Possible UAV replacement for Canberra reconnaissance aircraft shows capabilities with Goodrich sensor system
The UK Ministry of Defence was late last week scheduled to complete initial flight trials of a General Atomics Predator B unmanned air vehicle with the Goodrich DB-110 photo-reconnaissance system, as part of demonstrations to support its future long-range, long-endurance (LRLE) reconnaissance requirement, also referred to as project Dabinett.
Expected to replace the UK Royal Air Force's fleet of English Electric Canberra PR9 photo-reconnaissance aircraft, which will be retired from service in March 2006, the LRLE concept was the subject of flight trials in the USA involving the UK's Joint UAV Experimentation Programme (JUEP) organisation.
Sources close to the trials programme say the evaluation of the DB-110 - that was integrated into a modified US Air National Guard F-16 pod - have produced good results, with the system's datalink used to transfer real-time images to the ground. Near real-time information was also relayed back to the UK's Air Warfare Centre at RAF Waddington.
Dubbed "Falcon Prowl", the project involved the installation of a DB-110 pod under the port wing of a Predator B UAV, which was also equipped with General Atomics' Lynx synthetic-aperture radar sensor. The 544kg (1,200lb) DB-110 pod was balanced by adding 135kg of fuel to the UAV's opposite outer-wing tank, although future use of the payload could see the addition of a cross-cued signals intelligence (SIGINT) payload fitted under an opposite wing pylon.
Another possibility is to install systems such as the DB-110 or SIGINT payload within a modular centreline pod, says the JUEP, which now hopes to test the DB-110/Predator B combination in a major exercise. The DB-110 sensor is at the heart of the UK's Raptor reconnaissance pod, which made its service debut with the RAF's Panavia Tornado GR4 fleet ahead of the second Gulf War.
Now nearing the end of its second year of activities, the JUEP will conduct maritime trials off Benbecula, Scotland using the Boeing Scan Eagle UAV from late this month under a trials programme headed by Thales UK (Flight International, 25-31 January).
CRAIG HOYLE / LONDON
Source: Flight International
