2RHPZ
07-24-2004, 04:27 AM
U.S. Companies Tout New UAVs At British Air Show
By Marc Selinger
07/23/2004 08:49:48 AM
FARNBOROUGH, England - U.S. defense companies have touted a host of new or conceptual unmanned aerial vehicles during the Farnborough Air Show.
Some of the UAVs are being assembled, while others still are on the drawing board, industry officials said in interviews and press briefings July 19-21.
Thomas J. Cassidy Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), told The DAILY that his company will soon begin flight-testing a follow-on to its "hunter-killer" Predator B UAV. GA-ASI is "building the first one right now" and will begin flying the new vehicle in early 2005, probably in the spring, he said.
Cassidy said the new UAV is designed to be more survivable in high-threat areas than the Predator B. Other details, including whether the aircraft effort is for a specific customer, are not releasable for now, he said.
Variations of existing Predators also are being developed. For the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV program, GA-ASI, which is teamed with Lockheed Martin, plans to offer the Mariner, a Predator B derivative that is designed to carry more fuel to lengthen endurance. A Mariner demonstrator is currently taking part in maritime surveillance tests off the Alaskan coast in a bid to convince the U.S. Coast Guard to buy the UAV. A similar demonstration will occur later for Canadian defense forces.
GA-ASI plans to offer a "Predator-type airplane" in the U.S. Army's upcoming competition for the Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAV, which is supposed to replace the Hunter UAV, Cassidy said.
GA-ASI has sold the original Predator to the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and Italian air force and the Predator B to the U.S. Air Force. In August, GA-ASI is slated to do a Predator demonstration for Turkey, which has expressed interest in buying the UAV.
Long endurance
Raytheon Co. officials told reporters they are exploring low-cost UAVs that would complement Predator and Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk. Among the possibilities is a concept for a long-endurance surveillance vehicle that would be nonrecoverable or use a parachute instead of a pricey conventional landing system.
Raytheon's long-endurance UAV would be less capable than Predator or Global Hawk, but its $100,000 price tag would make it far more expendable and affordable than the multimillion-dollar Predator and Global Hawk.
"For the cost of one Global Hawk, you could buy 500 of these things," said Donald Newman, director of unmanned systems at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz.
Newman said the concept has generated interest, albeit no commitments, from undisclosed potential customers in the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
SilentEyes
In the shorter-endurance area, Raytheon conducted a June demonstration for the U.S. Air Force in which the company's expendable, half-meter-long SilentEyes micro UAV was launched from a Predator B to help provide target identification. The silent glider transmitted target data to a ground station.
"It worked great, did exactly as planned," Newman said.
Newman said Raytheon has proposed developing a production version of SilentEyes and hopes the Air Force will respond to the idea in the coming months. Each micro UAV is estimated to cost less than $15,000.
Raytheon also is studying the possibility of putting warheads on SilentEyes.
"We're talking to several of the small companies" about arming the micro UAV, Newman said. "If you can put [a small camera] in [SilentEyes], there's nothing to say we couldn't put a small warhead in this, too."
J-UCAS unveiling
Also during the air show, the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. unveiled full-scale models of the vehicles they are developing for DOD's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program.
J-UCAS, a joint effort of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is to develop unmanned aircraft for such missions as electronic attack, precision strike, surveillance and suppression of enemy air defenses. Boeing's X-45C and Northrop Grumman's X-47B are slated to have their first flights in two to three years.
By Marc Selinger
07/23/2004 08:49:48 AM
FARNBOROUGH, England - U.S. defense companies have touted a host of new or conceptual unmanned aerial vehicles during the Farnborough Air Show.
Some of the UAVs are being assembled, while others still are on the drawing board, industry officials said in interviews and press briefings July 19-21.
Thomas J. Cassidy Jr., president and chief executive officer of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), told The DAILY that his company will soon begin flight-testing a follow-on to its "hunter-killer" Predator B UAV. GA-ASI is "building the first one right now" and will begin flying the new vehicle in early 2005, probably in the spring, he said.
Cassidy said the new UAV is designed to be more survivable in high-threat areas than the Predator B. Other details, including whether the aircraft effort is for a specific customer, are not releasable for now, he said.
Variations of existing Predators also are being developed. For the U.S. Navy's Broad Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) UAV program, GA-ASI, which is teamed with Lockheed Martin, plans to offer the Mariner, a Predator B derivative that is designed to carry more fuel to lengthen endurance. A Mariner demonstrator is currently taking part in maritime surveillance tests off the Alaskan coast in a bid to convince the U.S. Coast Guard to buy the UAV. A similar demonstration will occur later for Canadian defense forces.
GA-ASI plans to offer a "Predator-type airplane" in the U.S. Army's upcoming competition for the Extended Range/Multi-Purpose (ER/MP) UAV, which is supposed to replace the Hunter UAV, Cassidy said.
GA-ASI has sold the original Predator to the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy and Italian air force and the Predator B to the U.S. Air Force. In August, GA-ASI is slated to do a Predator demonstration for Turkey, which has expressed interest in buying the UAV.
Long endurance
Raytheon Co. officials told reporters they are exploring low-cost UAVs that would complement Predator and Northrop Grumman's Global Hawk. Among the possibilities is a concept for a long-endurance surveillance vehicle that would be nonrecoverable or use a parachute instead of a pricey conventional landing system.
Raytheon's long-endurance UAV would be less capable than Predator or Global Hawk, but its $100,000 price tag would make it far more expendable and affordable than the multimillion-dollar Predator and Global Hawk.
"For the cost of one Global Hawk, you could buy 500 of these things," said Donald Newman, director of unmanned systems at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz.
Newman said the concept has generated interest, albeit no commitments, from undisclosed potential customers in the U.S. Departments of Defense and Homeland Security.
SilentEyes
In the shorter-endurance area, Raytheon conducted a June demonstration for the U.S. Air Force in which the company's expendable, half-meter-long SilentEyes micro UAV was launched from a Predator B to help provide target identification. The silent glider transmitted target data to a ground station.
"It worked great, did exactly as planned," Newman said.
Newman said Raytheon has proposed developing a production version of SilentEyes and hopes the Air Force will respond to the idea in the coming months. Each micro UAV is estimated to cost less than $15,000.
Raytheon also is studying the possibility of putting warheads on SilentEyes.
"We're talking to several of the small companies" about arming the micro UAV, Newman said. "If you can put [a small camera] in [SilentEyes], there's nothing to say we couldn't put a small warhead in this, too."
J-UCAS unveiling
Also during the air show, the Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. unveiled full-scale models of the vehicles they are developing for DOD's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) program.
J-UCAS, a joint effort of the U.S. Air Force, Navy and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is to develop unmanned aircraft for such missions as electronic attack, precision strike, surveillance and suppression of enemy air defenses. Boeing's X-45C and Northrop Grumman's X-47B are slated to have their first flights in two to three years.