All Military UAVs articles – Page 316
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Matra BAe ASRAAM hits targets in Eglin firings
Matra BAe Dynamics has carried out two successful test firings from a Lockheed Martin F-16 of the Advanced Short-Range Air-to-Air Missile (ASRAAM) at the USAir Force's Eglin AFB, Florida. The first firing was the final dispersion round in the ASRAAM trials programme, which was completed on 20 September. ...
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PATS unveils lightweight rotary-engine APU for corporate jets
PATS, The US supplier of auxiliary-power-unit (APU) installation kits, has revealed a lightweight rotary-engine APU for corporate jets which the company claims will lead to significant cost savings compared with conventional turbine APUs. The "non-turbine heavy-fuel engine" is based on the Wankel engine design originally used in motor ...
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Outrider is grounded pending accident probe
Contractor testing of the Alliant Techsystems Outrider tactical unmanned air vehicle (UAV) has been suspended pending completion of an investigation into the crash of a prototype during a flight evaluation on 15 October at Hondo, Texas. It was the final test of the UAV with the McCulloch 4318F ...
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Tornado storms on until 2018
The Royal Air Force will run its Panavia Tornado GR4 fleet until 2018, indicating that procurement of its replacement, the Future Offensive Air System (FOAS), is slipping. The RAF had been working toward procurement of the FOAS and replacement of the Tornado GR4 by 2013-15, but industry and ...
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USAplans strike-UCAV demonstration
Plans to demonstrate an unmanned combat air-vehicle (UCAV) capable of air-defence suppression and mobile-target attack have been unveiled by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). This is the first major programme to be launched involving UCAVs. A $125 million advanced-technology demonstration is planned by DARPA and ...
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Persistent ambitions
Unmanned combat-aircraft are coming, but they will not be going into battle any time in the too-near future. Harsh lessons learned developing relatively simple and inexpensive unmanned air-vehicles (UAVs) have made manufacturers and operators alike extremely cautious in planning the introduction of more costly and sophisticated uninhabited combat air-vehicles (UCAVs). ...
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GAO hits Outrider
The US General Accounting Office (GAO) is urging the Department of Defense to delay low-rate initial production (LRIP) of the Alliant Techsystems Outrider unmanned air vehicle (UAV) until operational tests prove its effectiveness. The Congressional watchdog agency says that the US military should learn from past UAV efforts, such as ...
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Flattops for the future
Ramon Lopez/NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA The aircraft carriers of tomorrow are beginning to take shape in the minds of US Navy and US industry officials who have been given the job of designing the final Nimitz-class carrier, the CVN-77, and the futuristic CVX - the new class of aircraft ...
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Global Hawk first flight scheduled for November
The Teledyne Ryan Aeronautical Global Hawk high-altitude endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) will have its first flight in late November at Edwards AFB, California, says the company. The first flight of the Tier II Plus Global Hawk, now designated the RQ-4A, was planned for early 1997. The delay ...
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Expanded Helitech
Opening times Helitech '97 will be open on Tuesday, 30 September-Thursday, 2 October: 09.30-18.00; and Friday, 3 October: Kate Sarsfield/London The 7th International Helicopter Technology and Operations Exhibition (Helitech) will host a helicopter industry leaner and more optimistic than it has been in recent ...
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US Army wants Bird Dog UAV to be manned best friend
Ramon Lopez/Fort Eustis The US Army has "re-focused" its Bird Dog unmanned-air-vehicle (UAV) project to demonstrate the capability of advanced manned and unmanned systems to function together effectively on the battlefield. While the Bird Dog project was geared to developing a small, intelligent and fully autonomous ...
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Bell picks Litton to perform USMC cockpit
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Bell Helicopter Textron has chosen Litton Industries to modernise the cockpits of AH-1W and UH-1N helicopters now operated by the US Marine Corps. Litton's Guidance & Control Systems group, located in Northridge, California, was selected in preference to bids by Honeywell, Elbit and ...
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Outrider UAV resumes flight test
ALLIANT TECHSYSTEMS has resumed flight testing of the Outrider tactical unmanned air vehicle (UAV) after a two-week hiatus while improvements were incorporated on the prototypes. It completed the seventh Outrider test flight on 9 August - the third successive flight longer than 20min. During the evaluation at the ...
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Northrop Grumman hawks advanced radars for fighters
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC NORTHROP GRUMMAN is taking orders for improved versions of the APG-66 and APG-68 fire-control radars, according to vice-president for avionics systems James Pitts. The advanced systems include the APG-68 Agile Beam Radar (ABR), the active electronically scanned-array variant of the radar installed in ...
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US military considers civil helicopter lease
The US military is considering leasing civil helicopter services as a substitute for procuring new military rotorcraft. The US Navy's Military Sealift Command plans to launch a competition in fiscal year 1998 for commercially-operated vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of its warships. The contract is designed to meet a projected ...
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Smart wing
Northrop Grumman has received $8 million from the US Air Force under a Smart Materials and Structures Demonstration Smart Wing 2 programme designed to apply the advanced technologies to unmanned aircraft. The contract provides for design, development and test of a Smart Wing model using new technologies. ...
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UK MoD will invite tenders for new IFF programme soon
Douglas Barrie/London The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) is likely to release an invitation to tender for its £500 million ($800 million)-plus next-generation identification-friend-or-foe (IFF) programme within the next two to three months. The Successor IFF (SIFF) project is intended to provide all three armed services ...
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Bombardier builds improved UAV
BOMBARDIER PLANS a September maiden flight of its CL-327 rotary-wing unmanned air-vehicle (UAV), the production version of its vertical take-off and landing CL-227. The Canadian company decided a year ago to launch limited production in a bid to stimulate demand for its much-tested UAV. The production CL-327 has ...
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US Army picks Northrop minefield detector for Bosnian operation
The Northrop Grumman Airborne Standoff Minefield Detection System (ASTAMIDS) is to be sent to Bosnia for three months, says John Martin, a new-business-development manager for the US firm. The ASTAMIDS, which consists of an infra-red (IR) sensor, processor and display station, is designed to survey minefields accurately from ...
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USN takes first steps towards finding Outrider successor
THE US NAVY has notified industry that it will conduct a demonstration of vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicles which might eventually supplement or replace the Alliant Techsystems Outrider Tactical UAV. USN consideration of a maritime VTOL UAV was shelved five years ago because of budget ...