Drones UAV

EADS has conducted a series of test flights of its Barracuda unmanned air vehicle (UAV) from Goose Bay air force base in Canada.
The manufacturer, which claims the Barracuda is the largest UAV built in Europe, says the four flights were used to test technologies and procedures "in realistic conditions".
The first Barracuda technology testbed had its maiden flight in April 2006, but crashed in September of that year during its second sortie.
"We once again have a demonstrator for the autonomous and network-centric UAV mission systems of the future," says Bernhard Gerwert, head of the DS Military Air Systems business unit.

Chinese researchers break through the mysteries of UAVs and UCAVs
06:45 GMT, October 14, 2009 defpro.com | Larry Dickerson, senior unmanned systems analyst for Forecast International, recently stated that the international demand for unmanned aircraft is rapidly growing, with the United States continuing to be the key driver of this trend. According to Dickerson, U.S.-based companies will account for more than 60 per cent of the market's value. However, western European countries and Israel are keeping up with the pace and spawning domestic development of such systems, which in some cases could already achieve more or less significant export successes (particularly Israel) with their industrial solutions. With respect to the obvious boom of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) development and export programmes in western countries, China, as much as Russia, still lag somewhat behind.


Catching up with world-leading standards

Nevertheless, the gap is quickly closing as the military’s requirement for state-of-the-art reconnaissance UAVs is becoming increasingly important in both countries. However, the activities are principally still focused on analysing (and often enough copying) already existing and fielded systems, such as the United States’ Global Hawk, Predator and Reaper as well as Israel’s Harpy and Heron. Completely domestic and unprecedented solutions emerge in only very few cases, of which many are too ambitious to make it into series production, let alone introduction into service.

In the case of China, the effort to increasingly use unmanned systems, as well as the capability to domestically develop and produce such aircraft, is publicly and proudly demonstrated, as could recently be seen on the occasion of the 60th anniversary celebration of the People's Republic of China. A total of ten short- and mid-range tactical reconnaissance UAVs mounted on their launching rail on the back of a truck, took part in the National Day parade (see [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]). “The ten UAVs of three different models have been [provided] to the PLA's special forces to carry out various reconnaissance missions,” Wang Baorong, captain of the UAV formation, told the state-run Xinhua press agency on that occasion.

According to the assessment of Professor Tan Kaijia, a weaponry expert with the PLA's National Defense University, this latest display shows that “China has made substantial progress in intelligent control systems, precise measuring-controlling systems and computer information processing for military uses.” Even more far-reaching concepts, such as the “Dark Sword” or the “Xianglong”, prove this assessment to be true, as the focus and the development is quickly going beyond small propeller-driven tactical UAVs towards high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAVs and unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV). The recent spotting of two probable HALE UAVs in front of their hangars at a Chinese air base suggests that such a system is already (near-to) operational.


Still many challenges ahead

However, as Andrei Chang, a Chinese military analyst with the Kanwa Information Centre in Toronto emphasised, it still is puzzling for what reason “the plethora of UAV models on display at Zhuhai do not go into production.” China is having difficulty mastering the technical complexity of operating UAVs in real time, he recently told Defence News. Chang suggests that many of the companies and institutions do not have an actual prototype and are simply looking for a foreign investor for their concept.

In an interview in early 2007 published by sina.com.cn, Tu Jida, chief designer of the Aviation Industries of China (AVIC), said that UCAVs are still at an early development stage in China and current efforts may lead to a successful aircraft system in approximately ten years. He further emphasised that for any such effort, China will be on its own and will have to “rely on its own strength and self-reliance.” The interview also left the impression that China is still working on the development of more secure and resistant control and communication links for the operation of UAVs to prevent enemies from interfering with the control of UAVs and the transmission of reconnaissance information.

