Lockheed to X-47B J-UCAS: Assume the Pole Position
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DID recently covered the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) UAV program, and the effects its ambitious requirements and quest for a new operating system might have on the project as a whole. As part of their system’s development, Lockheed has introduced an innovation to the traditional pole model process for radar signature testing et. al.
Lockheed Martin’s life-size pole model was designed and built in less than 13 months and funded entirely with private R&D dollars. Lockheed points to “its modular and flexible configuration, allowing future large scale physical changes. This permits customers to easily modify the many pre-planned regions of the configuration and quickly collect high fidelity data. This means the pole model is now a design tool rather than simply a demonstration device.”
Partners like X-47 project lead Northrop Grumman Corporation will use the test data to improve the low observable design of the X-47B, and the test-refine-retest process will be an iterative one. Pratt & Whitney is providing the entire inner structure of the exhaust module in later tests, which is an important aspect of the design’s stealth features.
Testing of the X-47B’s radar cross section will occur in Lockheed Martin’s Helendale Measurement Facility in California’s Mojave Desert. It is one of only two facilities of this type in the United States. Read corporate release.
