Manufacturer beats Northrop Grumman and will fly ScanEagle in sea trials next year
A Thales UK-led industry team is to conduct maritime demonstrations of the ScanEagle unmanned air vehicle under a new contract with the UK Ministry of Defence's Joint UAV Experimentation Programme (JUEP) office.
Also comprising Boeing and Qinetiq, the team's ScanEagle proposal was picked ahead of an offer from Northrop Grumman based on the US company's RQ-8 Firescout vertical take-off and landing UAV.
Thales also this year defeated Northrop Grumman to win the UK's Watchkeeper intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance UAV contest.
Thales expects to sign a contract for the Watchkeeper deal, worth around £800 million ($1.5 billion), early next year. The system is expected to include a mix of Hermes 180 and Hermes 450 air vehicles developed by Elbit Systems of Israel's Silver Arrow subsidiary.
Forming part of the JUEP's second year of trials activities, the maritime UAV demonstrations will culminate with the ScanEagle coming under third-party control from a UK Royal Navy Westland Sea King ASaC7 airborne surveillance and area control helicopter. The embarked trials programme - which initially attracted responses from 38 companies - will conclude by 1 April 2005 (Flight International, 20-26 April).
Highlighting the programme's planned demonstration of third-party control, Thales Aerospace UK managing director Richard Deakin says: "We hope this win will position us well on the UK's future Maritime Airborne Surveillance and Control (MASC) programme". Currently in its concept phase, the MASC project seeks to select a replacement for the Royal Navy's ASaC fleet, which is equipped with Thales mission systems including the Searchwater 2000 maritime surveillance radar.
In a separate development, the UK's Frazer-Nash Consultancy was last month selected by the MoD to assess launch technologies for use during the future deployment of UAVs and manned aircraft from a range of surface ships. The study will look at a "number of competing technologies", it says.
CRAIG HOYLE / LONDON
Source: Flight International