Although the extension of China’s military satellite network allows the use of HALE UAVs over long ranges and in operations abroad, China is fully aware of dangers and the importance of satellite communications in modern UAVs. “Without military satellites, the commanders sitting in the United States could not operate their Predator UAVs, which are thousands of miles away on the other side of the globe,” Prof. Chen Hong of the Chinese Air Force's Command College correctly observed. Further statements published by Xinhua (see [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) acknowledge that China’s push in all fields of defence technology proves that the country is prepared to show strength in the air as well as in space and will make sure its networks will be working when their antagonists’ resources are down.


Major systems and concepts

Apart from the “Harpy” UAV sold to China by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) in 1994, China has indigenously developed and manufactured a number of unmanned systems during the past 30 to 40 years, often based on western – primarily US-built – UAV and UCAV concepts. A row of transformations of formerly manned aircraft, such as the Ba-5 (based on the J-5, a MiG-17 copy) and the Jian-7 (based on the MiG-21), for use as target drones, as well as the development of smaller target drones such as the Ba-2, Ba-9 (many more types have been produced), provided China with enough experience to develop remotely controlled and later pre-programmed and autonomously flying systems.

China also has a number of man-portable and -launchable mini-UAVs (such as the ASN-15), which are generally propeller-driven models for short-range tactical reconnaissance of ground troops. The following list of systems focuses on larger reconnaissance and combat concepts and – not least due to the lack of reliable information – does not claim to be complete (for instance, you may miss the formerly important ASN-104/105 and ChangKong-1 or a newer concept called “Combat Eagle”, which strongly recalls the X-45 and nEUROn UCAVs). However, it offers a condensed overview on past, present and future Chinese UAV and UCAV concepts, as well as on the often-foreign technological sources.

Reconnaissance Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV)

• WuZhen-5 (also ChangHong-1)
The WZ-5, in particular, which has been developed on the basis of the U.S. AQM-34N Firebee, will have provided China with the required technical background to take the next step in UAV technology development. After a number of these jet-powered reconnaissance UAVs had been shot down by the PLA in the 1960s, and at least one could be recovered for reverse-engineering, the Beijing Institute of Aeronautics (BIA; now Beijing University of Aeronautics & Astronautics, BUAA) began the development of a reconnaissance UAV based on the AQM-34N. The concept, consisting of the airframe, the optical camera sensor-suite, the turbojet engine and the ground station, resulted in two prototypes completed by 1972 and two in 1976. After achieving design certification in 1978, nine such systems were fielded by the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) as of 1981.

After having been successfully used for reconnaissance missions in the 1980s, the BUAA is believed to have developed an improved version, designated WZ-5A, which provided greater accuracy due to a GPS and inertial navigation system. The WZ-5 was air-launched at altitudes between 4,000 and 5,000 metres and would then climb to its operational altitude of 17,500 metres, where it may fly at up to 800km/h. It was originally launched by a modified Tu-4 Bull bomber, and later by the Y-8E (An-12 Cub copy) turboprop transport aircraft. Due to its lack of a real-time data link, its endurance of merely 3 hours and its limitation to day-time optical reconnaissance, the system can no longer keep up anymore with modern solutions. Without a real-time link and control, it must stay on its pre-programmed flight path, disregarding changing tactical situations or enemy air-defences.

• Xianglong (“Sour Dragon”, Chengdu)
As one of the more recent concepts, the “Xianglong” of the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation (CAC) was first unveiled at the 2006 Zhuhai air show. Its dimensions, jet engine and intake arrangement and wing shape very much recall the US RQ-4 Global Hawk and suggest that this UAV will also be used for high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) reconnaissance missions. In fact, it is reported to fly at altitudes of up to 18,000 metres (approx. 59,000 ft), which is slightly less than the ceiling of the Global Hawk. According to unnamed sources, the aircraft already completed high-speed taxiing tests in late 2008 and was scheduled to have its maiden flight in early 2009.

