All Military UAVs articles – Page 319
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Kentron flight tests new laser-designator pod
Kentron of South Africa is working on an aircraft laser-designator pod. A test version is already undergoing preliminary flying trials. The pod, which is fitted with a forward-looking infra-red sensor and laser designator, is designated the KZ2, and draws on company technology initially developed for reconnaissance and target-location ...
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Overweight Outrider TUAV finally flies
The Alliant Techsystems Outrider Tactical Unmanned Air Vehicle (TUAV) was flown for the first time on 7 March, five months behind schedule. The prototype has also suffered from significant weight growth which has substantially reduced its endurance. Successful testing of the Outrider was carried out at the municipal ...
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BAe/Westland study AEW needs-
British Aerospace is proposing an aircraft wingtip-mounted synthetic-aperture radar to meet the Royal Navy's Future Organic Airborne-Early-Warning (FOAEW) requirement, while GKNWestland is looking at a compound-lift variant of the Westland/Agusta EH101 Merlin as an AEW platform for the RN's proposed future carrier. BAe has carried out windtunnel tests ...
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Sundstrand gears up for TJ-50
Sundstrand Power Systems is planning to mass-produce a 0.22kN (50lb)-thrust turbojet ,which it believes will have applications for target drones, decoys, unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) and even missiles. "The engine is virtually creating its own market," says Sundstrand, which developed the low-cost TJ-50 through the US Advanced Research ...
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DARPA selects three to research cruise missile project
The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has selected Texas Instruments, Boeing North American and Toyon Research to undertake year-long research studies on low-cost, cruise-missile defence systems. Texas Instruments, Boeing North American and Toyon Research of Goleta, California, have received $1 million, $182,500 and $848,500, respectively, to ...
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Alliant protests over USAF WCMD choice
Alliant Techsystems is contesting the US Air Force's selection of Lockheed Martin to produce 40,000 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMDs), worth $500 million. The US defence contractor has lodged an official protest with the US General Accounting Office (GAO), citing questions about the USAF's cost evaluation. As is ...
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US Air Force launches its first Titan 4B from Cape Canaveral
The first uprated Titan 4 booster was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on 22 February, carrying a US Air Force Defense Space programme missile early-warning satellite into geostationary orbit (GEO). The $200 million, TRW-built DSP was boosted into its final orbit by the Boeing IUS upper stage. The ...
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Pentagon to hold talks with Europe on UAVs
The US Department of Defense (DoD) is to hold talks in April with France, Germany and the UK over possible involvement in the next phases of the high-altitude-endurance unmanned air vehicle (HAE UAV) and other programmes now being pursued under its new advanced-concept-technology demonstration (ACTD) initiative. Paul Kaminski, ...
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Evergreen picks up USN demonstration
The US Navy's Military Sealift Command (MSC) has selected operator Evergreen Helicopters, rather than Kaman Aerospace, for further civil-helicopter demonstrations of commercially operated vertical replenishment (VERTREP) of warships. Kaman's K-MAX was used successfully to demonstrate the concept over the past two years, but the MSC says that it ...
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Netherlands deploys interim F-16 reconnaissance system
The Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNAF) has begun evaluation tests of the medium-altitude reconnaissance system (MARS), which it intends to deploy with its dedicated Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon reconnaissance squadron. The MARS pod is intended to provide an interim medium-level reconnaissance capability, supplanting the ageing Orpheus pod, ...
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Schweizer develops unmanned helicopter
US manufacturer Schweizer Aircraft and its Japanese distributor, Kawada Industries, have teamed to develop an unmanned derivative of the Schweizer 300 single-piston light helicopter. According to vice-president and assistant general manager of Kawada's aviation division, Tadahiro Kawada, the "RoboCopter 300" is "basically a standard Schweizer 300CB with three-axis-gyro ...
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Dynamic Avalon
A series of notable current Australasian civil- and military-aviation competitions virtually guarantees that the Australian International Airshows DownUnder at Avalon Airport, near Melbourne, will be a dynamic event in industry terms. The Australian Defence Force (ADF) has recently named Kaman as its preferred bidder for medium shipboard helicopters, ...
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Lockheed Martin wins $500 million Wind Dispenser contract
Lockheed Martin has beaten Alliant Techsystems to provide the US Air Force with 40,000 Wind Corrected Munitions Dispensers (WCMD), a contract totalling about $500 million. The Pentagon awarded the firm an initial $22 million on 27 January for pilot production of 190 units. The bomb kit, which will ...
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Belgian UAV growth
Belgium has approved army plans to replace Epervier unmanned reconnaissance aircraft by 2002 and extend the army division's surveillance capability from 30km (16nm) to 80km by 2002. Source: Flight International
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Moving on up
The word "rebuilding" is likely to crop up frequently in conversations at the Helicopter Association International's Heli-Expo '97 (2-4 February, Anaheim, California). Manufacturers will be talking about rebuilding business post-recession, while the HAI itself will be addressing the problem of "phoenix", or rebuilt, aircraft. According to HAI president ...
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Lockheed studies unmanned F-16
LOCKHEED MARTIN IS proposing a demonstration of automatic in-flight refuelling as the first step towards developing an unmanned tactical aircraft based on the F-16. Modified F-16s are being studied to meet emerging US requirements for a new class of aircraft called uninhabited combat air-vehicles (UCAVs) One ...
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Joint endeavours
Col Ben Robinson, commander of the USAir Force's 93rd Air Expeditionary Group (Provisional) says: "We shoot no missiles; we carry no cargo; our only product is information; and information dominance is the key to success." The system which brings so much to the modern battlefield without firing a shot is ...
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EELV engine passes key test
Full-scale propellant injector and thrust-chamber tests of the first-stage engine of the McDonnell Douglas (MDC) Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) candidate vehicle have been completed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, Alabama, marking a major milestone in the programme. The 2,850kN (640,500lb)-thrust RS-68 liquid-oxygen/liquid-hydrogen (LOX/LH) cryogenic main engine ...
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DarkStar flight tests will be resumed in mid-year
Flight testing of the stealthy Lockheed Martin/ Boeing DarkStar long-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) will resume in the second or third quarter of 1997, once the second prototype is completed. Two further DarkStar systems, including two UAVs and associated payloads, are also being built. They will be delivered ...
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Joint-stars delivery
Northrop Grumman has delivered the second production E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System (J-STARS) to the US Air Force. It joins the first production J-STARS aircraft now flying missions in support of NATO in Bosnia. Source: Flight International