Military UAVs – Page 300
-
News
Future shock
The latest gun technology is opening new dimensions in saturation bombing and ballistic missile defence Peter La Franchi/ADELAIDEImagine an airborne gunnery system capable of firing 40mm grenades millions of rounds a minute against ground targets. Australian stock exchange-listed Metal Storm has unveiled concepts for such a futuristic-sounding system. It has ...
-
News
Export conundrum
US industry and military are fighting to reform US export controls to promote competition and coalition operations Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC During the Kosovo conflict, the Italian Coast Guard tried to buy air-sea rescue flares with which to locate downed NATO aircrew. The US manufacturer's request for an export licence was ...
-
News
Reality check
The ability of small air forces to define, develop and maintain a credible level of air combat capability has always been a challenge, but it may be becoming an impossibility if New Zealand's scrapping of its deal with the USA for 28 Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs is anything to go by. ...
-
News
US Navy considers hybrid UAV designs
Unmanned air vehicle (UAV) concepts based on the unconventional CarterCopter (CC), a hybrid autogyro and fixed-wing design, are believed to have been submitted to the US Navy for its Multi-Role Endurance (MRE) UAV contest. Contract bids were due to be submitted by 17 March. Although the bidders are not ...
-
News
Allied Force prompts Joint STARS upgrade
Last year's NATO air war against Yugoslavia has resulted in "quick reaction" modifications to the US Air Force's Northrop Grumman E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS). Meanwhile, Northrop Grumman expects to be under contract next month to begin engineering and manufacturing (EMD) of the Radar Technology ...
-
News
US Army embraces smart cockpit
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US Army is to fit the Rotorcraft Pilot's Associate (RPA) cockpit management system in Boeing AH-64D Apaches being upgraded to Longbow standard. The system is also being considered for a command and control version of the Sikorsky UH-60 Black Hawk and a variant has found a ...
-
News
Joint STARS set for lift with leased powerplant refit
Ramon Lopez/MELBOURNE, FLORIDA Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force plan to replace the ageing powerplants of the E-8C Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System (Joint STARS) aircraft with modern leased engines from 2002. USAF deputy system programme director Ron Mason says Congress has designated Joint STARS "a pilot ...
-
News
F-16 upgrades herald business boom
The fast-developing market for updating cockpits of early model Lockheed Martin F-16s sparked two leading upgrade companies to display programmes at the show. Singapore Technologies Aerospace's (STAe's) Falcon ONE package made its debut and Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) displayed its Air Combat Enhancement (ACE) package. Meanwhile. Lockheed Martin is developing ...
-
News
Dassault reveals future Rafale developments
Dassault Aviation has revealed a model of the Rafale fighter equipped with conformal fuel tanks (CFT) on top of the fuselage in a design similar to that projected for the Lockheed Martin F-16 and Eurofighter Typhoon. The company is also looking at the potential of the aircraft as a flight ...
-
News
Rotary wing UAV unveiled
Asian unmanned aerial vehicle operators are showing interest in a revolutionary helicopter UAV on display for the first time at Asian Aerospace. The Vigilant rotary wing UAV features a fully autonomous capability not fielded on a UAV before, says Jean-Patrick Kaniecki, sales and marketing director, Techno Sud Industries. ...
-
News
New weapons make technology obsolete
Mike Martin Many of today's battlefield systems will be rendered obsolete by 2020 by new weapons systems being developed now, says a report released at the show. The developments pose questions for governments funding systems such as the Boeing Sikorsky RAH-66 Comanche attack helicopter, the Boeing F-22 Raptor ...
-
News
Elbit supplies Hermes UAV to Israeli forces
Elbit Systems and Silver Arrow are supplying the Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) with new Hermes Unmanned Airborne Vehicles (UAVs). The Hermes 450S has an advanced avionics system with GPS navigation, plus features a gimballed electro-optical payload for target detection and recognition. The mobile ground control station (GCS) features ...
-
News
IAI converts technological advantages to record profit
Steve Nichols Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) saw a 26% increase in sales last year which was "unprecedented in IAI's history", says Moshe Keret, the company's president and chief executive. Shimon Eckhaus, vice-president of Marketing at IAI, says these results are the product of steps taken by IAI to ...
-
News
Mergers
BAE Systems North America has acquired California-based Femtometrics, a manufacturer of chemical agent detectors for military personnel. Canadian Marconi has meanwhile been renamed BAE Systems Canada, the Marconi name having been taken by the UK's GEC. Honeywell is selling its RDR1400 and 1500 search and weather radar products to New ...
-
News
US Navy takes first steps towards new UAV
The US Navy is preparing to take the first concrete steps towards defining the requirements for a new medium-altitude, Multi-Role Endurance (MRE) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) capable of being operated from warships. The USN plans by 7 April to award one or more study contracts to evaluate the risks associated ...
-
News
Hornet UAV flight testing takes off
Arie Egozi/TEL AVIV Flight testing of the Israeli-developed Hornet vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) unmanned air vehicle (UAV) is under way. The Hornet is being developed by Aero Design and Development (AD&D). Intended primarily for short-range operation, the UAV can also be used in a manned role as it ...
-
News
DoD perpetuates tactical shortfall
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The US Department of Defense (DoD) is likely to be well short of the number of replacement tactical aircraft and helicopters required to sustain force levels, even if its request for a $13.5 billion rise in its fiscal year 2001 budget is approved. The Pentagon ...
-
News
Broader horizons
Singapore's air force is raising its international profile and cultivating relations with air forces around the world, says defence force chief Gen Bey Soo Khiang Andrzej Jeziorski/SINGAPORE Former US President Theodore Roosevelt famously based his foreign policy on the principle that one should "speak softly and carry a big stick". ...
-
News
US report on Kosovo points out NATO shortcomings
Paul Lewis/WASHINGTON DC The US Department of Defense's report to Congress on its performance in Kosovo's Operation Allied Force has identified the need for improvements in critical areas, including NATO alliance capabilities, command and control (C2), intelligence gathering, precision strike and air defence suppression. The report re-emphasises the ...
-
News
Northrop Grumman wins USN UAV contest
Northrop Grumman's Ryan Aeronautical Center has been picked to supply the US Navy's next tactical vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle. The system will replace AAI/Israel Aircraft Industry Pioneer fixed-wing UAVs. The Programme Executive Office, Cruise Missiles and UAVs, has awarded Northrop Grumman a $94 million engineering and manufacturing ...