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I-View, landing
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On Nov. 11, 2005, DID relayed a report from the Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz, which noted that Australia had purchased 18 Heron UAV systems. It was at about the right time for the JP129 program’s announcement, but a couple of our readers emailed us to wonder. DID attempted to check this out, and eventually an official announcement re: the JP129 program has debunked the Ha’aretz report. Australia will have a new tactical UAV to go with the Israeli Skylark mini-UAV – and the new UAV was Israeli as well: the short-range IAI I-View (see also Defense Update profile).

Australian Minister of Defence Senator Hill said the Government had agreed to the A$ 145 million (USD $109 million) UAV project to provide the Army with a high precision day and night surveillance and targeting capability with accompanying ground systems. Details regarding the winning UAV, and the other members of the competition, follow – including additional details re: the competitors.

DID’s extra efforts to reveal the JP129 Program competitors have just become very relevant. The contract has been canceled…

• The I-View UAV
• The Competitors
• Australia’s UAV Plans
• Updates & Outcomes [updated]
  
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Hermes 450
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Elbit Systems Ltd. recently announced [PDF] a contract to supply Hermes 450 UAV systems to “a country in the Americas” for the total of approximately $25 million. The Hermes 450 is currently in service with Israel, Britain (as the Watchkeeper), Singapore, and other countries – but it has become most famous for its service with Georgia’s armed forces in the face of Russia’s invasion. The contract also includes Skylark I hand launched mini-UAV systems, and all UAVs are to be delivered within a year.

Haim Kellerman, General Manager of Elbit Systems UAS Division said: “We are proud to report another link in the chain of successes, with a new order from a new customer…” The most likely customers for this sale are Ecuador and Chile…

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IAI Heron
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In April 2005, Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) and Elbit Systems won an estimated $150 million contract to supply unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to the Turkish military.

The contract’s terms have been the subject of shifting reports, and the type of UAV was not specified in the official releases. Nevertheless, DID was able to lend clarity on both fronts. According to various sources, the contract involves 3 systems of 10 Heron aircraft each, plus surveillance payloads and ground control stations. Turkey’s local industry will provide sub-systems and services amounting to 30% of the contract.

Reports indicate that the UAVs have now been used in combat, but unspecified issues are creating delivery delays, and creating problems with the relationship…

• Contract Arrangements and Participants
• The UAVs
• Updates [new]
• Additional Readings and Sources
  
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Skylark-I launch
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Elbit’s Skylark-I mini-UAV has become a popular choice, as nations like Israel, Australia, Canada, France, Singapore, et. al. adopt it for battlefield use. Bental’s electric propulsion system using brushless permanent magnetic motors is an especial benefit to Skylark operators, as its silent operation avoids warning enemy targets of its presence.

In an effort to build on that success, Elbit soon introduced the larger Skylark-II for battalion level UAV operations, fired from a rail launcher mounted on small wheeled vehicles rather than launched by hand. In exchange for the launcher requirement and a doubling of the crew size to 2, the Skylark-II gains a mission radius of 50-60 km instead of 10 km, and the ability to mount larger sensor packages. Awards soon followed from sources as varied as Popular Science and industry analysts Frost & Sullivan – but awards don’t pay the bills.

December 2007 featured Elbit’s first Skylark-II customer, followed by a French order for Skylark Is, a 3rd Australian order for the mini-UAV, and a South American contract…

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Boeing’s concept
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Three teams have now received Phase 1 contracts to begin developing develop a radical new aircraft, under a US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) program known as “Vulture.”

DARPA’s goals for Vulture are not trivial: 5 years on station with a 450kg/ 1,000lb payload, 5kW of onboard power, and sufficient loiter speed to stay on station for 99% of the time against winds encountered at 60,000-90,000 feet. The system could act as a satellite substitute for communications relay or reconnaissance, as long as the payload fit within the weight limit. Vulture would be more vulnerable to anti-aircraft missiles than a satellite, and could be targeted by fighter jets as well given the right launch profile; on the other hand, that closeness would improve sensor resolution and communications capability.

The engineering challenges ahead are formidable, as one would expect for a DARPA project. The power system in particular must be extremely reliable, and the aircraft’s materials will require advances of their own. Odysseus will be exposed to far more warming and cooling than satellites, and more ultraviolet radiation which will affect the aircraft’s materials. The design is also likely to require very large wings, both to help keep it aloft and to accommodate the number of solar cells required. Conditions at altitude can challenge the durability of those wings, especially with hydrogen storage tanks attached. Aerovironment’s Helios (1998-2003) demonstrated this the hard way in its 2003 crash.

So, who is competing, and what are the proposed designs?

• The Process, The Designers & The Designs
• Contracts and Related Events [updated]
• Additional Readings
  
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RU-38 Twin Condor
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The nature of the current war puts a high premium “persistent, pervasive stare” capability, also known as technical Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR). America has been reminded (yet again) that these tools cannot replace human intelligence and social networks, but when used properly they create significant advantages for a counter-insurgency force. Right now, about 80% of the U.S. military’s aerial ISR assets – from UAVs to planes like the U-2 – are busy in the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations. Most of those are in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has been pushing the ISR idea. He’s pressing the US military to speed up procurement, and deploy more ISR platforms in theater. He’s also putting his money where his mouth is. A task force was set up, and approval was given to “reprogram” funds from other areas, in order to fund these additional ISR projects. Congressional defense committees have now approved a FY 2008 request to reprogram $1.2 billion. According to Pentagon sources, these monies will buy 21 manned ISR aircraft, add to the RQ-11 Raven, RQ-7 Shadow, MQ-5 Hunter, MQ-1 Predator, and MQ-9 Reaper UAV systems in theater, and buy more Scan Eagle UAV detachments for the Navy and Marines.

