he Boeing Co. (St. Louis, Mo.) will begin ScanEagle training on July 11 at its new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) training site in Clovis, N.M. The site was selected to help meet the increasing demand from U.S. military forces for the Boeing/Insitu ScanEagle system and the training to maintain and operate it.
Boeing instructors will train 12 students, both operators and maintainers, in a two-month course with new classes beginning every 30 days. ScanEagle flight operations will be conducted at the nearby Melrose Range; classroom training will take place at Clovis Community College.
“The city of Clovis, Clovis Community College and the U.S. Air Force have been great partners in this endeavor,” said Keith Hertzenberg, vice president, Boeing Training Systems and Services. “The site has everything we need to accomplish efficient ScanEagle training, and in turn, we expect our presence will result in a positive economic impact to the community.”
“We are excited about our partnership with Boeing,” said Dr. John Neibling, Clovis Community College president. “The college has been working closely with Boeing and its training organization to ensure our facilities meet classroom requirements associated with UAV training.”
Boeing’s Training Systems and Services (TSS) organization is responsible for ScanEagle training operations in Clovis. The TSS business encompasses fully integrated training systems as well as comprehensive services that include instructors, courseware developers, logistics support and mission planning systems.
Boeing employees will make up the initial group of trainees in Clovis. As military customers purchase the ScanEagle system, servicemen and women will join the training program as well. Previously, all ScanEagle training had been conducted at Insitu’s facility in Bingen, Wash., and at the Boeing Boardman test range in Oregon. Those sites will continue to be used for ScanEagle training.
Currently, Boeing and Insitu employees are supporting U.S. Marine Corps and U.S. Navy operations in the field, conducting daily maintenance, mission planning and takeoffs and landings from ship or shore. ScanEagle has been deployed with the Marine Corps since August 2004 and the Navy since July 2005 and has completed more than 15,000 combat flight hours. ScanEagle’s real-time imagery allows tactical commanders to develop a clearer picture of the battlefield and has resulted in improved situational awareness and saved lives.
Source and more info: compositesworld
Germany is discussing with Italy and Sweden the possible launch of a multinational advanced unmanned air vehicle effort that could demonstrate many capabilities years ahead of the French-led Neuron, which is not expected to enter flight testing until 2011.
The German ministry of defence is planning to stage a four-year “Agile UAV in a network-centric environment” project focused on multi-role, high-speed UAVs, using the recently unveiled EADS Barracuda demonstrator.
The invitation to Italy is aimed at involving the Alenia Aeronautica Sky-X demonstrator, while Sweden would participate with the Saab Filur low-observable UAV. The demonstrations may also involve the use of manned aircraft as UAV surrogates. Agile is to be managed by Germany’s BWB defence procurement agency, while the European Defence Agency could play a co-ordinating role.
The formation of national teams for the Agile effort is to be finalised by mid-August, allowing for combined defence agency/industry input into final project planning by the end of this year.
The BWB is proposing a three-phase programme. Phase 0 would start in early 2007 and focus on mission development, simulations and hardware-in-the-loop testing of air vehicles. Phase 1 would see reconnaissance missions demonstrated within Europe by the end of 2008. This would nominally involve a maritime scenario with a 100 x 100km (55 x 55nm) area of operations at a distance of 500km from the UAV’s home base. Phase 2 would see the demonstration of reconnaissance and attack missions by mid-2010.
Source and more info: flightglobal
Montana’s two U.S. Senators are urging the Homeland Security Department to improve security along the northern border by using unmanned aerial vehicles.
Senator Conrad Burns has introduced an amendment to homeland security legislation on the Senate floor to establish a pilot U.A.V. program at northern border air wings planned for several states, including Montana and North Dakota.
Senator Max Baucus authored a similar amendment that passed the Senate as a part of comprehensive immigration legislation earlier this year.
Several northern-tier military installations, including bases in North and South Dakota, are fighting for a U.A.V. mission.