The intake and engine, located on top of the fuselage at the rear between the V-shaped tail wings, are much smaller than those of the Global Hawk. However, according to Chinese media reports, it is believed to fly slightly faster than the RQ-4, reaching speeds of about 750km/h and ranges up to 7.000 kilometres. With a reported take-off weight of 7,500kg and a mission payload of 650kg, it is lighter than the RQ-4 and can carry less weight (RQ-4B max. weight: 14.640kg; payload: 1.360kg). Due to its comparably limited range, it is supposed to exclusively operate in the Asia and Pacific region.

• WuZhen-2000 (also WZ-9, Guizhou Aviation Industry Group)
Just as the Xianglong, the WZ-2000’s design seems to have been taken from the U.S. Global Hawk, with V-shaped tail wings and a single WS-11 turbofan on top of the rear fuselage. However, the WZ-2000 is smaller (length 7.5m, wingspan 9.8m) and has slightly aft swept wings, as well as obvious radar cross-section reduction features, including a flat bottom surface. Being an older – but nevertheless stealthy – reconnaissance UAV concept (1999) than the Xianglong, the WZ-2000 is reported to having accomplished its maiden flight in December 2003 and an onboard remote sensing system test in August 2004.

Although the aircraft has smaller dimensions, it is intended to fly at a service ceiling of 18,000 metres with a reported maximum speed of 800km/h for a total endurance of only 3 hours. The 80 kg mission payload reportedly contains a thermal imaging camera and a synthetic aperture radar. Reconnaissance data is transmitted via a satellite communications antenna in the nose bulge.

• ASN-206 / ASN-207 (Xi'an ASN Technology Group Company)
The ASN-206 is one of the earlier advanced tactical UAV programmes and one of the few that has been successfully introduced into service with the PLA. It is a lightweight, short-range, tactical multi-purpose UAV developed by Xi'an ASN Technology Group Company in 1994 and produced in series starting in 1996. According to unconfirmed sources, the Israeli company Tadiran Spectralink Ltd. has been involved in the development process. It carries various mission payloads and can, therefore, be used in a multitude of operations including day/night aerial reconnaissance, electronic warfare and countermeasures (EW/ECM), battlefield surveillance, border patrols and nuclear radiation sampling.

Powered by a HS-700 piston engine, the ASN-206 is a twin-tail braced UAV which is launched with the help of an accessory rocket from a 6x6 truck and is operated by a digital flight control and management system. The aircraft marks an important step in China’s UAV development as it provides real-time reconnaissance information, while older UAV models had to be recovered in order to access the collected data.

The ASN-207, of which four systems headed the UAV formation at the National Day Parade in early October, is an improved version of the ASN-206. It significantly surpasses the AN-206’s capabilities, reportedly providing double the endurance time and mission payload with a maximum range of 600km. It can easily be distinguished due to its mushroom-shape antenna mounted at the front of the aircraft, which receives flight control commands from the ground station.

Attack Drones / Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAV)

• Harpy (IAI)
The Harpy, built by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), was another technology source for China’s own development efforts. The procurement of an unknown number of these attack UAVs in 1994 created quite a stir in U.S.-Israeli diplomatic relations, leading to a crisis of confidence between the two countries. This only happened in 2004 when the Chinese Harpy’s were sent back to Israel for an upgrade and after it was discovered that the PLA used Harpies during a military exercise. The Bush administration subsequently urged Israel to halt all arms-transfers to China.

The Harpy (which since has been further developed: see [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]) is not a typical UAV but, rather, a weapons system called “loitering munition”. The propeller-driven aircraft is launched from a ground vehicle or surface warship and can loiter for some time above the mission area to locate and identify a suitable high-value target. Its sensor collects valuable information until the Harpy attacks and destroys its target by crashing into it and detonating its 32 kg (70 lb) high-explosive warhead. It was specifically developed to detect, track and destroy radar emitters, such as enemy radar and SAM emplacements, in all weather conditions during day or night.

