UAVs and UCAVs

http://www.defencetalk.com/israel-co...-bomber-24356/

Israel Commissions One Ton UAV Bomber



Jerusalem: A new drone that can remain airborne for more than 24 hours and reach as far as Iran was added Sunday to the Israeli air force's arsenal, the military said.

Described by the army as a "technological breakthrough" the Eitan -- which means strong in Hebrew -- is a Heron-TP type drone with a wingspan of 26 metres (85 feet), similar to that of the Boeing 737.

It is 24 metres (79 feet) long, weighs 4.5 tonnes and can remain in the air for more than 24 hours, enabling it to fly as far as Iran, Israel's arch-foe.

The drone was built by Israel Aerospace Industries in cooperation with the air force and is equipped with radar, cameras and high-tech electronic equipment including mapping devices.

The drone can reach an altitude of 13,000 metres (43,000 feet) and carry payloads of about one tonne.

"This aircraft constitutes a very important turning point in the development of unmanned aircraft," Air Force chief General Ido Nehustan was quoted as saying.

http://www.livemint.com/2010/02/2421...-vehicles.html

New Delhi: Not very long ago, in the Afghan theatre of war, the US Army’s method of clearing caves of bombs was so low-tech that it was practically no-tech: A young soldier with a stick, a gun and a flashlight. “Oh, and he’d have a rope tied around his waist,” Joseph Dyer, a division president of iRobot Inc., says wryly. “So that, you know, if anything went wrong, they could haul him back out.”

In 2004, though, the soldier began to be taken out of the equation. That year, 162 robots were deployed to find and dispose of explosive devices, iRobot’s PackBot among them. It was the start of an unmanned battle thrust that reached its technological apogee in the targeted strikes of armed Predator drones. Last August, a drone strike killed Baitullah Mehsud, a Taliban leader in Pakistan; the drone’s images were so clear, according to one report, that they captured Mehsud’s intravenous drip, from a height of two miles (3.2km), as he rested on his terrace.

The publicity accorded to the US drones—as well as the realization, in hindsight, of how valuable robots could have been during the terrorist attacks of 26/11—ignited interest in unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) at the 2010 Defexpo last week. At the previous Defexpo in 2008, one participant recalls, there were only two or three exhibitors talking about any unmanned vehicles at all. This year, however, scaled-down replicas of UAVs stood on pedestals in nearly every hall, and UGVs conducted demos for surprisingly well-informed visitors.

The philosophy of war, experts agree, is shifting rapidly. Robots, used until recently just to neutralize bombs, are now incorporated into infantry. Last year, in his book Wired for War, a defence scholar Peter Singer outlined a future in which “our wars are…handed over to machines”. Even with present-day technology, casualty rates can be brought down significantly. “We hear a statistic like: 52% of the US Army’s deaths are in the first contact with the enemy,” Dyer says. “And we think: What a great job for robots!”

In front of Dyer’s stall, two of his robots do their thing. The PackBot, which looks like an overhead projector on steroids, has an arm that extends out many feet, ending in a grip that can handle and dismantle bombs. The Negotiator, a flat creature with a glass dome full of circuitry, is a reconnaissance robot that can crawl on its treads into suspicious rooms and send back images. “It would have been ideal for 26/11, in the hotels,” says Guptha Sreekantha, iRobot’s managing director in India.

The National Security Guard is currently testing a PackBot model out, Dyer says. He is one of several exhibitors at the Defexpo to claim that the Indian defence forces have expressed keen interest in unmanned vehicles, a trend that M.M. Pallam Raju, the Union minister of state for defence, confirms. “Our services and intelligence agencies have suddenly realized the value of (UAVs and UGVs),” Raju said on the sidelines of Defexpo.

Analysts such as Bharat Verma, a retired captain and the editor of the Indian Defence Review, cite the same internal and external uses of UAVs that Raju does. “That kind of intelligence is crucial,” Verma says. “We can look inside enemy territory and even see a guy drinking a glass of milk in his house.”

None of the unmanned vehicles being pitched to India is armed, mostly because such sales are restricted by the governments of these foreign manufacturers. Instead, the UAVs at Defexpo were purely surveillance machines.

Sepp Dabringer, Schiebel’s area manager for India, sits next to what he calls his “camcopter”—a white helicopter, not quite as long as a Tata Nano, capable of flying for eight hours within a 50km-radius and returning to land on any flat surface. “We’ve sold 130 of these to 15 countries in the last four years,” Dabringer says. “The German and French navies have bought it, and Boeing sources it from us, paints its name on it, and sells it to the US forces.” Recently, the Indian Navy tested Schiebel’s camcopter, and Dabringer is sounding out the Border Security Force, for whom he insists it is ideal.

More tireless than rotor-winged aircraft such as the camcopter are fixed-wing UAVs, of which the Predator drone is an example. The Defence Research and Development Organisation is, at present, developing its own fixed-wing UAV, the Rustom. The first flight of the Rustom prototype, last November, did not go well; it crashed, after a “misjudgement of altitude”, in an airfield near Hosur, Tamil Nadu.

