UAV'S all country news and views

Boeing Awarded Navy Contract for ScanEagle Services

(Source: Boeing Co.; issued June 6, 2008)

ST. LOUIS --- The Boeing Company, in partnership with Insitu Inc., has been awarded a $65 million contract to provide continuing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) services through the ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system.

The contract, awarded by Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Md., runs through May 2009 with options for extensions.

The long-endurance, fully autonomous ScanEagle unmanned aircraft (UA) entered service with the U.S. Navy in 2005 and has been deployed with both sea and land detachments in Iraq, Afghanistan and other areas of the world.

It's been deployed aboard 15 different vessels in various classes, including the USNS Stockham, USS Whidbey Island, USS Oscar Austin, USS Oak Hill and USS Carter Hall. ScanEagle is currently being readied for deployment aboard the USS Mahan.

"Boeing is pleased and excited to continue our relationship with the U.S. Navy by providing superior ISR services so critical to the success of the warfighter's mission," said Don Iverson, ScanEagle U.S. Navy program manager for Boeing.

The ScanEagle UA carries inertially stabilized electro-optical and infrared cameras. The gimbaled cameras allow the operator to easily track both stationary and moving targets. Capable of flying above 16,000 feet and loitering over the battlefield for more than 20 hours, the platform provides persistent low-altitude reconnaissance.

ScanEagle is launched autonomously via a pneumatic SuperWedge catapult launcher and flies preprogrammed or operator-initiated missions. An Insitu-patented SkyHook system is used for retrieval -- the aircraft catches a rope suspended from a 50-foot-high tower. The patented system makes the ScanEagle system runway-independent, with a small footprint similar to that needed for vertical takeoff and landing vehicles.

Insitu, of Bingen, Wash., designs, develops and manufactures unmanned aircraft systems for commercial and military applications. Insitu in 1998 introduced the first unmanned aircraft to fly across the Atlantic Ocean, using only 1.5 gallons of fuel. Insitu partners with Boeing to develop, market and support ScanEagle operations.

Skylark II (Israel) ...Canadians are gonna use them in Afghanistan



more info:

Boeing Scaneagle :

Luna UAVs _German

Moved to the world section, Sandy, please make sure that you post in the right forum. All non-Chinese related stuff should be in the world section.

Patria Mini-UAV

MBLE Epervier-Asmodée UAV:

On April 24th, 1969 the Ministry of Defence bought the MBLE Epervier-system as an answer to a NATO-requirement issued in 1964 regarding an advanced battlefield reconnaisance and observation system.
After a long test and development period the 1 Platoon Drones SCB became operational in 1976.
Three aircraft where of the Asmodée-type, a non NATO-standard version that was not very successful.
The Asmodée were modified to a 'Long Range'-version, which included the installation of an additional fueltank in the camera compartment.



http://image.wetpaint.com/wiki/belmilac/image/1pV9kqU$rh1WlaOj2qdjS7A==71324/GW500H352

http://image.wetpaint.com/wiki/belmilac/image/1Vby+Mga$6vnURyeeKAoEnQ==98475/GW500H333

Used by Belgium.

IAI - Eagle B-Hunter UAV:

One of these was shot down on its first three-hour shakedown flight in Democratic Republic of Congo following the type's deployment to the DRC on July 12 in support of EUFOR Congo. Part of the UAV fell in the Congo River; the rest struck a house and started a fire, injuring six people on the ground. The UAV was flying at 1300ft (400m) over marshland near Kinshasa/N'Dolo Airport when a lone gunman with a known criminal record apparently took a single shot at it with his Kalashnikov AK-47. By sheer misfortune, the bullet hit the left side of fuselage and then entered the wing root and struck the wing spar, destroying it and causing the wing to fold up.

European UAV hopes are dead, says Dassault chairman
By Murdo Morrison
European hopes of developing a home-grown large surveillance unmanned air vehicle are effectively dead, with programmes based on proven and readily available foreign platforms the only solution for governments' hard-pressed defence budgets.