• Yi-long (Chengdu)
Another design by the Chengdu Aircraft Corporation appears to be a copy of the U.S. MQ-1 Predator, yet without inverted but, rather, upright V-shaped tail wings. The aircraft is driven by a small tail propeller. It carries a small pivotable sensor suit almost beneath the centre of the slender fuselage. The model displayed at the 2008 Zhuhai air show did not feature pylons to carry weapons, however, design concepts of this aircraft were presented with one pylon on each wing, arranged in the same fashion as on the Predator, to carry light missiles.

• CH-3 (China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp.)
The CH-3 is a medium-range long-endurance (MALE) UCAV model presented at the 2008 Zhuhai show which, due to its complexity, still appears to be far from becoming a reality. The aircraft has a canard airframe design with the tailplane ahead of the main wing. Still propeller-driven, the aircraft carries a large sensor suite underneath the fuselage at the level of the main wings’ root. According to the model, the aircraft is designed to carry two air-to-ground missiles, such as the AR-1 air-surface missile.

• Anjian (“Dark Sword”, Shenyang)
The “Dark Sword” is an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) concept which was displayed as a model at the 2006 Zhuhai air show. It is obviously designed for high manoeuvrability at supersonic speeds, having a flat, triangular shape with an additional large wing area and swing canards, hinting at China’s J-10 multi-role combat aircraft (which itself strongly resembles jets such as the Eurofighter, Rafale and Gripen). Its large intake underneath the fuselage implies high speed, agility and angle-of-attack, further suggesting that the aircraft will be powered by a turbofan.

At the Zhuhai air show, a staff member called the aircraft the “future of Chinese unmanned combat aviation”, emphasising its projected ability to evade enemy radar and to engage in air-to-air combat.

Boeing A160T Hummingbird UAV

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Boeing hopes a series of demonstrations will prove the potential of its A160T Hummingbird unmanned helicopter to the US military
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Cutaway & technical description: Defying convention - Boeing A160 Hummingbird

As the international aerospace community converges on the 47th Farnborough air show models and mock-ups of [Vous devez être inscrit et connecté pour voir ce lien]'s A160 Hummingbird will be on hand as part of the US aerospace company's massive showing, which includes its own unmanned air vehicle pavilion.
But the aircraft itself and those who know it best will be off somewhere near the equator, putting the innovative unmanned helicopter through its paces and proving out a new payload over the tropical jungles.
The Hummingbird is not as slight as its name suggests. With an 11m (36ft) rotor diameter nearly as wide as the 10.7m autonomous helicopter is long, it is larger than other vertical take-off UAVs. But weighing in at 1,135kg (2,500lb), with its largely composite frame, it is also lighter, making up for the fact that it carries 45kg more than its weight in fuel.

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© Boeing
The ability to shift to another gear has given the A160 the record for endurance

However, what makes the A160 unique is not something visible in its low-drag, reduced radar profile silhouette.
SPECIAL SAUCE
The helicopter's "special sauce," as its engineers and programmme managers call it, is all in the transmission. The patented optimum speed rotor technology, conceived by UAV godfather Abe Karem, is "what makes the A160 the A160", says programme manager Ernie Wattam. The adjustable rotor speed makes it possible for the A160
In conventional helicopters, the revolutions per minute of the rotors is normally locked in for a maximum forward speed, given weight and altitude considerations. At maximum forward speed, the tip of the advancing blade moves at speeds slightly under Mach 1, avoiding the drag and vibration seen at higher speeds.
But being locked into a constant maximum rotor RPM also means that anything less that maximum forward speed - a hover, low-speed forward flight - the rotor is moving far faster than actually necessary, wasting fuel and creating drag, shortening the helicopter's range.
"If you go down the highway and you keep your car in second gear, you get a certain speed and a certain range with your gas mileage," Wattam says. "But if you simply shift to fourth gear, you can double your speed and double your range. That's exactly what the OSR technology does for A160. And that's what makes it unique."
The ability to shift to another gear has given the A160 the record for endurance in its class - 18.7h. "And we still landed with an hour and a half of fuel," Wattam says. "And that was carrying a 300-and-something pound payload." Wattam and other programme officials estimate the Hummingbird's top speed around 165kt (305km/h), with a service ceiling of between 20,000ft and 30,000ft and a range of around 2,500nm (4,620km).
The aircraft's unique blades are also a factor in its speed and range. The stiffness and cross-section of the A160's rotor blades vary along their length. The low-loading hingeless design allows for changing RPMs to optimise efficiency at different speeds and altitudes.