Elsewhere in the world, UAV development has progressed “in leaps and bounds”, says Woolf Gross, a corporate director at Northrop Grumman Corp. Prices have dropped —into the hundreds of thousands of dollars for UAVs like the camcopter—and the capacity of technology has improved. With Northrop Grumman’s Fire Scout, a rotor-wing UAV, “we could increase the payload from 250 pounds (112.5kg) to 600 pounds just by adding a fourth rotor blade”, he says.

Gross calls the growth of the UAV market over the last five years “exponential”, and like other firms, he admits that Northrop Grumman’s marketing efforts in India accelerated after 26/11. The option to take personnel out of danger is, he says, attractive, but it is only a secondary driving force. The primary appeal of UAVs is their sheer efficacy.

The ease of waging such war has invited some criticism. In his book, Singer worries that such devices can give the impression that war is “costless”.

Dyer of iRobot, however, doesn’t think an army’s human presence can ever be entirely replaced on the battlefield. “In economic terms, this is just a classic technology-for-labour trade,” he says. There are still plenty of tasks robots cannot perform in the near future, “but they can definitely put distances between our soldiers and harm’s way”.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Ba...light_999.html

Bat UAS Completes First Flight



Northrop Grumman has announced that it has flown the first in a new series of Bat unmanned aircraft systems (UAS) in January. Configured with a 12-foot wingspan, the Bat-12 incorporates a highly-reliable Hirth engine as well as a low acoustic signature five-blade propeller.

The new configuration increases the mission portfolio of Northrop Grumman's scalable Bat UAS product line. Northrop Grumman has been engaged in the development of unmanned systems for more than sixty years, delivering more than 100,000 unmanned solutions to military customers across the world.

Since acquiring the Bat product line from Swift Engineering in April 2009, Northrop Grumman has implemented an aggressive demonstration schedule for the Bat family of aircraft to expand flight operations and military utility for numerous tactical missions.

During recent testing, the 12-foot and 10-foot wingspan Bat were each successfully launched from an AAI Shadow UAS launcher and autonomously operated from a single ground control station before recovery via net.

As a communications relay using Northrop Grumman's Software Defined Tactical Radio, Bat has also demonstrated its capacity to provide beyond line-of-sight tactical communications relay for ground forces in denied environments, a critical role in irregular warfare.

Recently, the Bat UAS has been integrated and tested with new payloads and systems including a T2 Delta dual payload micro-gimbal from Goodrich Corporation's Cloud Cap Technology Inc., Sentient Vision Systems' Kestral real-time moving target indicator, and short wave infrared camera from Goodrich. In February, payload integration and testing was expanded to include ImSAR's Nano-SAR-B fused with Cloud Cap's T2 gimbal in a cursor-on-target acquisition mode.

Ideally suited to an irregular warfare environment, Batoffers real-time intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, communications relay, and future capabilities in a modular system that is affordable, organic, persistent, runway independent, and fully autonomous.

Northrop Grumman Corporation is a leading global security company whose 120,000 employees provide innovative systems, products, and solutions in aerospace, electronics, information systems, shipbuilding and technical services to government and commercial customers worldwide.

Bat is a wholly owned trademark of Northrop Grumman Corporation.

http://www.spacedaily.com/reports/Is...omber_999.html

Israel Commissions One Ton UAV Bomber



A new drone that can remain airborne for more than 24 hours and reach as far as Iran was added Sunday to the Israeli air force's
arsenal, the military said.

Described by the army as a "technological breakthrough" the Eitan -- which means strong in Hebrew -- is a Heron-TP type drone with a wingspan of 26 metres (85 feet), similar to that of the Boeing 737.

It is 24 metres (79 feet) long, weighs 4.5 tonnes and can remain in the air for more than 24 hours, enabling it to fly as far as Iran, Israel's arch-foe.

The drone was built by Israel Aerospace Industries in cooperation with the air force and is equipped with radar, cameras and high-tech electronic equipment including mapping devices.

The drone can reach an altitude of 13,000 metres (43,000 feet) and carry payloads of about one tonne.

"This aircraft constitutes a very important turning point in the development of unmanned aircraft," Air Force chief General Ido Nehustan was quoted as saying.

http://www.newsweek.com/id/234114/page/1

Defending Against Drones
How our new favorite weapon in the war on terror could soon be turned against us.



The unmanned spy plane that Lebanon's Hizbullah sent buzzing over Israeli towns in 2005 was loud and weaponless, and carried only a rudimentary camera. But the surprise flight by a regional terror group still worried U.S. analysts, who saw it as a sign that the unmanned vehicles were falling into the wrong hands.


Today that concern appears to have been well founded. At least 40 other countries—from Belarus and Georgia to India, Pakistan, and Russia—have begun to build, buy, and deploy unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, showcasing their efforts at international weapons expos ranging from the premier Paris Air Show to smaller events in Singapore and Bahrain. In the last six months alone, Iran has begun production on a pair of weapons-ready surveillance drones, while China has debuted the Pterodactyl and Sour Dragon, rivals to America's Predator and Global Hawk. All told, two thirds of worldwide investment in unmanned planes in 2010 will be spent by countries other than the United States.

