Germany's Rheinmetall Defence Electronics has revealed ambitious plans to offer a future variant of its developmental Taifun lethal unmanned air vehicle equipped with a destructive high-power microwave (HPM) weapon.
Early test activities have been undertaken using a prototype microwave payload, and local suppliers such as Diehl Munitionssysteme and Rheinmetall DeTec could deliver a deployable weapon within the next five to 10 years, given sufficient funding for a technology demonstrator project, says Rheinmetall.
First flown in late 2002, the developmental Taifun will have an endurance of up to 4h with a 50kg (110lb) payload for lethal applications, although the UAV would be recovered if equipped with an HPM system. Rheinmetall aims to deliver its first operational Taifuns to the German army in 2010-11. The company is also developing the KZO medium-range tactical UAV for the service, with first deliveries to start this year.
Rheinmetall is also looking to expand the target set for the Taifun beyond facilities such as command posts and armoured vehicles, and has tested the design's warhead for future use against buildings. A software modification will delay the charge's detonation until inside the structure, removing the need to change the current warhead, says Manfred Lehnigk, the company's head of sales for airborne wide-area reconnaissance systems. The Taifun will also have application for use during the suppression/destruction of enemy air defences through a further software modification, he says.
Other current development activities will lead to the flight test next year of a new infrared payload for the UAV, while a datalink is also slated for future integration.
The company, meanwhile, is also looking at the development of a new UAV equipped with an electronic countermeasures suite for communications jamming tasks. Rheinmetall's previous project to field the Mücke UAV was halted after it experienced difficulties during the integration of mission equipment, including 2m (6.5ft)-long antennas on either side of its fuselage.
Noting that the German armed forces' original requirement for the system has also been refined, Lehnigk says: "We will find some other solution."
Source: Flight International
