The USA is exploring an alternative global strike architecture that would provide high resolution surveillance and reconnaissance imagery of potential targets anywhere on the surface of the planet within 1h and the ability to engage them with conventional weapons within a further 60min.
The new conventional rapid reaction architecture, based on the launch and deployment of unmanned air vehicles and smart weapons via intercontinental ballistic missiles, is currently the subject of parallel study efforts by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and the US Air Force.
Initial demonstrations of surveillance and reconnaissance elements of the architecture are feasible within five years, and if progressed into a full scale capability could represent a fundamental shift in how the USA applies global military power by 2020.
The new architecture would also be likely to have a major impact on programmes such as the replacement of the existing US ballistic missile inventory and the air force's future bomber. The USAF currently plans to introduce a subsonic manned bomber after 2018 (Flight International, 8-14 May), while US Strategic Command is continuing to explore a conventional strike missile likely to be based on the Orbital Sciences Minotaur IV and with a wide variety of warheads under review.
The rapid reaction global surveillance and reconnaissance component is the focus of a new-start technology demonstration programme launched by DARPA. The "Rapid Eye" system would use a folding- or inflatable-wing high-altitude, long-endurance UAV deployed via ballistic missile or a commercial launch vehicle. The UAV would be housed in a re-entry vehicle to provide protection during the deceleration phases of flight, before opening at altitude to allow the UAV enough time to extend its airframe and take up station at around 50,000-60,000ft (15,000-18,000m) for up to 7h. The air vehicle's payload would comprise surveillance sensors and a communications package nominally weighing around 225kg (500lb).
The Rapid Eye concept has close parallels to extensive work already carried out by NASA for its proposed Mars aircraft programme and could potentially also leverage previous studies by the agency in co-operation with firms such as Aurora Flight Sciences. Inflatable-wing UAVs have been extensively studied by NASA and private sector researchers, with some flight testing of tactical-class aircraft carried out in unrelated development efforts over the past decade.
DARPA's Tactical Technology Office plans initial outlays of $4.5 million during the coming fiscal year on the Rapid Eye concept, with a US-only industry briefing to be held in Washington DC on 25 July. Follow-on funding of $7.5 million is planned for FY2009.
Industry notes released by DARPA describe Rapid Eye as "an exploratory development programme with the overall goal of developing and demonstrating the ability to deliver a persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability anywhere on the globe within 1h and remain on-station until relieved or the mission is completed." It adds that the programme should "at a minimum, develop and demonstrate all the technologies necessary for the rocket delivery of a HALE UAV".
DARPA says it wants to use the Rapid Eye programme to identify affordable and robust system architectures, demonstrate an experimental capability and reduce technology risks. Key enabling technologies are identified as "low ballistic coefficient aerodynamic decelerators low stored volume, deployable UAV structures and high efficiency propulsion systems for vehicles operating at high altitudes". However, lighter-than-air craft have been specifically excluded.
The initial programme phase would see technology evaluation and conceptual system definition studies, culminating in system requirements and conceptual design reviews. This would be followed by a risk-reduction and mitigation testing phase which would incorporate scaled testing of critical subsystems, ending with a preliminary design review. A third phase would comprise a critical design review, while the fourth and final element would see "fabrication, assembly, systems integration and flight test evaluation of the complete demonstration system," says DARPA.
The Rapid Eye launcher is expected to be either already in the US inventory or be available by the end of 2009, and require minimal changes. The conventional weapon strike capability is based on Orbital's Minotaur launch vehicle derivative of the US Minuteman III ICBM, carrying multiple Textron Defense Systems BLU-108 sensor-fuzed submunitions.
The USAF's Space and Missile Systems Center last month awarded study contracts totalling $17 million to Boeing and Northrop Grumman Space and Mission Systems to conduct parametric design studies of a delivery vehicle and mission and programme options analyses. The parallel studies, which run until June 2009, both emphasise "maximum use of existing system elements...to reduce the cost and development risk associated with a future acquisition".
Source: Flight International