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Although variable speed rotor helicopters have been considered over the years, it is advances in composites technology that helped bring things together for the A160, says Mike Lavoranda, Boeing's deputy programme manager. One of the reasons conventional helicopters' rotor speeds are fixed is because varying it drives resonant frequencies into the airframe, essentially rattling it apart, he says.
"It wasn't until recent years that we've had the technology from a composites perspective and also from a computational perspective that we've been able to design structures that can accommodate varying the rotor speeds without hitting resonant frequencies that would break up the airframe," Lavoranda says.
The fuselage's two large, stiff monocoque skins help keep the frequency ranges of the structure outside the frequency ranges of the rotor as it changes its speeds. Most of the bulkheads are also composites, along with the retractable landing gear struts and the four rotor blades. The small amount of metal found in the A160 is in the aluminium nose frame - the truss structure in the nose of the aircraft where most of the intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance payload is incorporated - and a few metallic bulkheads.
"Outside the engine and places where you typically have metal components, the airframe is all composites," Lavoranda says.
The engine is a Pratt & Whitney Canada PW207D turboshaft, a single-stage shrouded power turbine known for high efficiency and low vibration, which also powers Bell Helicopter's Eagle Eye UAV.
The P&WC engine was not a part of the original A160 concept conceived by Karem, his company Frontier Aircraft and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
AIRCRAFT DEVELOPMENT
"We were originally working with DARPA on developing and integrating a diesel engine," Lavoranda says. "In the interim, as we were waiting for the diesel, we needed to start developing the aircraft and flying the aircraft, so we incorporated first a four-cylinder Subaru automotive engine and then went to a six-cylinder engine for some additional power."
When diesel development could not keep pace with the aircraft, Boeing and DARPA made a joint decision in 2007 to abandon the diesel aspect of the project in favour of a deployable aircraft with a proven, commercially available engine. Karem had already sold Frontier, and the unmanned rights to the patented OSR technology, to Boeing three years previously.
With much lower specific fuel consumption on a diesel engine than a turboshaft, the significantly greater range and endurance of diesel power remain attractive, Lavoranda says, "but right now we're not actively looking at that."

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© Boeing

The Hummingbird has come a long way since the diesel-powered, variable-speed rotor experiment that was awarded a 30-month technology demonstration contract in March 1998.
A little over a year later, Frontier was testing the autonomous flight control systems on the Maverick, a modified [url=http://www.flightglobal.com/landingpage/robinson r22.html]Robinson R22[/url] helicopter that crashed in 2000 with more than 200 flight test hours under its belt.
The first true Hummingbird prototype, a three-bladed design, debuted in December 2001 and had its first forward flight the following month at former US Air Force base at Victorville, California, using a Subaru engine.
In September 2003, DARPA awarded Frontier a $75 million contract for the design, development and testing of four A160s. By May 2004, Boeing had purchased Frontier from Karem. In August 2005, Frontier Systems - now a Boeing subsidiary - received a $50 million contract from the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division to examine the affordability of long-range VTOL UAVs for payload delivery.
UNUSUAL MOVE
Even with all the experimentation and proving out of concepts, the Pentagon has been slow to purchase the Hummingbird, either as a government-owned platform or as a contractor-owned "power-by-the-hour" asset in the same way that surveillance time is purchased on the Boeing Insitu ScanEagle platform.
With no orders on the books, Boeing made the decision in late 2009 to put the helicopter into production, an unusual move in a business where manufacturers usually wait for a contract award or at least a military requirement before opening production.
A line was established in Mesa, Arizona on the same campus where the Boeing AH-64 Apache is built and assembly on the first of 21 new A160s began on 15 March. White-tail A160s are expected to be available in early 2011.
In the meantime, Boeing continues to work with the Pentagon on a variety of applications for the VTOL UAV. The team is under contract with the Aviation Applied Technology Directorate at Ft Eustis in Virginia to expand the A160's flight envelope.

