With technologies such as Galileo Avionica's Falco UAV, Finmeccanica has become a driving force in European unmanned systems development

See Flight's Falco cutaway

For almost a decade, unmanned systems development in Europe has been dominated by initiatives coming out of France, Germany and to a lesser extent Sweden and the UK. But over the past two years, the centre of gravity for the sector has quietly tilted towards Italy, with the Finmeccanica group emerging as one of the most highly integrated unmanned systems houses on the continent.

Finmeccanica has systems in production or under development in almost all sectors of the market with the exception of rotary wing and, for the short term, the high-altitude long-endurance classes. In the medium term, the group's technology roadmap includes plans for demonstrator systems up to the HALE category by 2013-14, leveraging work on its first medium-altitude long-endurance demonstrator, the Alenia Aeronautica Sky-Y, which was unveiled at last week's Paris air show. A more capable MALE UAV, designated Molynx, is due to fly in 2009.

falco
Galileo Avionica is halfway through delivering 16 Falco large tactical UAVs to an undisclosed international customer

Finmeccanica's ascendency has at its core the combined UAV activities of its Alenia Aeronautica and Galileo Avionica subsidiaries, the latter firm making up the Italian arm of Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems.

At group level, co-ordination arrangements for unmanned systems have Alenia Aeronautica taking responsibility for airframes and systems integration in the HALE, MALE and unmanned combat air vehicle categories. Galileo Avionica is primarily responsible for air vehicles and systems integration in the tactical classes, as well as imaging sensor and radar payloads, and avionics. Selex Communications is the repository for group datalink capabilities. The only UAV competency not currently available within Finmeccanica, says Galileo Avionica deputy director general Gianpiero Lorandi, is propulsion systems.

INTERNATIONAL AMBITIONS

Alessandro Amendola, head of advanced projects at Alenia Aeronautica, says the wider interest of Finmeccanica in the UAV sector is directly linked to its international ambitions in the defence and aerospace market. That strategy is acknowledged as being aggressive on the aerospace side, he says, with its five-year targets including major growth in the US domestic market.

Amendola says the UAV focus also mirrors a desire for the overall group to shift its focus from manufacturing to systems, an objective particularly pertinent to Alenia Aeronautica's specific aspirations for unmanned systems. "In Alenia we are deploying a complete strategy both in terms of business and technical analysis. We have established the common grounds of critical technologies around the pillars of which we are building a family of products that can stimulate the market. We must be quick because there will be some open windows in the next short years and we want to catch those windows."

Alenia is pursuing two product families within the overall unmanned systems sector, says Riccardo Barzan, head of technology demonstrators and chief technology officer for research, technology and innovation. "One is an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance family," with the Sky-Y the first example on the path to a full HALE capability, while "in the longer term it is the combat unmanned air system", he says.

falco 3-view

The company has identified 48 technology "bricks" it considers necessary to the future of the UAV market, Barzan says, with the use of demonstrator systems a key element of maturing those to technology readiness level of 6 to allow for release to the market. In the case of the Sky-Y, the demonstrator is intended to support Alenia's plan to have the Molynx MALE UAV ready in 2010-11, a timeframe that Amendola says is expected to mark a major turning point in the shape of the civil UAV market.

Alenia heads Finmeccanica's involvement in the Dassault-led Neuron European UCAV demonstrator programme, but has been flying its own Sky-X demonstrator for two years. The Sky-X will evolve into a significantly more advanced tailless design in the near future, Barzan says.

There is strong potential for close overlap between the MALE and UCAV development paths, says Barzan, with jet propulsion and weaponisation both potential nexus points in the future. In the immediate term, the Sky-X and Sky-Y programmes have given rise to a new-generation universal ground control station, also publicly displayed for the first time at last week's Paris show.

Alenia is also studying a purpose-designed low-observable military MALE platform spun off from the civil-focused Sky-Y and Molynx systems, and optimised for close air-support and strike missions. The proposed UAV has the working name Black Lynx, says Barzan, and would have a blended wing-body configuration with twin diesel engines and internal weapons bays. "It has broad potential for other applications. We start with a MALE or a MALE-plus with capability to grow to cover other roles. This kind of configuration has better growth potential," he says.

FOCAL POINT

Galileo Avionica is the Finmeccanica group's historical focal point for UAVs. Formed in 2000, it includes the former Meteor, which has a history of involvement in the target drone market with established commercial services operations for a variety of NATO and non-NATO countries. Earlier this year the company secured a key order from India for a turnkey service arrangement seen as an important stepping stone for expansion of its activities in the segment. The deal followed selection last year of the company's Mirach 100/5 as the primary target for the UK's Combined Aerial Training System programme, with two production lines now in place at the Ronchi dei Legionari plant near Trieste.

