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Lockheed Martin And Kaman Aerospace Demonstrate Unmanned Supply Helicopter To US Army

Ft. Eustis, VA -- Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] and Kaman Aerospace Corporation have demonstrated to the U.S. Army and Marine Corps the feasibility of transporting supplies to ground troops by an unmanned helicopter.

During 45 minutes of operation at Ft. Eustis, VA, an unmanned K-MAX® helicopter demonstrated autonomous take-off and landing, pick-up and delivery of a 3,000-pound sling load, and the ability to autonomously re-plan and detour from its designated route to accommodate changes to mission requirements and battlefield threats. The demonstration also illustrated the ability of a single ground operator to use both spoken and data commands to control the aircraft via data link, perform precision maneuvers at the pick-up or drop zones, and easily transfer control to another ground operator for maximum interoperability.

"Our objective was to show the Army that we have successfully integrated Lockheed Martin's mission management technology with a proven aerial lift helicopter to take on the routine but often dangerous work of re-supplying troops," said Michele Evans, Modernization and Sustainment vice president at Lockheed Martin Systems Integration in Owego, NY. "Our mission management technology gives the unmanned K-MAX a high level of system autonomy and intelligence to meet operational objectives with minimal human oversight."

The April 23 demonstration was attended by representatives of the Army's Aviation Applied Technology Directorate (AATD), the Combined Arms Support Command, the Training and Doctrine Command, Aviation & Missile Research, Development & Engineering Center and the Marine Corps Development Command.

"The U.S. Army is interested to see how industry has adapted manned/unmanned teaming technology - originally developed for aerial scouting operations - for unmanned cargo re-supply by a vertical take-off and landing aircraft," said Ray Wall, chief of AATD's Systems Integration division. "Successful expansion of this technology into Afghanistan and Iraq would help alleviate the high operational demand for Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters, which are forced to carry supplies when their greater priority is to carry troops and other personnel."

The K-MAX unmanned aerial system was controlled by Lockheed Martin's KineForce™ mission management system, which is designed to translate the ground controller's objectives into mission executable plans, provide autonomous flight control capability, understand the dynamic battlefield environment, and react to threats. To command and control the K-MAX, a ground controller used a hand-held tablet computer - compatible with a common interface system used by the U.S. Army for control of unmanned aerial vehicles - to define the mission plan and monitor the aircraft during flight.

The Kaman designed-and-built K-MAX helicopter features a unique intermeshing rotor system that eliminates the need for a tail rotor, directing all of the power from the Honeywell T5317A-1 gas turbine engine to the main rotors. The design gives the aircraft a one-to-one lift ratio, enabling the K-MAX aircraft to lift up to 6,000 pounds - more than the aircraft's own weight - and providing superior high altitude and hot environment performance and low noise signature. Currently flown as a manned power lifter by the logging and construction industries, the aircraft has low operating costs per flight hour, and has maintained a high reliability rate over more than 225,000 flight hours in demanding environments.

"This prototype demonstration showed just a small sample of the potential for a rotary wing unmanned air system that has a lift capacity of 6,000 pounds," said Sal Bordonaro, President, Kaman Helicopters Division. "We believe this UAS could be used for any number of existing missions that are currently being flown by manned assets, and that the cost savings resulting from the use of the unmanned K-MAX would be recognized immediately."

Kaman Aerospace, a subsidiary of Kaman Corporation [NASDAQ: KAMN], markets and supports its SH-2G and K-MAX helicopters, is a subcontractor for complex metallic and composite structures and components for commercial, military and general aviation aircraft, designs and manufactures missile and bomb fuzing devices for the U.S. and allied militaries, and is a leading manufacturer of widely-used proprietary airframe bearings and components. Kaman Corporation conducts business in the aerospace and industrial distribution markets.

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ORKA, a drone for army and navy land and sea multi missions made by EADS (European Aeronautic Defense and Space company) is seen during the EuroSatory Defense Exhibition, Monday June 16, 2008 outside Paris.

Son Of Predator Goes To Iraq

June 16, 2008:

For the last three months, two pre-production models of the U.S. Army's new Sky Warrior MQ-1C UAVs have been in Iraq for testing. The first flight, lasting 10.5 hours, was on April 18th. The two MQ-1Cs are slightly larger Predators, and are being used for missions formerly performed by Shadow 200, and other large army UAVs. The big difference is that Sky Warrior can carry weapons (like Hellfire missiles.)

The MQ-1C Sky Warrior weighs 1.5 tons, carries 300 pounds of sensors internally, and up to 500 pounds of sensors or weapons externally. It has an endurance of up to 36 hours and a top speed of 270 kilometers an hour. Sky Warrior has a wingspan 56 feet and is 28 feet long. The Sky Warrior can land and take off automatically, and carry four Hellfire missiles (compared to two on the Predator). The original MQ-1 Predator is a one ton aircraft that is 27 feet long with a wingspan of 49 feet. It has two hard points, which usually carry one (107 pound) Hellfire each. Each hard point can also carry a Stinger air-to-air missile. Max speed of the Predator is 215 kilometers an hour, max cruising speed is 160 kilometers an hour. Max altitude is 25,000 feet. Typical sorties are 12-20 hours each.