The futuristic planes would be driven from the ground, and could relay images and sensor information.
Source and more info: kxlf
Marines serving with Battalion Landing Team 1st Battalion, 8th Marine Regiment, 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit (Special Operations Capable), trained with the X-63 “Dragon-Eye” unmanned aerial vehicle July 11, as part of a training exercise in the Central Command theater of operation.
The bungee-cord-launched “Dragon-Eye” provides organic aerial reconnaissance and surveillance at the small-unit level, giving Marine units the opportunity to observe real-time enemy movements beyond their traditional capacity. Whisper-quiet and weighing less than five pounds, the “Dragon-Eye” is able to navigate pre-assigned waypoints via a global positioning system while transmitting data – either still images or video – to a two-man control station.
Capable of low-light operation and with a wingspan of just 18 centimeters, the drone can sustain flight for approximately 60 minutes. And because of its relative low cost, it can be fielded to Marines in large numbers. The effective deployment of the UAV is able to transform a small tactical unit into an all-seeing machine of war, while supplying aerial surveillance and intelligence that can keep patrols and convoys out of harm’s way.
Source and more info: marines
The U.S. Army and Air Force continue to be locked in a fierce battle over who controls the air space above the battlefield. It comes down to this; the air force insists that army UAVs have to play by manned aircraft rules. That means filing a flight plan with the air force, 24-72 hours in advance. The air force is insistent on this because all army UAVs lack transponders, so it is difficult for manned aircraft, or air force air controllers, to spot UAVs, and avoid collisions. From the air force point of view, this all works. Army helicopters and air force combat aircraft can get to where they are needed quickly and safely. But the ground combat officers see it differently, and that’s why this is turning into a brawl. For the guys on the ground, the UAVs have become a matter of life and death, and they rarely know 24 hours in advance that they will need them. In some cases, commanders have been sending the UAVs up without the correct paperwork, and risking court-martial in the process. To the soldiers, the UAV is less of an obstacle to other aircraft than artillery and stray bullets. The air force (and army helicopters) have long since learned how to coexist with shells and bullets. So why not use the same rules for UAVs. The air force is adamant that the UAVs have to eventually get transponders (which may take a while for under ten pound UAVs), and continue to play by the rules used for manned aircraft. The air force takes additional heat because there have not been any UAV collisions with their aircraft (which tend to stay above altitudes used by army UAVs), and those that have occurred were between army helicopters and small UAVs.
Source and more info: strategypage
Boeing and a team of partners have been working for more than two years on a large, hydrogen-fuelled, high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), according to George Muellner, president of advanced systems for the company’s Integrated Defense Systems unit.
“We are almost ready to build a full-scale prototype and could take a decision in the next six months,” he said.
The major thrusts of the new programme have been to develop lightweight insulated liquid hydrogen (LH2) tankage - work that Boeing has been carrying out under contract to the US Air Force Research Laboratory - and an LH2-fuelled propulsion system.
Source and more information: janes
Farnborough International Air Show 2006, opening Monday, July 17, 2006 at revitalized Farnborough Airport, will witness 126 new exhibitors this year, or 1,467 altogether, thus well exceeding 2004’s record of 1,360 exhibitors, report Teal analysts in their weekly newsletter, Defense Business Briefing.
To date, exhibiting companies at Farnborough 2006 represent 36 countries with Greece, Spain and Mexico being represented for the first time. The flying and static displays have been booked to capacity. The Airbus A380 will make its UK air show debut as will the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey tiltrotor, and five new business jets that will form part of the expanded corporate aviation presence, which now totals around 30 aircraft.
The RAF’s Raytheon Sentinel R1 ASTOR surveillance aircraft with mobile ground stations will be on static display, hence, making its only public appearance outside of its home base of RAF Waddington before entering full operational service. Also making its Farnborough debut will be the MIG-290VT jet fighter from the MIG RAC (Russian Aircraft Corporation). The fighter made its first public appearance at the MAKS 2005 Air Show in Moscow.