That is the view of Dassault Aviation chairman Charles Edelstenne, whose company is teaming with Thales and Indra to propose to France and Spain a medium-altitude long-endurance UAV based on Israel Aerospace Industries' Heron TP. The offer, submitted on 22 May, is unsolicited and comes despite an earlier commitment by the two governments, plus Germany, to back an EADS-led initiative to develop the so-called Advanced UAV, a successor to the collapsed Euromale project.

However, Edelstenne is confident a decision to fund what he calls "a practical rather than political solution" by Paris and Madrid may be made as early as January 2009, which would allow deliveries from 2012. This, says Francois Quentin, senior vice-president of Thales's Aerospace division, would be at least four years ahead of the EADS rival and allow immediate deployment of a combat-proven airframe equipped with French and Spanish technology.

"There is no money for a European MALE," says Edelstenne, speaking in Paris at the official launch of the partnership last week. "So we have to forget any other project for a MALE in Europe. We cannot dream about what we can do, but make what we can sell."

This would leave Germany backing the EADS Advanced UAV. However, last month Berlin launched its own competition for five MALE UAVs, with Israel Aerospace Industries' Heron TP and General Atomics' Predator B candidates for the airframe. Edelstenne says there was never an intention to involve Germany in the latest partnership because its need for fast, reconnaissance UAVs is very different to that of France and Spain, which require a longer-endurance, loitering solution.

Although other unnamed countries were also invited to participate, the time which it would have taken to put together any team made it unrealistic, says Edelstenne.

Ironically, Thales and Indra were earmarked to develop a synthetic aperture radar payload for the Advanced UAV, but the companies' involvement was less than on the Dassault-led programme. Dassault is also continuing to work with EADS Spain on the French-led Neuron unmanned combat air vehicle demonstrator, scheduled to fly in 2011 and being developed with Greece, Italy, Sweden and Switzerland.

Innovative Norwegian UAV design unveiled

A small Norwegian company chose AUVSI as the launch pad for a novel modular, ducted fan UAV design that has been developed specifically with cold climates in mind. UMS Norway started the development of its fixed-wing Bold Viking UAV at the beginning of last year and expects to have the first flight trials of the 5 metre long, 200 kg UAV in September this year.

According to the company’s CEO, Fredrik Hiorth, it is the first time the company has publicly released information on the UAV design which it is building in collaboration with Optimum Solutions and L-3 Communications. The modular, all carbon fibre airframe was designed and built in Norway with Optimum Solutions providing integration skills for the L-3 avionics and sensor packages.

Hiorth said that the ducted fan concept reduced noise and improved safety. The internally positioned engine also reduces the aircrafts heat signature and the carbon fibre structure reduces its radar cross section giving the UAV a more stealthy design.

Similar to Scandinavian innovations in other defence systems the UAV is designed to be completely modular. The main fuselage is designed with three main parts: the engine and tail assembly back end; a middle mounted avionics package; and a nose section given over to sensor systems.

The tail fins and wings are also modular allowing them to be quickly changed. The leading edge of the wet wings has an electro-pulse de-icing solution and the ducted fan's intakes are heated to manage arctic conditions. The modular nature of the UAV means that it can be easily stored and only needs two personnel to assemble it.

According to Hiorth the nose assembly can accommodate a large payload, up to 50kg with a maximum volume of 136 dm3. The payload bay means that as well as carrying a forward mounted EO/IR ball the UAV can also carry internal payloads for a variety of missions including ELINT, SIGINT and SAR.

The forward mounted sensor EO/IR ball and the undercarriage are both retractable allowing the UAV to reach speeds of up to 150-160 knots, although its loiter speed is expected to be in the region of 60 knots. The current system is expected to have an endurance of between seven and nine hours, although the company is already working on an extended range version that could have an endurance of up to 18 hours.

Hiorth expects a typical Bold Eagle UAS, with a price tag of around $50 million, to consist of five airframes, a semi-mobile and portable GCS, plus up to 10 video dissemination terminals.

The UAV development is currently being funded by private investors with enough cash behind the venture for a three year development project. However, Hiorth believes that by the second half of 2009 UMS Norway would be in the position to go in to production with the system if it can find the right customer.

By Darren Lake, San Diego