Officials consider accelerating programme as contest for new models is narrowed

 Boeing/SAIC has narrowed the competition to develop two new classes of small unmanned air vehicle for the US Army’s Future Combat Systems (FCS) programme, while a decision on a third category is imminent.

With the Class I, II and III UAV development programmes moving forward, army officials are debating whether to accelerate first delivery of most of the FCS UAVs by four years to 2010, says Mark Franzblau, Boeing’s UAV director for the programme.

Candidates for early production are the Class I platoon-level micro-UAV, the battalion-level Class III system and the division-level Northrop Grumman RQ-8B Fire Scout Class IV UAV. However, the company-level Class II UAV has a longer development timescale and will not be accelerated.

Boeing/SAIC on 26 July announced a downselect to one bidder for the Class II UAV and to three competitors for the Class III requirement, launching both efforts towards three-phase development programmes. Piasecki Aircraft’s Air Guard – a miniature, unmanned version of the company’s PA-59K Flying Geep – is proceeding into the Class II development phase alone. Company vice-president John Piasecki describes the Air Guard as a tandem shrouded-rotor vehicle that differs from a ducted-fan UAV because it cannot transition into lifting forward flight.

Piasecki’s Air Guard has also been selected for the Class III contest, along with AAI’s Shadow III and Teledyne Brown Engineering’s Prospector – a US-marketed version of the KZO/Taifun UAV developed by Germany’s Rheinmetall Defence Electronics.

The US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is developing alternate vehicles in both categories under its organic air vehicle (OAV) programme, and these may be competed against the Boeing/SAIC-selected systems from 2008. Meanwhile, the FCS programme’s Class I micro-UAV is facing a go-ahead decision late this month, says Franzblau. So far funded by DARPA, the system is a Honeywell ducted-fan micro air vehicle that has now completed more than 100h of untethered flight tests. Honeywell is scheduled to stage a pre-experimentation test phase at Fort Benning, Georgia this month, with the test results key to the go-ahead decision.

  •  BAE Systems is continuing to develop its family of ducted-fan, vertical take-off and landing tactical UAVs despite its elimination from DARPA’s Class II OAV contest earlier this year, says platform systems director of business development Tom Hyde. The company is flight testing its fourth and largest prototype of the design, which has an 865mm (34in) external duct diameter, a 710mm fan and features removable wings not required for flight control. The UAV’s sensor payload is mounted on a pylon above its engine duct.

STEPHEN TRIMBLE/WASHINGTON DC

ADDITIONAL REPORTING BY PETER LA FRANCHI IN CANBERRA

Source: Flight International

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