These changes will do much more than just improve surveillance…

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P-8A: Sonobuoy drop
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Sonobuoys are used to detect and identify moving underwater objects by either listening for the sounds produced by propellers and machinery (passive detection), or by bouncing a sonar “ping” off the surface of a submarine (active detection). They usually float, or have at least some part of them that does. Specialized sonobuoys can also detect electric fields, magnetic anomalies, and bioluminescence (light emitted by microscopic organisms disturbed by a passing submarine); as well as measuring environmental parameters like water temperature versus depth, air temperature, barometric pressure, and wave height.

Sonobuoys are generally dropped from aircraft or helicopters that are equipped with a means to launch them, and electronic equipment to receive and process data sent by the sonobuoy. They can also be launched from ships.

This entry will discuss some of the new sonobuoys in use, and also begin covering related contracts – including a contract for sonotube-launched UAVs….

• Sonobuoy Types
• Contracts & Key Events [updated]
  
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Start with this…

“ROVER” is an unimpressive piece of equipment. Mostly, it looks like a ruggedized laptop with antennas. But SpaceWar.com quotes Lt. Col. Gregory E. Harbin, of the 609th Combat Operations Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, SC, who says ”...the ROVER is bringing a phenomenal capability to our people on the ground.” ROVER is the Remotely Operated Video Enhanced Receiver, which receives camera images from nearby aircraft and UAVs (somewhat like Israel’s wrist-mounted V-RAMBO), then integrates them with other US positioning and targeting software.

Staff Sgt. Justin Cry, a Shaw Joint Tactical Air Controller (JTAC), has a job that’s an art form at the best of times. Describing features from the ground to a pilot looking down while flying at high speed is no easy task. According to a Dec 16/05 USAF article, he used the system in Iraq and in New Orleans, and says simply: “I can circle an area on my screen, drawing arrows for emphasis, and what I’m drawing appears on (the pilots’) screens as well.”

ROVER continues to evolve, and is becoming an unheralded but critical piece of equipment in America’s arsenal. This is DID’s FOCUS Article covering the system and its ongoing developments – the latest of which is a contract for next-generation ROVER III data links.

• From X-Box to ROVER
• ROVER: Contracts and Key Events
• Additional Readings & Sources
  
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MQ-1C Sky Warrior
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In August 2005, “Team Warrior” leader General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. in San Diego, CA won a $214.4 million cost-plus-incentive-fee contract for research, development, test and evaluation (RDT&E) of the Extended Range/ Multi Purpose Unmanned Aerial Vehicle System (ER/MP UAS). The Warrior was designed to fill both surveillance and attack roles, and the MQ-1C Sky Warrior derived from General Atomics’ famous MQ-1 Predator beat the Hunter II system offered by Northrop Grumman, Aurora Flight Systems, and IAI.

The Sky Warrior ER/MP program is part of the US Army’s reinvestment of dollars from the canceled RAH-66 Comanche helicopter program, and directly supports the Army’s Aviation Modernization Plan. ER/MP could be a $1 billion effort, and recently strengthened its position when a 2007 program restructuring cut the Future Combat Systems Class III UAV competition.

Now, in FY 2008, the MQ-1C Sky Warrior ER/MP prepares to move into production – as the first big “Key West” battle of the 21st century between the USAF and US Army reaches a resolution. But the Sky Warrior and Predator will be merging into a single program. What does that mean, exactly? DID asked. Meanwhile, our readers asked us to explain the differences between the MQ-1 Predator, MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and MQ-9 Reaper. DID is happy to oblige.

The latest news is the acquisition of 3 Block 0 SkyWarriors for use on the front lines…

• The MQ-1C Sky Warrior, and its Band of Brothers
• The Army’s Sky Warrior Program
• ER/MP UAS – Enter the Warrior: Contracts & Key Events [updated]
• Appendix A: US Army et. al. vs. USAF Over UAVs
• Appendix B: Additional Readings – Who Controls the UAVs?
• Appendix C: Additional Readings
  
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Global Hawk Cutaway
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The RQ-4 Global Hawks isn’t a full successor to the famous U-2 spy plane just yet, which is why the USA is keeping its U-2s for now. It’s close, however, and some people have described the HALE UAV as the equivalent of having a photo satellite on station. Flying at 60,000 feet for 30-40+ hours at a time, the jet-powered UAV used sophisticated radars and other sensors to monitor developments on land, sea, and air over an area of about 40,000 square miles/ 100,000 square km. Reported image resolution has been described as 1 foot or less.

The USA has made effective use of Global Hawks since its formal unveiling in 1997, which has prompted interest from other countries. Germany will develop and induct its EuroHawk version under a EUR 430 million program, and NATO’s AGS system will now deploy Global Hawk UAVs instead of a more effective combination of Global Hawks and modified Airbus A321 jets. Outside of NATO, however, sales have reportedly been trickier. Four issues have worked to hold up potential sales – 2 of which are acknowledged openly.

South Korea ran afoul of all 4 of those issues, when the USA rejected their application to buy 4 of the larger RQ-4B UAVs in 2006. Now, it seems, the tide has turned…

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