The target drone market is seen as a key element of Galileo's ongoing business outlook, with investment in systems development continuing. The company is working on further derivatives of its Mirach 100 series, with a Mirach 100/X now being defined. This will feature higher subsonic speed and increased endurance. Work is also under way on a potential supersonic air-launched version of its Locusta mini-target drone. "There is a gap. There is nothing on the market," says Vincenzo Nicolosi, Galileo Avionica's UAV and simulators business unit director.

Galileo Avionica also has one of Europe's few active production lines for a large tactical UAV with low-rate manufacture of 16 Falco air vehicles continuing for an undisclosed international customer. The company is currently halfway through deliveries.

NEW PAYLOADS

More advanced Falco capabilities are being developed, says Nicolosi, including the exploration of winterisation of the platform. The UAV also provides a focal point for the development of new payloads by Galileo Avionica and Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems. These include a new lightweight electro-optical/infrared sensor turret in the 20kg (44lb) class, which would allow Falco to carry more than one payload at a time the PicoSAR miniature synthetic-aperture radar and a new hyperspectral sensor for tactical and MALE UAVs.

Galileo Avionica is also working on a new version of the Gabbianno maritime surveillance radar, says the firm's UAV product line manager Maurizio Facchin. The T20 variant will weigh 43kg, allowing it to be flown on the Falco for an extended period, he says, with integration studies already conducted. The radar will include synthetic-aperture and inverse synthetic-aperture modes, and ground moving-target indication capability.

Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems was established in May 2005 following the takeover by Finmeccanica of its former avionics joint venture with BAE Systems, and was used by the group as a focal point to explore the lower tiers of the military and paramilitary tactical UAV market.

Galileo's Lorandi says soon after the new company was established a dedicated UAV working panel was set up with representatives from the UK and Italy to assess opportunities and technology gaps at both a broad Finmeccanica level in terms of its overall UAV roadmap, and within Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems. That panel played a key role in overseeing the final stages of Falco development, he says, particularly in terms of how the UAV's evolution could be shaped to meet rapidly emerging military market requirements that led to the export order for Falco.

The same panel process helped expand the potential operational capabilities of the Falco by exploring how sensor technologies resident in the UK arm of the company could be transitioned into the development effort. "We went through a product capability roadmap and tried to determine which one of the two would have responsibility," Lorandi says.

That led to the decision to give the UK operations responsibility for opening up the small and mini-tactical market via a fast-track development effort in collaboration with Italy-based UAV research company UTRI. This resulted in the unveiling in February of three new electric-powered mini-UAV systems under the designations Asio, Otus and Strix, all using the same ground control station.

Asio is a ring-wing vertical take-off and landing air vehicle with an endurance of 35-60min, while Otus is a hand-launched fixed-wing UAV designed for close-in operations. Strix is a modular catapult-launched flying wing intended for use by special forces, with its development also supported by the Italy's Alpi Aviation. The UAV has a ceiling of 10,000ft (3,050m) while carrying a 1kg electro-optical payload.

David Lazarus, head of ISTAR and UAV marketing at Selex Sensors & Airborne Systems UK, says the Strix has already secured a launch order from the NATO Maintenance and Supply Agency on behalf of an alliance member state. He says a fourth small tactical system being developed by the UK company will make its public debut in the UK at the Parc Aberporth UAV air show on 10-11 July.

The new UAV is a small vertical take-off and landing vehicle that uses a combined propulsion and lift system. "In many respects it is similar to the way [the BAe] Harrier operates. It has a motor and a fan at the front and for its vertical take-off and hovering operations it virtually sits on four columns of air," he says. "The difference between this and the way Harrier operates is that each of the four nozzles operates independently, so it has very smart avionics on board." This means the new UAV will be "wind-gust resistant. It will resist attempts to move itself laterally," says Lazarus.

TRANSIT SPEED

Once airborne the UAV will transition to forward flight using conventional wings. "Once it has taken off the nozzles swing back. It has a very high transit speed, in the order of 150kt [280km/h], which is pretty quick," Lazarus says. An electric-powered subscale demonstrator of the new UAV - with a span of around 1m - has been flying since early April in hover mode, he says. Further flight trials including transition are planned from September at the Parc Aberporth range, with the demonstrator to be converted to a gasoline engine for the trials.

The final production air vehicle is expected to have an empty weight of 100kg and an endurance of 5-8h. "The intention is to be able to operate it in areas where you would not normally be able to operate vehicles of this size, for example taking off and landing from a ship that is powering through the water," Lazarus says. The UAV would also be effective in an urban canyon environment, he says. "It is quite different from anything else being developed and has a huge number of advantages".

See Flight's Falco cutaway


Source: Flight International

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