PAUL LEWIS / WASHINGTON DC
Arming existing UAVs and recommissioning retired armed drones among short-term combat solutions
The US Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD) is establishing a new joint services task force to better map out the future introduction and integration of unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV). It will also consider near-term solutions for requirements emerging from the war in Afghanistan .
Ron Mutzelburg, OSD deputy director for air warfare, says that the conflict has resulted in a number of "wild card ideas" that could serve as an interim substitute for UCAVs, which are not expected to be fielded before 2010. The options being studied by the task force are:
arming other types of unmanned air vehicles (UAV), in addition to the General Atomics RQ-1A Predator; recommissioning retired armed drones such as the Teledyne Ryan BQM-34A Firebee and BQM-145; converting target drone aircraft for armed missions.The Afghanistan conflict has already seen the combat debut of Predator, armed with two Lockheed Martin Hellfire anti-tankmissiles, and there is US Air Force interest in the larger turbofan-powered Predator B version capable of carrying additional ordinance. The US Army is also to test the Northrop Grumman Brilliant Anti-Tank submunition on the Israel Aircraft Industries Hunter UAV.
There is renewed attention on drone systems developed in the early 1970s, which were the first to prove the concept of arming unmanned vehicles.
The BQM-34 was developed to be air launched from a Lockheed Martin DC-130E and in turn carried an AGM-65 Maverick air-to-surface missile. There are limitations, according to George Muellner, Boeing Phantom Works president, in that they were "not really UAVs, but remotely piloted vehicles", requiring a man constantly in the loop as well as the need for airborne deployment and recovery.
Private proposals have already been tabled to convert the Rockwell O/A-10 into a UCAV for close air support or strike, but these do not appear to have won any support. The USAF is facing a growing shortage of McDonnell Douglas QF-4 drones, and the modification of stored Lockheed Martin F-16As is being considered and a UCAV version has been proposed.
Longer term, the task force must formulate an acquisition strategy around 2004-5 for USAF UCAV and US Navy UCAV-N programmes. Both are the subject of Defense Advanced Research Project Agency-funded advanced technology demonstrations and, while the former has progressed further than the latter, they could be combined.
Source: Flight International
