The UK has provided further details of a project that may lead to unmanned combat air vehicles replacing its Panavia Tornado GR4s. The Ministry of Defence is pursuing a twin-track strategy under the Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicles (Experiment) or SUAVE project, including government-to-government involvement in the USA’s Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems (J-UCAS) project and national research, writes Craig Hoyle.
J-UCAS involvement will focus on network-centric warfare and command and control issues and provide “valuable insight into US thinking”, says Air Cdre Andy Sweetman, SUAVE integrated project team leader.
The UK will investigate air vehicle performance, plus avionics, sensors, communications, payloads and airspace integration. This “will demonstrate the feasibility, utility and cost-effectiveness of strategic UAVs in the future UK force mix”, Sweetman told the Royal Aeronautical Society’s Critical Issues for UAV Systems conference last week.
Source: Flight International
