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Aviation History
2001
2001 - 0677.PDF
Raytheon's SilentEyes SUAV focuses on US aimed forces RAMON LOPEZ/ORLANDO RAYTHEON is offering the US armed forces an expend able small unmanned air vehicle (SUAV) capable of a wide range of missions and launch from a number of different platforms. The SilentEyes SUAV is an unpowered metal glider that would be launched from fighters or larger UAVs such as the General Atomics RQ-1A Predator. Pre programmed with destination co-ordinates, the SUAV would autonomously glide to die target using GPS satellite navigation. If used for battle damage assess ment, SilentEyes would orbit a tar get three or four rimes and transmit freeze-frame television imagery to a US Air Force Boeing RC-135 Rivet Joint electronic intelligence aircraft or a Predator ground exploitation station. During an attack, SilentEyes would provide near real-time video images before, during and after the event. Costing as little as $5,000, the unit is 546mm (21.5in) long with a 70mm diameter and weighs 27kg (601b). The battery-powered Raytheon has flight tested the SilentEyes in military exercises SilentEyes would carry a 1.4kg payload: an infrared camera, laser radar, laser spot tracker, unattend ed ground sensor or a warhead. Other missions could include chemical/biological agent detec tion, communications relay and suppression of enemy air defences. A smaller version would have folding wings and tail surfaces so it would fit into a Raytheon ALE-50 towed decoy dispenser. After ejec tion, a jettisonable parachute would slow the SUAV for wing deployment. Other concepts include deployment from a Ray theon Tomahawk sea-launched cruise missile and simple ground launcher or mortar/artillery sys tem that would boost the SUAV to 10,000ft (3,000m) and 15km (10 miles) for die US Army. A powered version is also being considered. Raytheon began work four years ago with company funding, dem onstrating the technology in a j oint US military experiment in 1999. Flight testing continued last year in Montana with SilentEyes dep loyed from a Cessna light aircraft. Raytheon expects funding from the US Air Force UAV Battlelab for a demonstration using Predator. • Israel signs up to Boeing Apache deal ISRAEL HAS signed a deal with the US Department of Defense for the purchase of nine Boeing AH-64D Apache Longbow attack helicopters. Contract value including air craft, ordnance, spares, training and support is expected to app roach $500 million. A number of Israeli developed systems will be installed on the AH-64Ds. They are understood to include elec tronic warfare and tactical aware ness systemi» The decisidn comes after a delay in the upgrade" of 12 AH-64As. Israel had hoped to acquire 10 newAH-64Ds. • South Korean F-Xgoes infrared LOCKHEED Martin Missiles and Fire Control is proposing its AAS-42 infrared search and track (IRST) systems as part of the sensor fit for die F-15K offered by Boeing to South Korea for its F-X fighter competition. IRST would be built into ffee Lockheed Martin LANTIRN targeting pod pylon, says director international business develop ment John Schoeppner. Such an installation will allow the IRST's retention when the F-15Kis re-roled from air-to-sur face to air-to-air missions. "They can drop the [two] LANTIRN pods and retain the IRST," says Schoeppner. The IRST will give the F-15 a similar capability to that of the rival Dassault Rafale, Eurofighter Typhoon and Sukhoi Su-37. The system, which is a version of the US Navy's Grumman F-14 Tomcat IRST, has a range similar to fighter radars and is designed to detect skin friction heating rather than exhaust plumes. Schoeppner says it can detect tactical ballistic missile launches. Since the 1991 Gulf War, timely detection of mobile launchers so they can be attacked before they find a hiding place has become a key considera tion, and North Korea's missile programme continues to be of concern in Seoul. • CONTRACTS ++ Lockheed Martin has been awarded an $11.1 million US Department of Defense con tract for Phase 2 requirements definition for M4/M4+ avionics software for the F-16 modular mission computer on Belgium, Danish, Dutch, Norwegian and Portuguese. Work should be com pleted in December 2004. ++ Recon/Optical has received a $5 million US Navy contract to supply a high-altitude sensor for the Shared Reconnaissance Pod (SHARP) engineering and manufacturing development programme. The Raytheon SHARP will be carried by Boeing F/A-18s. ++ Israel Aircraft Industries' MLM division and Germany's BGT have won a $20 million order to supply 20 EHUD Autonomous Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrum entation systems to Belgium. ++ Boeing has been given a $25.5 million contract for procurement, certification and installation of global positioning system and reduced vertical separation mini mum hardware and software for France'sfourE-3FSentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft. ++ EADS has won a deal to supply the NATO AWACS fleet with the STR2000 identification friend or foe equipment and Rockwell Collins TTR921 collision warning system. The deal covers four systems ini tially with options for another 19. ++ Sikorsky Support Services has won a one-year contract, with six one-year options, to support the US Navy's Northrop F-5E/F aggressor aircraft based at MCAS Yuma, Arizona. Over seven years, the deal would be worth more than $100 million. ++ EADS' Dornier subsidiary has won a DM53 million ($25.4 million) contract from the NATO Maint enance and Supply Agency to upgrade 140 CL-289 reconnais sance unmanned air vehicles operated by France and Germany. ++ Raytheon has been awarded a $89 million contract to build 1,007 Stinger very-short range surface-to-air missiles for Greece, Italy and the UK. FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 27 February - 5 March 2001 21
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