As its model number (MQ-1C) indicates, Sky Warrior is a Predator (MQ-1) replacement. The U.S. Air Force plans to replace its MQ-1s with MQ-1Cs. Sky Warrior enters production next year, and the U.S. Army (which paid for development) wants over 500. So far, the attrition rate of Predators has been over five percent a year. Unless that can be brought down, few Predators will last more than a decade and the MQ-1C will replace it gradually. Most of the losses are due to mechanical, electronic, software or operator failure. Never have so many UAVs been used so extensively, and intensively, in combat. So it's a learning experience in a new environment. The attrition rate is coming down, but not rapidly.

The army and air force are going to jointly manage the Predator force, or at least the MQ-1Cs. This will cause some unexpected scuffles, as many air force generals believe the army should not have the MQ-1C, or at least not use them with weapons. That has already caused some sparks to fly in the Pentagon, but the recent purge and reshuffle of the senior air force leadership, by the Secretary of Defense, makes it appear that the army will be left alone to build its new robotic air force. Back in the 1950s, after a decade of bickering, the Department of Defense ordered the army to stick with helicopters, while the air force got all the fixed wing aircraft. But UAVs have no pilots in them and the army does not consider them part of the half century old deal.

There is a third member of the Predator family, that will stay just with the air force. The MQ-9 Reaper is a 4.7 ton, 36 foot long aircraft with a 66 foot wingspan that looks like the MQ-1. It has six hard points, and can carry 1,500 pounds of weapons. These include Hellfire missiles (up to eight), two Sidewinder or two AMRAAM air-to-air missiles, two Maverick missiles, or two 500 pound smart bombs (laser or GPS guided.) Max speed is 400 kilometers an hour, and max endurance is 15 hours. The Reaper is considered a combat aircraft, to replace F-16s or A-10s.

Video: iPhone Controls Robot Plane Squad

By Noah Shachtman

June 16, 2008 | 9:16:00 AM

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Since 2004, a team of professors and students from the University of California, Berkeley has searched for ways to let a single human supervise a team of robot planes. Now, this Center for Collaborative Control of Unmanned Vehicles has a new device for ordering around its drones: an iPhone.

In a video taken from this month's Teaching & Technology conference, the Berkeley crew uses an iPhone to pick tasks for its drone squadron, input a set of coordinates for a local reconnaissance mission, and send the planes new orders while the aircraft are in the sky.

But don't tell Steve Jobs how the Berkeley folks are using his gadget. According to the terms of the Apple Software Developer Kit agreement, "applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes."

DATE:02/06/08

SOURCE:Flight International

UK makes progress towards non-segregated UAV flights

By Craig Hoyle

A UK initiative that seeks to enable the routine operation of unmanned air vehicles in non-segregated airspace will demonstrate the results of its first three years of activity in October, with its partners already working on proposals for a follow-on phase to include flight testing.

Partly funded by seven leading defence and aerospace companies including BAE Systems, EADS, Qinetiq and Thales, the UK government and several regional development agencies, the Autonomous Systems Technology Related Airborne Evaluation and Assessment (ASTRAEA) scheme's £32 million ($63.2 million) first phase is mid-way through its last year of funded activities.

Also involving academia and smaller suppliers, the project has delivered real progress, says vice-chairman Nick Miller, also business director, UAV systems for Thales UK's Aerospace Division. The three-day simulation-based demonstration at the ParcAberporth UAV centre in west Wales, "will show how far we have got in opening the airspace", he adds.

Sixteen projects are focused on autonomous technologies, architecture development, suggested operating standards and mission planning techniques. Thales is leading work on sense and avoid technologies, and has for example integrated a traffic collision avoidance system within a UAV's electro-optical/infrared sensor. "ASTRAEA 1 has been a success," says Miller. "It is clearly understood that autonomy is the way forward."

Agreeing that "sufficient progress had been made in many areas of UAS work to warrant a substantial review", the UK Civil Aviation Authority's Directorate of Airspace Policy in late April published the latest revision to its CAP 722 "Unmanned Aircraft System Operations in UK Airspace - Guidance" document.

"As an upsurge in UAS activity is envisaged over the coming years, it is essential that both industry and the CAA clearly recognise the way ahead in terms of policy, regulation and safety standards," it adds.

To run for a further three years from January 2009, ASTRAEA's second phase wil include the production of prototypes, and culminate with flights by manned surrogate aircraft and UAVs. "By the end of phase two we would hope to possibly have a staged approach to flying [in non-segregated airspace]," says Miller. "But it might not be routine."

