All Military UAVs articles – Page 328
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Autonomous attacker
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Four US manufacturers have embarked on a programme to determine. by 2005, whether unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) have the potential to complement, and ultimately compete against, manned strike aircraft. If successful, UCAVs could become operational as early as 2015, in time to help offset the expected ...
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US Navy nears decision on tactical UAV requirement
Ramon Lopez/YUMA The US Navy will decide in June or early July whether to persevere with the Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned air vehicle (UAV) or switch to a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) craft for its tactical UAV requirement. The USN's plans to buy the fixed wing Outrider UAV, along ...
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Global Hawk flies second mission
THE Global Hawk reconnaissance unmanned air vehicle has flown for a second time at Edwards AFB, California, performing what the company describes as a "text book" mission lasting 2h 24min. The aircraft reached 41,000ft (12,500m) during the sortie, which also included the successful hand-off of command and control via ...
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Laser composite structures inspection 'will cut JSF costs'
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Lockheed Martin has begun construction of a laser ultrasonics centre which is expected to cut the cost of inspecting composite structures by as much as 90%. The centre is due to be operational by the end of the year, when it will be used to inspect ...
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Smiths prepares AV-8B COTS
Ian Sheppard/LONDON Smiths Industries is preparing to deliver the first equipment for an open systems avionics demonstration programme. This will place it at the leading edge of developments in commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology, where the military is set to benefit from the latest advances in computing. Under the ...
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US Army launches initiatives aimed at improving missile arsenal
Douglas Barrie/LONDON The US Army has launched a raft of weapons initiatives aimed at improving its short-range air-defence and air-launched anti-armour guided weapons, as well as extended-range high-precision guided munitions. The US Army Aviation and Missile Command has programmes under way to develop improved variants and potential successors ...
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SAIC's VTOL UAV prototype crashes
SAIC's bid for the US Navy's vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) project has been dealt another blow by the crash of its prototype. The SAIC Vigilante air vehicle crashed on 20 April during a test flight at a small airfield in Virginia. The composite ...
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Japan promotes unmanned helicopters for crop dusting
Paul Lewis/GIFU, JAPAN Two Japanese aerospace manufacturers have begun to promote the commercial use of unmanned helicopters for agricultural crop dusting and airborne surveillance missions. Kawada Industries has developed the RoboCopter 300 based on the Schweizer 300CB and had accumulated 40h of flight time by mid-April. The company hopes ...
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Romania gets Shadow 600
AAI has delivered six Shadow 600 unmanned air vehicles and their associated ground control station to Romania. The $20 million contract was the first to be financed by the US Government's new Defence Export Loan Guarantee programme. AAI has sold Shadow 600 systems to another, undisclosed, country, believed to ...
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Pentagon selects UCAV contractors
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has officially selected Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and Raytheon Systems to conduct initial studies on an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV). The four firms, already identified as the only US groups capable of leading the project, will now undertake initial 10-month ...
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UK procurement chief outlines broad ambitions for UAVs
Ramon Lopez/Bristol UK chief of defence procurement, Sir Robert Walmsley, has spelled out the UK Ministry of Defence's increasing interest in use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs). "UAVs are capable of providing support to the warfighter or even becoming a replacement for the warfighter and have gained the ...
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UCAV bids arrive
Bids for the US Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) technology demonstration were submitted in late March. Northrop Grumman is one of four bidders - with Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon Systems - and is proposing this flying wing design resembling its B-2 stealth bomber. Bidders ...
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USAF tests new tactics in EFX '98
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Air Force will explore new fighting concepts, including the use of unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) for tactical missions, during the Expeditionary Force Experiment '98 due to take place in September. The experiment will cost an estimated $40 million to conduct. While military exercises ...
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NASA steps up high flier testing
NASA plans to conduct extra test flights of its small fleet of high altitude long duration air vehicles this year as it steps up environmental research work. The Aero Vironment Pathfinder solar powered unmanned air vehicle, which is the most visible aspect of the US space agency's Environmental Research ...
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Stand together
Aerospatiale, Dasa, CASA and British Aerospace delivered to the governments of France, Germany, Spain and the UK last week their promised thoughts on how they might achieve global competitiveness in the next century. It is now up to those European governments to decide whether the central plank of the industry's ...
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Boeing/DARPA agree canard rotor/wing trial
Boeing's Phantom Works and the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) have signed a $24 million cost sharing contract for a proof of concept demonstration of the canard rotor/wing (CR/W). The three year programme is to include flight testing of a subscale unmanned vehicle to demonstrate vertical take-off and ...
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Sonex heavy fuel
Sonex Research is to convert 40 unmanned air vehicle (UAV) two-stroke engines to use "heavy" fuel (JP-5 or diesel) for the US Marine Corps. The Annapolis, Maryland based company will next month complete similar conversions of engines on US Navy Pioneer UAVs. Source: Flight International
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Dasa offers MiG-29 to fill EF2000 gap
Andrzej Jeziorski/MUNICH Daimler-Benz Aerospace (Dasa) is offering to upgrade Polish, Czech and Hungarian MIGMAPO MiG-29 Fulcrum fighter aircraft to a NATO-interoperable standard as a stopgap until each country is in a position to procure the Eurofighter EF2000. Although the aircraft has so far been considered too expensive for ...
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SAIC No-Show
The US Navy's vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) demonstration to test three unmanned air vehicle (UAV) designs has got under way, but one of three contractors missed the 11 March delivery deadline. Bell Helicopter's Eagle Eye and Bombardier's improved CL-327 Guardian UAV both beat the deadline, and testing of these ...
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Global Hawk air vehicle finally spreads its wings
The Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle (UAV) flew for the first time at Edwards AFB, California, on 28 February despite several small anomalies which shortened the inaugural flight. The Global Hawk, a high altitude long endurance (HALE) UAV, flew for 56min, although the initial mission was planned ...