Lockheed Martin Integrated System and Solutions plans to launch shortly a six month demonstration programme of UAV command and control (C2) using internet protocol version 6 (IPv6).
The demonstrations will initially focus on how UAV C2 can be distributed between multiple authorised users, including sensor package control as well as air vehicle control, says programme manager Frank Cuccias.
Future phases are expected to involve multiple air vehicle operations in which each platform and its sensor payloads - each allocated unique IP addresses - are treated as controllable services over a single radio frequency spectrum allocation.
Speaking to Flight Unmanned, Cuccias says the approach could potentially allow for control of hundreds, if not thousands of air vehicles in a single theatre by a relatively small ground control station (GCS) team.
This approach would dramatically reduce the pressure UAV systems are placing on battlefield spectrum availability, a problem currently being highlighted by US and UK UAV operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. To fly multiple UAVs at the moment generally means having to allocate multiple radio frequency allocations says Cuccias.
IPv6 is being progressively rolled out around the world as a replacement for the existing IPv4 standard which forms the basis of internet communications. The new protocol allows for significantly greater numbers of IP addresses, and a higher level of inherent system security.
Source and more info: Flightglobal
Aerovironment’s Global Observer hydrogen-fuelled high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned air vehicle will fly again later this year to test communications equipment developed under a Japanese-European project examining high-altitude platform (HAP) technology.
The flight test is being organised by Japan Stratosphere Communications, which is participating in a Japanese government-supported HAP project and the €6 million ($7.6 million) European Union Sixth Framework research project Capanina.
Powered by hydrogen fuel cells driving electric motors, the Global Observer made its first flights last year.
The test later this year will be the culmination of Capanina’s research, which aimed to develop a high-altitude airship able to provide broadband internet service to stationary and moving users at rates up to 120Mb/s.
“We are still planning for [the Aerovironment] flight in the USA,” says Capanina principal scientific officer David Grace, a senior research fellow in the University of York electronics department’s communications research group, and a member of the High Altitude Platforms for Communications and Other Services (HAPCOS) group.
Source and more info: fuelcellsworks
The Air Force chief of staff announced “Reaper” has been chosen as the name for the MQ-9 unmanned aerial vehicle.
The Air Force is the Department of Defense’s executive agent for designating and naming military aerospace vehicles.
In the case of the Reaper, Gen. T. Michael Moseley made the final decision after an extensive nomination and review process, coordinated with the other services.
“The name Reaper is one of the suggestions that came from our Airmen in the field. It’s fitting as it captures the lethal nature of this new weapon system,” General Moseley said.
The MQ-9 Reaper is the Air Force’s first hunter-killer UAV. It is larger and more powerful than the MQ-1 Predator and is designed to go after time-sensitive targets with persistence and precision, and destroy or disable those targets with 500-pound bombs and Hellfire missiles.
“The Reaper represents a significant evolution in UAV technology and employment,” General Moseley said. “We’ve moved from using UAVs primarily in intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance roles before Operation Iraqi Freedom, to a true hunter-killer role with the Reaper.”
General Moseley stressed the key advantage is not keeping manned aircraft and pilots out of harm’s way, but the persistence UAVs can inherently provide. The Reaper can stay airborne for up to 14 hours fully loaded.
Source and more info: military
The Royal Air Force’s Air Warfare Centre will integrate a fully autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) into military exercises to help the British armed forces better understand the benefits this capability can bring to the joint battlespace.
The program, dubbed Project Morrigan, will bring together BAE Systems’ new High Endurance Rapid Technology Insertion (HERTI) UAV with the Air Warfare Centre’s recently created Unmanned Air Vehicle Battlelab in an agreement that will, initially, run for two years.
Although the work will provide only early stage assessments of capability, it could have a significant impact on the way air warfare capabilities and doctrine develop in the future, according to Commodore Tim Anderson, commandant of the Air Warfare Centre.
“Through the integration of a HERTI system into existing U.K. military exercises and training events, such as the operational flying phase of our combined qualified weapon instructor training, we plan to derive measurements of capability and potential tactics, techniques and procedures for the integration of UAVs into joint manned/unmanned force structures,” Anderson said.
Source and more info: defensenews
BAE Systems is to work with the Royal Air Force’s Air Warfare Centre on a project to integrate the company’s HERTI Unmanned Air Vehicle (UAV) System into UK military exercises. This will be the first time a fully autonomous UAV has been introduced into military exercises in the UK.
Called “Project Morrigan”, the programme is initially intended to run for two years. It will enable the introduction of BAE Systems’ fully autonomous HERTI System into progressively more complex military exercises, in order to better understand the contribution autonomous UAV systems can make in the joint battlespace.
Mark Kane, Managing Director of BAE Systems’ Autonomous Systems & Future Capability (Air) and Air Commodore Tim Anderson, Commandant of the Air Warfare Centre (AWC), signed the agreement. The contract is between the Air Warfare Centre’s Unmanned Air Vehicle Battlelab (AUB), the Ministry of Defence, and BAE Systems.
