Military UAVs – Page 303
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Technical problems put back US Navy CL-327 sea trials
US Navy-sponsored sea trials of Bombardier Services' co-axial rotor CL-327 Guardian vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle (VTOL UAV) have been delayed by at least a month because of technical problems, say USN project officials. The decision to postpone the shipborne flight operations coincides with Bombardier Services' withdrawal ...
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USAF settles on 'waverider' scramjet missile
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC The US military has settled on development of a scramjet-powered "waverider" vehicle as its candidate for an inexpensive hypersonic stand-off missile, according to US Air Force Lt Col Walt Price, the Affordable Rapid Response Missile (ARRM) programme manager. Development of a Mach 6.5tactical missile employing ...
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US Marines get message with Cypher II
Sikorsky Aircraft has received $5.5 million from the US Congress to build two Cypher II unmanned air vehicles (UAVs) with ground control stations, for testing by the US Marine Corps. The contract includes options for another 10 of the all-composite vertical take-off and landing UAV rotorcraft. Dubbed Dragon Warrior by ...
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Bombardier drops UAV bid on eve of sea trials
Ramon Lopez/WASHINGTON DC Bombardier Services has withdrawn from the race to win a US Navy contest to supply a vertical take-off and landing unmanned air vehicle (VTOL UAV). The Canadian company was considered a leading contender for the multi-million dollar programme. The decision to drop out of the ...
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USAF strike studies look beyond B-2
Boeing, Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman are studying concepts for a future strike aircraft (FSA) under a 12-month US Air Force contract. The companies are refining requirements for a strike capability that could replace the USAF's B-1, B-2 and B-52 bombers beyond 2030. The manufacturers are looking at a range ...
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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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Radical reform
The US Air Force is shifting priorities and working on a major facelift of its force structure Graham Warwick/WASHINGTON DC Air power is on the verge of major changes, but it will take time to reshape today's force structure for the realities of expeditionary operations and coalition warfare, ...
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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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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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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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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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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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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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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 ...