Following successful in-flight tests of a shape-changing wing, two teams have been funded to demonstrate aggressive manoeuvring using fast morphing. Unmanned air vehicles built by Lockheed Martin and NextGen Aeronautics will use rapid changes in wing shape to perform steep climbs and tight turns following an attack on a target.
NextGen, with funding from Boeing Phantom Works, demonstrated its flexible-skin morphing wing in flight on 1 August, using a subscale remotely piloted vehicle called the MFX-1. Changes in area of 40% and span of 30%, with sweep varying from 15° to 35°, were achieved in flight at speeds of around 100kt (185km/h).
Torrance, California-based NextGen says the flights, at the Camp Roberts test range in California, were the first of a wing whose area, chord, sweep and aspect ratio can be changed in flight. Lockheed’s Skunk Works abandoned efforts to fly its folding-wing morphing design after the subscale autonomous vehicle crashed twice during take-off attempts because of flight-control software issues.
Source and more info: Flight International
The US Air Force is touting its planned special operations battlefield air targeting micro air vehicle (Batmav) as a potential new node in the Pentagon’s global information grid. The system is expected to pass real-time imagery to the cockpits of strike and close air- support aircraft, writes Peter La Franchi.
The new capability is predicated on sensor imagery from Batmav aircraft being able to be forwarded to other assets via a tactical radio linked to the UAV ground control station. Batmav is the first major micro air vehicle acquisition competition run by a Western defence force, with its outcome expected to have a major influence on similar requirements being planned by other US service arms as well as among NATO forces. Tenders for the project close 30 August.
Source and more info: Flight International
The US Air Force is touting its planned special operations battlefield air targeting micro air vehicle (Batmav) as a potential new node in the Pentagon’s global information grid. The system is expected to pass real-time imagery to the cockpits of strike and close air- support aircraft, writes Peter La Franchi.
The new capability is predicated on sensor imagery from Batmav aircraft being able to be forwarded to other assets via a tactical radio linked to the UAV ground control station. Batmav is the first major micro air vehicle acquisition competition run by a Western defence force, with its outcome expected to have a major influence on similar requirements being planned by other US service arms as well as among NATO forces. Tenders for the project close 30 August.
Source and more info: Flight International
The Belgian defence force has resumed flying operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo with its Israel Aircraft Industries / Belgian Hunter Consortium B-Hunter UAVs after the loss of one aircraft, shot down by a local gunman using a Kalashnikov AK-47.
The UAVs have been deployed by Belgium as part of the European peace keeping force Congo (EUFOR Congo), based in Kinshasa.
The UAV was completing a 3h shakedown sortie on 28 July when it passed over marshlands at 1,300ft (400m) near Kinshasa’s N’Dolo airport, where EURFOR Congo is based.
EURFOR Congo media spokesman Lt Col Peter Fuss, from the German army, says that the incident is being treated as a “lucky shot” by a lone gunman: “A single guy with a criminal background,” rather than as rebel activity.
The bullet rounds struck the wing root, Fuss says, which then caused the wing to fold up.
A Belgium Ministry of Defence spokesman has told Flight Unmanned that a Belgium military investigation board team sent to Kinshasa found that the bullet hit the UAV on its left hand side, entered into the fuselage and impacted the wing spar. “The pre-strengthened carbon fibre beam that supports both wings was destroyed”.
The crash caused injuries to six people on the ground and set fire to a house.
The incident has been initially investigated by police in Kinshasa, says Fuss. A Belgian federal prosecution office team is currently carrying out further investigations in the Kinshasa area
Source and more info: Flight International
The US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) is to research automated ground handling and approach and departure manoeuvre systems for unmanned air vehicles operating from air bases that are simultaneously handling manned aircraft.
Contracts will be awarded in mid-September for the automatic terminal area operational control (ATAO) project, which will explore UAV taxiing, obstacle avoidance, area movement command and control, communications, standard and non-standard departures, published approaches and holding patterns. It will also look at interoperability between UAV ATAO requirements and sense-and-avoid systems designed to prevent mid-air collisions. Initial funding is expected to total around $500,000 to cover work to the end of 2008.
Solicitation documents describe shared airfield terminal areas as “an especially congested area of operation for aircraft an atmosphere that is time-critical, detail-sensitive and conducive to task saturation. UAVs encounter unique problems in the terminal area. A UAV operator has difficulty maintaining the same situational awareness and tempo of activities as an airborne pilot.”
Source and more info: Flight International
Restrictions on access to non-segregated airspace coupled with operational demands are generating stepped-up demand by the US military for surrogate UAV platforms to help with training and exercise requirements.
The US Air Force is currently seeking a contracted surrogate UAV service to support Central Command Air Force’s (CENTAF) Atlantic Strike IV urban combat air training exercise in late October. The US Marine Corps (USMC) is currently exploring similar potential service options to support training during September and October.
In both cases the surrogate system is intended to replicate operations of the General Atomics MQ-1 Predator UAV.