Source and more info: e4engineering
Egypt is shortly expected to move ahead with long delayed modernisation efforts for its BAE Systems R4E SkyEye and Northrop Grumman M324 Scarab tactical unmanned air vehicle fleets.
The upgrades have been in discussion for more than two years but have been repeatedly deferred with Egyptian defence spending being constrained by rival priorities, including new VIP transport aircraft.
Rick Ludwig, director of unmanned systems business development for Northrop Grumman Integrated Systems says that “we are working on a contract with the Egyptians to do upgrades on that aircraft, we are negotiating that as we speak.”
Potential upgrade elements will include new engines and a replacement navigation system. The Scarab was one of the first tactical UAVs to incorporate a global positioning system-based guidance system.
Northrop currently holds an in-service support contact for the UAV. “They still fly that aircraft about once a month” Ludwig says.
The SkyEye modernization is currently focused on obsolescence issues but is expected to see a fleet expansion in the 2008 period.
According to Lisa Matthews, director of unmanned aircraft systems in BAE Systems electronics and integrated systems the company is currently working on building up Egypt’s spares and support base for the UAVs to ensure availability of the existing two operational squadrons. That effort will continue into 2007.
“They want to get their current fleet operational with support and spares, and then buy further” Matthews says.
The Egyptian SkyEye’s have “been in operation for quite a while now and we are looking at further squadrons to be provided”.
Source and more information: Flightglobal.com
Aviation Week reports in its latest issue that Israel will unveil a large armed unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in six months. The UAV is reportedly the Heron 2, with a weight of 1.8 tons and a 37-meter wingspan, the same as a Boeing 737.
Aviation Week adds that the IDF is developing a combined piloted an unpiloted operational concept to attack ballistic missiles in both the boost phase intercept (BPI) and boost phase launcher intercept (BPLI) stages. The weekly quotes an Israel Air Force (IAF) source as saying, Merging the two missions is the way we are going. Each platform brings manned and unmanned relevant advantage. Developing only one tool or one platform is the wrong approach.
Source and more information: globes
The Netherlands is proceeding with plans to run a competition to acquire full fleets of small and mini UAVs in the near term despite having acquired five EMT Aladin systems to meet urgent operational requirements in Afghanistan.
The Netherlands is also considering either upgrading or replacing its existing Sagem Sperwer tactical UAVs, with decisions dependent on the outcomes of a proposed operational deployment to Afghanistan from November this year.
The short range requirement is based on acquisition of four systems, each comprising two air vehicles and a GCS and transportable by a single vehicle. The UAV is expected to have 4h endurance, an operational radius of 30-70km, and a combined day and night video camera sensor suite. Initial operational capability is planned for 2008.
One system will be reserved for use in supporting homeland security roles in the Netherlands says Commander Jan Ouwens from the Netherlands Ministry of Defence intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance programme staff. He was speaking at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned Systems North America conference in Orlando, Florida, 28 August.
A parallel requirement for mini UAVs is still awaiting approvals from within the Netherlands armed forces headquarters but is expected to result in the fielding of 24 systems, each comprising two back-packable air vehicles and one GCS. The UAV would have 1h endurance with initial operational capability aimed at 2009.
The Netherlands Army’s Aladin systems are already in Afghanistan and were declared operational “in recent weeks” Ouwens says. “We sent it out to Afghanistan to support our troops but at the same time it is a sort of trial for the Netherlands with a system like this.”
Source and more information: Flightglobal.com
Israel Aircraft Industries Ltd. (IAI), European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company NV (EADS), and the French Ministry of Defense Arms Procurement Agency (DGA) successfully conducted the maiden flight of a new long-range mid-altitude unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), called the Eagle. The Eagle is derived from IAIs Heron UAV, which is in operational use with the Israel Air Force.
The Eagle was built under a $35-40 million development program begun three years ago. The Eagles most important feature is an automated take-off and landing system. When development is completed, Frances Ministry of Defense will decide whether to procure the Eagle for the French Air Force. IAI hopes that EADS will lead the marketing of the Eagle in other European countries.
In the test flight, the Eagle took off from a testing ground in southern France, carrying a complete satellite and line-of-sight communications system. The flight, controlled from a ground station, demonstrated the effectiveness of the UAV, especially its automated take-off and landing system, satellite communications and combined command and control capabilities.
Source and more information: globes
The modified stealthy affordable capsule system (SACS) would draw on Northrop’s work in support of two October 2004 test launches of its miniature air-launched decoy from the US Navy’s Ohio-class submarine USS Georgia.
A trial submerged launch of a Raytheon AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missile using a development of the capsule is planned for next March, with launch from a submarine planned for the fourth quarter of 2007.
Northrop is also flagging the AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missile as a candidate for the encapsulation system, and displayed mock-ups of all three SACS-housed missiles during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s Unmanned Systems North America exhibition in Orlando, Florida last month.
Northrop says the SACS design could be used to launch a variety of fixed-wing UAVs by using “clamshell” opening techniques after it leaves the water. A UAV variant could use gas overpressure or rocket boosters to provide flight velocities once the capsule opens, it says.
Source and more information: Flight International
