk and Euro Hawk systems.
The German Ministry of Defence and the US Department of Defense signed the MoU on the 16th of May in Berlin. According to EADS, the government-to-government MoU is a critical step towards the Euro Hawk risk reduction contract, which is expected in autumn of this year.
The Euro Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV), derived from the Northrop Grumman-produced US Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk will be equipped with a new signal intelligence mission system developed by EADS. With a larger wing span than an Airbus A320 and a target total airborne endurance of 30 hours, the Euro Hawk is said to be the platform that best meets the Luftwaffe’s requirement for a high altitude, long endurance (HALE) signal intelligence (SIGINT) system.
“The Global Hawk ELINT demonstration conducted in 2003 at Nordholz was a critical collaborative effort that established a great deal of confidence in the Euro Hawk concept,” said Scott J. Seymour, President of Northrop Grumman’s Integrated Systems sector.
Source and more info: e4engineering
An inactive military installation here could become one of the nation’s first commercial testing and certification centers for unmanned aerial vehicles, University of North Dakota officials say.
Federal Aviation Administration officials have asked both UND and New Mexico State University to submit research proposals.
UND aerospace professors Ben Trapnell and Doug Marshall, along with Al Palmer, a North Dakota National Guard brigadier general, came up with the idea to turn Nekoma and a triangular-shaped segment of the surrounding airspace into a UAV research, testing and certification area.
“The attractiveness of Nekoma is that it is isolated,” Marshall said.
The United States briefly operated an anti-missile base at Nekoma, in northeastern North Dakota, during the 1970s. The Pentagon shut down the site in 1976 as part of an arms-reduction treaty with the former Soviet Union.
Source and more information: bismarcktribune
As the competition for scarce unmanned aerial vehicle programs heats up, the Grand Forks Council on Military Relations has been reactivated to help secure flying drones for Grand Forks Air Force Base.
Led by John Marshall, the leading man during the 2005 Base Realignment and Closure round, the council will focus on fleshing out the UAV mission that the BRAC Commission assigned Grand Forks Air Force Base.
It also will explore means to attract new tanker operations to counteract the draining “bath tub effect” that will develop when the 319th Air Refueling Wing vacates the base in 2010.
The BRAC commission ordered the relocation of the base’s 48 KC-135R Stratotankers and 2,645 military and civilian personnel by the end of 2010.
A squadron of 12 Predator UAVs was assigned to Grand Forks, but no other replacements for the base’s four flying tanker squadrons have been assigned.
Grand Forks Mayor Mike Brown is afraid the installation could be mothballed for a while, unless Congress approves funding to buy more UAVs and a new generation of tankers, also expected to come to the base. Most of the Predator inventory is in the theater of operations and tanker production has not started yet, Brown said.
Source and more information: grandforks
The Global Vigilance Combined Test Force’s 452nd Flight Test Squadron achieved an important milestone by completing wet runway taxi testing on the Global Hawk Unmanned Aerial Vehicle May 3. This was the first ever wet runway testing performed on an unmanned aircraft.
The purpose of this test was to gather braking performance data on a wet runway and compare it to the existing dry runway data, evaluating many factors.
“This work is significant for two reasons,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Andy Thurling, 452nd Flight Test Squadron operations officer. “We have validated that our anti-skid braking is functioning properly on wet runways, but more importantly, we will use the data collected to provide pilots with braking performance information that they can use to decide whether or not a Global Hawk can land and stop safely on a runway when it’s wet.
Source and more information: shephard
Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) and European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS) welcome the memoranda of understanding (MoU) establishing the base conditions for U.S./German government cooperation concerning interoperability of the Global Hawk and Euro Hawk(r) systems. The German Ministry of Defence and the U.S. Department of Defense signed the MoU on May 16 in Berlin. The government-to-government MoU is a critical step towards the Euro Hawk(r) risk-reduction contract, which is expected in autumn of this year.
The Euro Hawk(r) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), derived from the Northrop Grumman-produced U.S. Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV, will be equipped with a new signal intelligence mission system developed by EADS. With a larger wing span than an Airbus A320 and with a target total airborne endurance of 30 hours, the Euro Hawk(r) is the platform that best meets the German Air Force’s requirement for a high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) signal intelligence (SIGINT) system.
Source and more information: chron
The Navy gave a large audience of defense contractors Wednesday the details on what could be a multi-billion dollar contract for an unmanned air reconnaissance system that is expected to pit two San Diego-based firms against each other.
At a briefing in southeastern Maryland near the Patuxent River Naval Air Station, nine senior Navy officers and defense officials described the requirements and schedule for a major program called the Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) system to more than 200 aerospace industry representatives.
Northrop Grumman and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems are expected to compete for the program.
The project would require scores of sophisticated flying drones, an array of high-technology sensors and communications systems, and associated ground control and data-receiving stations.
Source and more information: signonsandiego
Last year we wrote about the ScanEagle UAV and its success in supplying U.S. Marines in Iraq with critical real-time tactical battlefield imagery. This time, we’re writing about the adaptation of the ScanEagle as a low-cost intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) platform for amphibious operations. Currently being trialled for its maritime capabilities by the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) in “Trial Vigilant Viper” off the coast of Scotland, the ScanEagle completed ten autonomous flights with full launch and recovery from a Type 23 Frigate in rough sea conditions. A small UAV such as the ScanEagle can significantly increase the capability of a boat, and the missions conducted during the trial illustrate this enormous potential for land and sea surveillance, beach reconnaissance, force protection, maritime interdiction and naval gunfire support.
As part of the trial, ScanEagle used its onboard electro-optical and infrared sensors to identify potential threats as small as jet skis. ScanEagle’s ability to determine a target’s position, direction of travel and velocity, coupled with its broadcast quality imagery, enabled amphibious force commanders to establish the nature of potential threats. The UAV’s contribution to force protection included transmitting real-time high resolution video to ship, shore, a Sea King AEW MK7 helicopter and the MoD in London and Portsmouth, England.
Source and more information: gizmag
AirScooter Corporation (Pink Sheets:ASCO), an innovator of new air vehicle concepts, announced today that its wholly-owned subsidiary, AeroTwin Motors Corporation, is continuing shipments of first production turbo-charged AT972T engines to target customers.
“Our strategy is to deliver first production engines to select and targeted customers, seeding the market for future production,” said Dwaine Barnes, president. “We are working with users of leading sport aircraft, including pushers, powered parachutes and gyrocopters. We are also pursuing government and non-aviation applications. As a result of engine inquiries from 46 different countries, we are scheduling shipments to select international customers. Both new aircraft and repowers are dynamic markets for our modern four-stroke engines. We are very excited by the early market response, encouragement and assistance provided by customers investing in our future success as early adopters of AeroTwin(r).”
“The limited number of customers we have selected have future needs for hundreds and perhaps thousands of engines each year,” added Barnes. “We are finalizing plans for higher volume production with our contract manufacturer and expect to announce new volume production in the next 30-45 days. Testing of our AirScooter PAV and AirScooter UAV products continue while our immediate focus is on meeting the market need for engines.”
Source and more information: primezone
