All Military UAVs articles – Page 303
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Precision prerequisite
Without precision strike capabilities, a nation will not be asked to participate in coalition warfare. In most air forces, the laser-guided bomb (LGB) is the primary precision guided munition (PGM). Poor weather over Kosovo and Iraq during Desert Fox highlighted problems with bombing through cloud. RAF Chief of the ...
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Mission possible
EW aircraft, tankers and AWACS turn the impossible into the achievable Stewart Penney/RAF Brize Norton & RAF Waddington DeeDee Doke/Aviano AB & RAF Mildenhall Missions over Iraqi and Yugoslavia would not be possible without force multipliers such as the Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS), electronic warfare (EW) assets ...
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Unmanned alternatives
II(AC) Sqn pilots see unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAVs) as a viable alternative to the manned aircraft for certain missions, particularly suppression of enemy air defences, and because of the political pressure to avoid casualties. A flight commander says the difficulty with UCAVs "is the physical pushing of the button. ...
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Force of the future - The first option
The RAF has adopted the role of an expeditionary air force Stewart Penney/LONDON Air power will nearly always be the first option for governments that want to apply pressure to truculent regimes. Recent experience, particularly over the Balkans, has underlined that, according to Royal Air Force Chief of the ...
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Packing punch
Air power is the key to modern warfare, but it could be used differently, believes the US commander of the Kosovo air campaign DeeDee Doke/AVIANO AB As US Air Force Lt Gen Mike Short launched his command of the air campaign over Kosovo last March, he expected to ...
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NATO joins USAF command and control experiment
Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC NATO is participating in a US Air Force experiment to test command and control (C2) concepts for expeditionary operations. The Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment (JEFX) now under way combines live and simulated forces in the second large-scale test of technologies which promise to enhance the capabilities of ...
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Table: Top 100 Aerospace Companies
FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL TOP 100 AEROSPACE COMPANIES No Company Division Aerospace Sales ($m) Sales Op. Result 1998 ($m) Change 1998 ($m) Change 1 Boeing 55,424 ...
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NASA sensor technology project shifts focus
NASA's Environmental Research Aircraft and Sensor Technology (ERAST) programme is refocusing on "selling" the capabilities of a group of innovative, remotely piloted aircraft entering, or concluding, critical new tests. The ERAST effort is aimed at developing technologies for a new series of remotely operated, autonomous aircraft that will be ...
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Popeye fails in Kosovo, but wins S Korean order
South Korea has completed plans to procure 100 AGM-142 stand-off missiles, even as news is emerging of the air-launched stand-off missile's failure to hit targets in their debut during the Kosovo air campaign. US Air Force Boeing B-52 Stratofortress bombers forward based in the UK employed the AGM-142 during ...
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Contracts
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has been appointed prime contractor for the manufacturing programme linked to the supply of up to 145 attack helicopters to the Turkish armed forces. TAI has asked the five shortlisted helicopter manufacturers - Agusta, Bell Helicopter Textron, Boeing, Eurocopter and Kamov/Israeli Aircraft Industries - for best ...
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Avitronics reveals ELINT payload for UAVs
South Africa's Avitronics has unveiled an ultra-lightweight electronic intelligence (ELINT) payload for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV). Deliveries to at least one unnamed North African customer will start in November. Senior Avitronics officials say the payload will be used with an operational UAV system. The order is understood to have ...
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In the works
Tailless fighters, reusable space vehicles, blended wing body transports and hypersonic strike missiles are just some of the technologies on the drawing board at Boeing's Phantom Works Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Boeing's Phantom Works appears increasingly aptly named as it becomes a "virtual" organisation linking the aerospace giant's advanced development centres. ...
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UAV suppliers line up for Sender
The UK Ministry of Defence has received responses from 36 companies interested in taking part in the assessment phase of its Sender unit-level, tactical unmanned air vehicle (UAV) requirement. The Sender will provide tactical reconnaissance and target acquisition at ranges up to 50km (90nm). The MoD expects to issue ...
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Skunk Works: responding to changing times
Things are no longer black and white for the Skunk Works. The still-secretive Lockheed Martin unit is having to adjust to the reality that much of its future business opportunities are in the commercial, and not the classified, arena. Not that the two worlds are so vastly different - both ...
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New deep penetrator warhead used in Operation Allied Force
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC A US weapon still under development and designed to attack deep underground bunkers containing command and control centres and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) was secretly and successfully deployed against Yugoslav targets in the Kosovo theatre of operations, according to US Air Force officials. ...
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Four Tactical UAVs in US Army shoot-out
The US Army has narrowed the field of players in its $325 million Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle (TUAV) competition from seven to four. They will participate in a fly-off later this year. The AAI Shadow 200, Alliant Techsystems Outrider, General Atomics Prowler II and S-TEC STM-5B Sentry will take ...
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USAF targets new pod
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The US Air Force's Air Combat Command (ACC) has drawn up an operational requirement for an advanced targeting pod and will shortly be seeking industry proposals as a result of lessons learned during the Kosovo conflict. "We're looking to field the system in a 2003 timeframe, ...
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Hummingbird tested
Frontier Systems has flight tested avionics and software for its A160 Hummingbird vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle. The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is funding development of the 48h endurance, 5,500km (3,000nm) range A160 (Flight International, 21-27 July). The key Hummingbird technologies were flown in ...
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The show goes on
As mainland China blusters and threatens, Taiwan stages its fifth Taipei Aerospace show, playing down its traditional defence slantAndrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Despite the continuing tense political situation between Taiwan and neighbouring mainland China across the Taiwan Strait, the Taipei Aerospace Technology Exhibition 99 (TATE99) has drawn increasing representation from Taiwan's own ...
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DERA presents Racal with a radar lifeline
Stewart Penney/LONDON Racal Defence Electronics' work with the UK's Defence Evaluation and Research Agency (DERA)to define a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) technology demonstrator for fast jet low level reconnaissance missions has handed the UK company a lifeline that will allow it to continue developing SAR technology. This is despite its ...