The CENTAF requirement, tenders for which close 14 August, calls for a light aircraft modified to carry a combined electro-optic and forward-looking infrared video suite, and a combined civil and military standard communications system that includes L, C and Ku-band capabilities, linking to a remotely operated video enhanced receiver (Rover) III terminal. The aircrews are required to have a minimum of five years military flying experience, preferably in a close air support role or weapons and tactics instruction, and a US security clearance.
The aircraft is expected to fly a total of 8h in two sorties between 23 and 26 October, with operations to be conducted out of Shaw AFB in South Carolina. The contractor is also required to support Rover III support on the ground during the exercise.
The proposed USMC requirement is for 10 days of flight support for training at the Yuma, Arizona training range with an average sortie rate of one 8h mission per day.
Source and more info: Flight International
The US Air Force is touting its planned special operations systems groups Battlefield Air Targeting Micro Air Vehicle – or BATMAV – as a potential new node in the US global information grid, with the system expected to be able to pass real-time imagery into the cockpits of strike and close air support aircraft.
The new capability is predicated on sensor imagery from BATMAV aircraft being capable of being forwarded to other assets via a tactical radio linked to the UAV ground control station.
BATMAV is the first major micro air vehicle acquisition competition ran by a Western defence force, with its outcome expected to have a major influence on similar requirements being planned by other US service arms as well as among NATO forces. Tenders for the project close on 30 August.
Solicitation documents released on 31 July say data from the micro-UAV will be able to be “injected into command and control centres, airborne mission aircraft or artillery via digital links in a special tactics machine to machine targeting process to greatly reduce the targeting time.
“When targeting is not immediate, data can be fused with data from other available assets, such as Predator or Global Hawk, to finalise mission planning. The flexibility of a micro-UAV system adds a new dimension to joint warfighting capability.”
Each individual system is to comprise two air vehicles, a ground control station, interchangeable payloads, a carry case and field operator’s support kit. The system is required to be used in both within and beyond line of site modes. The sensor suite and image processing systems are to leverage technologies developed under the USAF’s BATCAM advanced technology demonstration program.
The ground control station will include the FalconView geographic display software suite, the UAVTool streaming video suite, and be able to generate cursor-on-target format messages as part of its standard data outputs.
Source and more info: Flight International
The US Air Force (USAF) is planning to award contracts in mid-September for research into automated ground-handling and approach and departure manoeuvre systems for UAVs operating from air bases that are simultaneously handling manned ircraft.
The research project – designated automatic terminal area operational (ATAO) control – is intended to explore all aspects of UAV ground movement, including taxi, obstacle avoidance, area movement command and control, communications, standard and non-standard departures, published approaches, and holding and overhead patterns.
The project will also look at the inter-relationship between UAV ATAO requirements and sense and avoid systems to prevent mid-air collisions.
A broad agency announcement for the project closed on 11 August, with initial funding award expected to total around $500,000 to cover work to the end of 2008.
Solicitation documents describe shared airfield terminal areas as “an especially congested are of operation for aircraft, an atmosphere that is time-critical, detail sensitive and conducive to task saturation”.
They add: “UAVs encounter unique problems in the terminal area. A UAV operator has difficulty maintaining the same situational awareness and tempo of activities as an airborne pilot.”
Current integration arrangements are largely based on UAVs flying in “sterile” or segregated airspace corridors. The ATAO solicitation says that while this provides more flexibility for UAV operators, it is an approach that is increasingly under pressure in real world operational conditions.
Source and more info: Flight International
The Israeli air force has shot down a Hezbollah unmanned air vehicle in a night-time air-to-air engagement off the coast of Akka on the Bay of Haifa, northern Israel.
The wreckage indicates the UAV was an Iran Aircraft Manufacturing Industries (HESA) Ababil-T delta-wing, twin-tail, pusher-propeller aircraft. Hezbollah has claimed since 2004 that it is able to field an armed UAV. The Israeli defence force confirms that the UAV “was Iranian”, but “as far as we know it was not armed”. The UAV was engaged 10km (5nm) offshore by a Lockheed Martin F-16C.
Source and more info: Flight International
For the first time in anti-Maoist operations in India, an Indian Air Force (IAF) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) is to be used to track down the guerrilla hideouts and to monitor their movements, IAF sources here said Tuesday.
‘We received a request from the home ministry and given the gravity of the situation, have acceded to it,’ the sources said.
‘The advantage of the UAV is that it not only maps the terrain but also pick up radio transmissions. It thus serves a double purpose,’ they sources.
‘The modalities of its operations are being worked out. The operational command of the UAV will be with the IAF and it will be deployed as per the requirements of the state government,’ the sources said.
‘We have yet to decide where to station the UAV.’
With this, Chhattisgarh becomes the second state after Andhra Pradesh to get air cover in the battle against the Maoists. The central government had last month agreed to the Andhra Pradesh government’s request for a helicopter, with the provisio it would only be used for logistical and not offensive operations against the ultras.
Source and more info: monstersandcritics