Altogether, some 140-150 aircraft of all types are scheduled to be on static/flying display during Farnborough 2006, aided, in part, by brilliant marketing. Explained Manager Director of Farnborough International Trevor Sidebottom: “We listened to our exhibitors after the 2004 air show and reduced static aircraft display prices by 50%.”
Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) aircraft currently signed up to display at Farnborough 2006 include the BAE Systems Herti 1A, Boeing N-UCAS, Boeing Scan Eagle, DRS Unmanned Technologies-Sentry HP, DRS Unmanned Technologies-Neptune, Elbit-Hermes 450, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Predator, Finmeccanica SKY-X UAV, Honeywell Micro Air Vehicle, Northrop Grumman RQ-8A Fire Scout, and Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk.
Source and more information: yahoo
The US Air Force is planning to fit its General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-1 Predator unmanned air vehicles with an interim, optically based air traffic sense-and- avoid capability by mid-2008 using technology in the final stages of research testing.
The suite being used in the trials program, carried aboard an Aeronautics Aerostar UAV and flown out of Las Cruces airport in New Mexico, comprises three off- the-shelf electro-optical cameras in staring mounts.
The prototype technology is being developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory’s [AFRL] sensors directorate under a technology demonstration effort that is also looking at a fully autonomous version. That advanced variant would be developed into an operational suite between 2007 and 2009 for the USAF Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV and to replace the interim Predator system.
The planned suite will be based on optical sensors and processing systems jointly developed by AFRL and Defence Research Associates.
According to the deputy head of AFRL’s sensors directorate Col Garry Hopper, the technology will be “ready at the end of this month” for handover to the USAF Predator system programme office.
Each camera covers an arc of ±95º ahead of the UAV. Imagery from the cameras is analysed in real time to identify deviations from the prevailing optical flow pattern.
Source and more information: shephard
UNMANNED aircraft fly from the realms of science fiction into reality at the ParcAberporth technology park in West Wales.
The Assembly Government is sponsoring a drive to harness a military technology for civilian use.
Yesterday, Selex Sensors and Airborne Systems - Europe’s second largest defence electronics business - was named as the anchor tenant at the park. It will create a test centre for the aircraft, which are expected to be part of a 1.2bn industry in Europe alone by 2015.
The potential of pilotless craft for both surveillance and attack purposes has been demonstrated on operations in the Middle East, but representatives from three police forces, mountain rescue services and universities attended a series of demonstrations yesterday.
Source and more information: icnetwork
The U.S. military has drastically increased the use of unmanned surveillance planes in battlefields, revolutionizing warfare, The USA Today reported on Friday.
Before the Iraq war started in March 2003, the U.S. army had 14 such aircraft, officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs).
But it now has around 700 operating in both Iraq and Afghanistan, most of them small, according to the report.
In 2003 and 2004, the army flew the aircraft for around 1,500 hours per month. However, during the past year, the aircraft flew 9,000 hours a month on average.
UAVs and sensor systems have made it easier to spot insurgents and roadside bombs, thus saving American lives, Pentagon officials and experts said.
Using the aircraft, troops can often get an instant picture of what lurks behind the next hill or building.
“One can argue that the standard equipment for a U.S. Marine or infantryman now is the helmet, rifle, boots and UAV,” said Christopher Bolkcom, a defense expert with the Congressional Research Service.
Pilotless aircraft have changed fighting as much as night-vision technology did in the 1980s and 1990s, John Burke, project manager for the Army’s UAV program, was quoted as saying.
“It’s very seldom that you see a revolution in warfare like this,” he said.
However, the increased use of UAVs led to a midair collision with a helicopter in 2004. Although no one was hurt in the incident, it raised the safety concerns over the use of the aircraft.
Source and more information: people.com.cn
