GRAHAM WARWICK / WASHINGTON DC
Manufacturer anticipates Coast Guard contract under $11bn re-equipment programme
Bell is redesigning its Eagle Eye tilt-rotor unmanned air vehicle (UAV) for production, in anticipation of a final contract for 69 aircraft for the US Coast Guard's Deepwater re-equipment programme. The drive train will run in a ground rig at Bell in the first quarter of next year.
The Coast Guard has yet to announce the selection of a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) UAV, but the HV-911 Eagle Eye was part of Lockheed Martin's winning proposal for the Deepwater contract.
"The Eagle Eye was the original solution advanced. We have not seen anything to the contrary, but there is no final contract," says Integrated Coast Guard Systems, the Lockheed Martin/Northrop Grumman joint venture responsible for the $11 billion programme.
Changes from the TRD911 technology demonstrator, which Bell entered unsuccessfully in the US Navy's VTOL tactical UAV competition, will include an airframe redesign to reduce signature and possibly a new engine. The demonstrator was powered by a Rolls-Royce 250 turboshaft. "We are looking at different engines," says Bell senior vice-president Terry Dake.
Up to four VTOL UAVs will operate from each of the Coast Guard's new national security and offshore patrol cutters, to be built under the Deepwater programme. The Eagle Eye can cruise at 185kt (340km/h) and dash at 230kt, and carry a 90kg (200lb) payload with mission fuel, says Dake. The tiltrotor has a 5h endurance and will carry modular payloads, including infrared/electro-optical and radar sensors.
Dake says a Coast Guard contract could lead to other Eagle Eye sales for both maritime and land-based VTOL UAV roles. He cites the superior survivability of a tiltrotor over a conventional rotary-wing vehicle because of its higher speed, "and it's very quiet in turboprop mode". Dake says: "Signature reduction and survivability are becoming more important as UAVs become more important to war fighting."
The redesigned Eagle Eye could form the basis of an unmanned combat armed rotorcraft (UCAR). Bell is studying design options under the US Army and Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency UCAR technology demonstration programme, "but we still think the backbone could be a tiltrotor UAV", says Dake.
"As long as it can meet the requirements for payload and performance, you have the advantage of a tried and proved product."
Source: Flight International
