FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
2004
2004-09 - 0621.PDF
IN BRIEF HEMS FOR IRELAND Ireland and the UK are paving the way for an all-Ireland heli copter emergency medical service (HEMS), following the publication of a joint study to examine the feasibility of a HEMS covering the Republic and Northern Ireland. The study concluded that an emergency helicopter would be most appro priate for the island in a tertiary role - the planned rapid transfer of patients requiring specialist medical care. SUKHOICONTRACT Dassault Systemes and IBM have been contracted by Sukhoi Civil Aircraft to supply their prod uct life cycle management (PLM) solutions for development of the Russian Regional Jet. The PLM package includes various soft ware systems including Dassault's Catia design tool. Sukhoi estimates that PLM sys tems will cut development and production costs by 10-15%. HEADLINES DEFENCE CRAIG HOYLE / BERLIN Mariner advances as USN launches BAMS contest General Atomics is planning series of 24h sorties in Alaska as request for proposals looms General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is advancing flight trials of its Mariner unmanned air vehi cle demonstrator, in support of Lockheed Martin's bid to win the US Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) contest. The company late last month conducted an initial test of the air craft with a Raytheon-developed electro-optical/infrared (EO/IR) payload and SeaVue multimode maritime radar. The latter was housed in a centreline pod beneath the demonstrator, which combines a General Atomics Predator B fuse lage with the lengthened wing from the company's Altair UAV. The platform was flown under Level 4 control from the US Navy Space and Naval Warfare Systems Command centre in San Diego during the recent series of proving flights, Stephen May, General Atomics' business development manager, told delegates at the inau gural Flight International/AWSl Unmanned Systems Europe confer ence in Berlin on 6-7 May. For its next capability demonstra tion, the UAV will in June be deployed to Alaska for nine 24h sor ties, equipped with a Telephonies- supplied APS-143B maritime radar and a Wescam EO/IR sensor. If selected for the BAMS require ment, the production-standard Mariner will also feature a confor- mal fuel tank to increase endurance. The navy is due next month to issue a request for proposals. Other UAVs being promoted for the requirement include Northrop Grumman's RQ-4 Global Hawk and RQ-8 Fire Scout, plus an unmanned version of Gulfstream's G550. Already on order for the US Air Force, the Predator B has demon strated a flight endurance of 32h at altitudes up to 50,000ft (15,340m). General Atomics' I-Gnat ER UAV has been operational with the US Army in Iraq since March, May says. SEE UAVS P16 DEFENCE GUY NORRIS / LOS ANGELES Global Hawk radar set for mid-June power-up A risk-reduction prototype version of the Northrop Grumman-led multi-platform radar technology insertion programme (MP-RTIP) sensor for the RQ-4B Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle and Boeing E-10A Multi-sensor Command and Control Aircraft (MC2A) is close to completion. It may be powered up next month in time for a planned mid-June final design review. The design review is a milestone for the MP-RTIP radar system, work on which is picking up with the award of a six-year, $888 million US Air Force contract for the system development and demonstration (SDD) phase. SDD, or Phase II, fol lows the completion of Phase I, which was awarded to Northrop Grumman and teammate Raytheon in 2000. The new phase will cover con struction of six MP-RTIP develop ment radars; three for Global Hawk and three for the E-10A. The first of these units will be developed from the risk-reduction, or "single-string" version now in final assembly. "We plan to radiate this summer, hopefully in time for final design review," says Northrop Grumman MP-RTIP programme manager Dave Mazur, who adds that some development units will be flight tested while others will be evaluated in the company's sys tems integration laboratory. Flight tests of the first radar for the Global Hawk will begin at Mojave, Cali fornia in the last quarter of 2005 on the Scaled Composites Proteus, which Northrop Grumman is acquiring for the purpose. Flight tests on the manned test- bed are set to last for one year, with the first MP-RTIP due to become airborne on the Global Hawk in late 2007 or early 2008. "Then we will go into testing on the E-10A," says Mazur. Assuming production gets the go-ahead around 2008, Mazur expects to begin assembling the initial batch of production-rep resentative radars in 2010, with six units for the E-10A fleet and 12 for the Global Hawk. Initially aimed at providing an advanced ground moving target indicator (GMTI) successor to the Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS), the electroni cally scanned array MP-RTIP radar has evolved to embrace additional features including an air moving target indicator mode. This will enable it to track low-flying cruise missiles and other relatively slow moving airborne targets. Using powerful processors, the electroni cally scanned antenna will be able to collect GMTI data and synthetic aperture radar ground images almost simultaneously. Raytheon, which is producing both hardware and software for the MP-RTIP, is also developing a simi lar capability for the APG-79 AESA radar now under test for the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet (Flight International, 4-10 May). The first MP-RTIP sensor is not due to fly on a Global Hawk UAV until late 2007 at the earliest 6 11-17 MAY 2004 FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL www.flightinternational.com
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
