WILLIAMS International hopes to outfit the Lockheed Martin/Boeing DarkStar high-altitude-endurance unmanned air vehicle (UAV) with a more powerful turbofan engine, and to replace Teledyne Continental as the powerplant vendor for the Joint Air-to-Surface Stand-off Missile (JASSM).
The Walled Lake, Michigan, engine maker is suggesting the Tier III Minus UAV engine upgrade to the US Department of Defense and the prime contractor.
Meanwhile, it is offering the Pentagon, and the ultimate JASSM winner, an advanced turbofan powerplant now in development. The new engine would replace the Teledyne Continental J402 turbojet engine which McDonnell Douglas (MDC) and Lockheed Martin - the JASSM finalists - are believed to have picked for their JASSM candidates.
The JASSM project involves production of at least 2,400 missiles. The idea is to keep costs down by using off-the-shelf components such as the J402, which powers the McDonnell Douglas Standoff Land Attack Missile (SLAM), a derivative of the Harpoon missile.
Williams International believes that JASSM performance requirements already require a modern powerplant and that the JASSM winner should drop the J402. Although not yet a "mature" engine, the advanced powerplant's certification programme matches the schedule of the JASSM project, officials says.
The DarkStar is now powered by an 8.5kN (1,900lb)-thrust Williams-Rolls FJ44-1A turbofan. Williams International believes that substitution of the in-development 10kN (2,300lb)-thrust FJ44-2A would give the 21m-span single-engine stealthy drone "significantly increased" performance.
The UAV is already designed to be operated well above 45,000ft (13,700m) on reconnaissance missions of 8h or longer. Raytheon Aircraft's Premier I business jet will have two FJ44-2As installed.
Source: Flight International
