A COMPETITIVE fly-off between the TRW/Israel Aircraft Industries Hunter short-range unmanned air-vehicle (UAV) and the General Atomics Tier II Predator UAV scheduled for October has slipped into early 1996 because of the unavailability of flight-test vehicles.
The Hunter is under fire from US Navy opponents who instead favour deployment of the Predator on USN warships. The Pentagon set an October fly-off "...to give Hunter a chance to dig itself out of a hole", say sources.
US Army Col Paul Tanquay, Joint Tactical UAV programme manager, instead describes the operational flight evaluation as "...an effort to show performance parameters of Hunter and Predator and the synergism of various UAV systems".
The demonstration was delayed because the Hunter remains grounded, pending completion of an investigation into three Hunter testing mishaps in August. On 23 August, a Hunter crashed near Ft Huachuca, Arizona. Previously, two other Hunters suffered minor damage during testing.
No Predators are available for the fly-off because they are being used to support NATO operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Two of five Predators to have been sent there have been lost.
It was decided in June to use the Predator to improve intelligence-gathering over Bosnia.
Its predecessor, the General Atomics Gnat 750, was previously used by US intelligence agencies to conduct spy operations over the war-torn area. In 1994, the Pentagon awarded General Atomics a $32 million contract to build ten Predators and three ground-control stations.
US lawmakers recently voted to give the Pentagon additional fiscal year 1996 funding to replace the lost Predators. They specify, however, that the funds cannot be used to develop a marinised Predator variant for the Navy.
Source: Flight International