Can UAVs provide persistent surveillance when London hosts the Olympic Games in 2012? Miller says: "The [airspace integration] technology will probably be ready. But public perception and confidence is important."

DATE:04/06/08

SOURCE:Flightglobal.com

EXCLUSIVE: RAF's Reaper UAV conducts first air strike

By Craig Hoyle



The UK Royal Air Force has followed its US counterpart in using General Atomics’ MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B) unmanned air vehicle as an offensive asset, confirming that its lone example recently released weapons over Afghanistan for the first time.

“The RAF Reaper has now been authorised to carry munitions,” the service says. “We cannot comment on specific operations, but can confirm that an RAF Reaper used its weapon system.”

Further details of the strike – such as the date, weapon type used or the intended target – have not been disclosed, but the RAF says: “As with any other munitions, rules of engagement are strictly adhered to, ensuring that collateral damage is minimised. Whether a mission is armed is operationally sensitive, and what arms are carried on each specific flight is mission specific.”

Launched and recovered in Afghanistan, but commanded by the RAF’s 39 Sqn from Creech AFB in Nevada, UK Reapers had for some months been expected to commence armed operations as an adjunct to their primary role of providing persistent surveillance for UK and coalition forces.

The RAF has received two Reapers since October 2007 under an urgent operational requirement deal for three air vehicles, plus related mission systems and ground control equipment, but the first of these was destroyed following a forced landing in Afghanistan earlier this year. A third will be delivered next January, while a replacement for its lost aircraft is also now on order.

Also controlled from Creech AFB and used offensively since last October, the US Air Force’s Reapers are typically armed with four Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-surface missiles and two Raytheon 226kg (500lb) Paveway II-class laser-guided bombs.

DATE:09/06/08

SOURCE:Flight International

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.

DATE:13/06/08

SOURCE:Flight International

BAE Systems unveils its armed UAV Fury

By Rob Coppinger



BAE Systems has unveiled its Fury armed reconnaissance and close air support unmanned air vehicle at the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International North America 2008 convention in San Diego, California.

With a similar airframe and using some components from BAE's Herti reconnaissance and surveillance UAV, Fury has a pusher propeller, a wingspan of 12.5m (41ft), is 5.1m long and is pictured carrying the developmental Thales lightweight multirole missile.

Trials involving the weapon have included fuselage missile blast effects analysis, target engagement with a live round fired from a static air vehicle and the tracking of ground targets from the air. Airborne trials have also simulated remote firing of the missile towards a fixed target.

DATE:12/06/08

SOURCE:Flight International

Raytheon to test fly heavy fuel engine on Cobra

By Rob Coppinger
Raytheon has delayed its planned flight test of a heavy fuel engine with Swift Engineering's blended wing-body Killer Bee unmanned air vehicle from May, with bench testing ongoing, the company confirms.

Also on trial with Raytheon's Cobra UAV, which has already tested the Killer Bee's avionics, the new engine is intended to meet demand from the US military for a heavy fuel design to provide better logistics.

The Killer Bee is Raytheon's proposal for the US Navy/US Marine Corps small tactical unmanned air system (STUAS)/Tier II requirement, which also has US Air Force involvement.

"We have a purpose-built heavy fuel engine built for the Killer Bee," Raytheon mission system solutions advanced programmes director Ryan Hartman said during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International North America 2008 convention in San Diego, California. Flight International has previously reported this as being a 15hp (11kW) XRDi design.

Raytheon has also been working with the USN on arming the Killer Bee, and is expecting to conduct a guided firing of the service's Spike miniature missile.

Raytheon's known competitors for the STUAS/Tier II programme are the AAI Aerosonde Mk4, Insitu Integrator, and the General Dynamics/Elbit Systems Skylark II.

Northrop Grumman's P6 UAV to fly this month

By Rob Coppinger



Northrop Grumman is to fly a company-owned MQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV unmanned air vehicle it calls Prototype 6 (P6) later this month, before it carries out in-flight testing for two new mission payloads.

The P6 maiden flight will take place at Webster Field near the US Navy's Patuxent River facility in Maryland. Initial flight tests will be followed by work with information and communication system company Telephonics in August, and a US Army-funded test of Northrop's airborne surveillance and target acquisition minefield detection system (ASTAMIDS) payload in September.

Northrop is to integrate Telephonics' RDR1700B radar into the MQ-8B, and could fly it at the US Army's Yuma proving ground in Arizona to show that the UAV can perform an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance role using the radar for wide area surveillance.

"In the fourth quarter there will be more work with Telephonics," Northrop unmanned system business development manager John VanBrabant said during the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International North America 2008 convention in San Diego, California.

The ASTAMIDS testing will also take place at Yuma, with VanBrabant saying the work is linked to the army's Future Combat Systems programme.

ASTAMIDS, which consists of an infrared sensor, processor and display station, is designed to survey minefields accurately from manned aircraft and UAVs, such as the General Atomics Predator and Alliant Techsystems Outrider.