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"We're slowly expanding up and we think the top end of the bird is somewhere around 165kt," Wattam says. "That's pretty impressive for a helicopter."
The A160 has already demonstrated its ISR capabilities to the US Army, as far back as 2008, at an annual C4ISR exercise at Fort Dix in New Jersey. Operating at the army's Class IV UAV for the exercise, the Hummingbird integrated five different payloads for the event, Lavoranda says, including a 380mm (15in) Wescam electro-optical/infrared sensor ball and two mini tactical common datalink transceivers used to downlink full motion video from the EO/IR sensor Rover terminals to both mounted and dismounted troops with Rover terminals.
The Hummingbird also proved its role as a communications relay, keeping two Humvees in contact when they moved out of the line of sight. "They didn't even realise they had lost communication because of the seamless reallocation of the network that we provided," Lavoranda says.
Wattam says the team has responded to several requests for information, including one from the US Navy for persistent shipboard operations and a resupply request from the US Marine Corps. "We're expecting a [request for proposals] anytime now to actually take the A160 and deploy to Afghanistan in a cargo resupply capacity," Wattam says.
In March, during six flights in two days, the A160 demonstrated its autonomous cargo delivery capabilities to the Marines, Wattam says, consistently delivering sling-loaded cargo within 1.2m of the target drop site. "Now we've proven we can not only put a sensor up there and keep it up there for two-thirds of the day, we've also proved that we're multi-mission, if you want to take cargo and deliver that, we can deliver it very precisely, unmanned, so you take people off the roads," he says.
The A160's proprietary, portable ground control system makes it possible to deliver cargo without a trained UAV pilot at the delivery site, Wattam says. At the March demonstration at Dugway Proving Grounds in Utah, the Hummingbird was required to autonomously fly a pattern, deliver its load, return to the launch site and shut itself down. Delivery to a forward operating location is easily achieved with a Panasonic Toughbook and relatively self-explanatory software, Lavoranda says.

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© Boeing

After the UAV flies its pre-planned route, it stops and orbits until someone at the forward delivery location instructs it, with the touch of a button, to proceed to the inbound delivery point. Once there, another click tells it to hover over the delivery point. Adjustments can be made within a 1km range of the original delivery site before instructing the Hummingbird to lower its load, release the cable and head home on its predetermined path.
WORKING WITH MILITARY
Operators can watch delivery on the drone's camera, Lavoranda says, but it is not necessary for the A160 to complete the task, even in brownout conditions. "If you know where you want the load, the bird doesn't care," he says. "It'll put the load down where you tell it, within a couple of feet."
Boeing is working with the military to integrate the A160's proprietary ground control system into the Universal Ground Control Station (UGCS), the US Army's preferred UAV control system, which itself is still in development. A vehicle-specific module for UGCS the A160 is expected to be complete by the end of the year, Wattam says.
For now, the Hummingbird team is headed south rather than Farnborough, Wattam says, to spend 45 days demonstrating DARPA's Forester radar system under a contract with US Special Operations Command. SOCOM has previously discussed plans to order as many as 20 A160s, which would be redesigned the YMQ-18, but no contract has materialised yet.
The Foliage Penetration (Fopen) reconnaissance, surveillance, tracking and engagement radar is designed to track vehicles on the ground through a triple layer of canopy foliage.
The 6.7m radar is aligned under the A160's fuselage on take-off. When the landing gear is retracted "you climb up to altitude with this system, point the nose into the wind and you stabilise the hover and then you turn that radar to point at the area you want to look at, any direction", Wattam says, citing the retractable landing gear as only one of the A160's many desirable features. "Nobody else can do that right now."