You wouldn't know it to hear U.S. officials talk. Jim Tuttle, the Department of Homeland Security official responsible for safeguarding America against nonnuclear weapons, downplays the idea that drones could be used against us. "What terrorist is going to have a Predator?" he scoffed at a conference last winter. More recently, The Wall Street Journal reported, the U.S. ignored a dangerous flaw in its UAV technology that allowed Iraqi insurgents to tap into the planes' video feeds using $30 software purchased over the Internet.


Such arrogance is setting us up for a fall. Just as we once failed to imagine terrorists using our own commercial aircraft against us, we are now underestimating the threat posed by this new wave of technology. We must prepare for a world in which foreign robotics rivals our own, and terrorists can deliver deadly explosives not just by suicide bomber but also by unmanned machine.

The ease and affordability of such technology, much of which is already available for purchase commercially, means that drones will inevitably pass into the wrong hands, allowing small groups and even individuals to wield power once limited to the world's great militaries. There is, after all, no such thing as a permanent, first-mover advantage—not in technology, and certainly not in war. The British may have invented the tank during World War I, but the Germans wielded it better in the blitzkrieg more than two decades later.

For now, however, America remains at the forefront of the robotics revolution—superiority that has come at considerable effort and expense. We've channeled billions into UAVs, initiating what has been called the largest shift in military tactics, strategy, and doctrine since the invention of gunpowder. This year the Pentagon will buy more unmanned aircraft than manned, and train more UAV pilots than traditional bomber and fighter pilots combined. As Gen. David Petraeus, head of the U.S. Central Command, put it in January, "We can't get enough drones."

But neither can our adversaries—who don't need their own network of satellites and supercomputers to deploy an unmanned plane. Wired magazine editor Chris Anderson built a version of the military's hand-tossed Raven surveillance drone for $1,000, while an Arizona-based anti-immigrant group instituted its own pilotless surveillance system to monitor the U.S.-Mexico border for just $25,000. Hitler's war machine may have lacked the ability to strike the American mainland during World War II. But half a century later, a 77-year-old blind man from Canada designed an unmanned system that in 2003 hopped the Atlantic from Newfoundland to Ireland.

Today, the lag time between the development of military technology and its widespread dissemination is measured in months, not years. Industrial farmers around the world already use aerial drones to dust their crops with pesticides. And a recent U.S. Air Force study concluded that similar systems are "an ideal platform" for dirty bombs containing radioactive, chemical, or biological weapons—the type of WMDs that terrorists are most likely to obtain. Such technologies have the potential to strengthen the hand not only of Al Qaeda 2.0, but also of homegrown terror cells and disaffected loners like Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. As one robotics expert told me, for less than $50,000 "a few amateurs could shut down Manhattan."

The United States has not truly had to think about its air defenses—at home or abroad—since the Cold War. But it's time it did, because our current crop of weapons isn't well suited to dealing with these new systems. Smaller UAVs' cool, battery-powered engines make them difficult to hit with conventional heat-seeking missiles; Patriot missiles can take out UAVs, but at $3 million apiece such protection comes at a very steep price. Even seemingly unsophisticated drones can have a tactical advantage: Hizbullah's primitive planes flew so slowly that Israeli F-16s stalled out trying to decelerate enough to shoot them down.
Click here to find out more!

To succeed in this revolution, we need something many competitor countries already have: a national robotics strategy. That means graduate scholarships, lab funding, and a Silicon Valley–style corridor for corporate development. Otherwise we are destined to depend on the expertise of others. Already a growing number of American defense and technology firms rely on hardware from China and software from India, a clear security concern.

Equally important, we need a military and homeland-security strategy that considers not only how we use these unmanned systems but how others will use them against us. That means widening the threat scenarios our agencies plan and train for. It also means new legal regimes to determine who should have access to such dangerous technologies—lest our greatest new weapon come back to bite us

Current: RQ-11B Raven (AeroVironment)
Sgt. 1st Class Michael Guillory

Habitat: As the most prevalent UAV on the planet, with more than 7,000 units in service, you’d be hard pressed to find any Army combat brigade in Afghanistan or Iraq that doesn’t have one. Behavior: Three feet long and 4.2 pounds, the Raven is typically fitted with an electronically stabilized color video camera or an infrared video camera for night missions, which pan, tilt and zoom digitally to provide ground troops with “situational awareness.” The fleet is getting a digital upgrade that turns each one into a comm relay, effectively extending its six-mile range. Notable Feature: Light and durable, if it crashes, the wings just pop off, and are easily replaced.

Current: Wasp III (AeroVironment)


Habitat: Anywhere U.S. Air Force Special Ops forces might be lurking Behavior: Weighing in at one pound, this hand-launch flying wing is outfitted with a day and night camera and can be programmed to fly an autonomous mission between takeoff and recovery. It flies 20 to 40 mph up to 500 feet, and is meant to be expendable once it gets its eyes on a target. Notable Feature: Its electric, two-bladed propeller makes it sneaky quiet. Its inventory is classified.

Current: Desert Hawk (Lockheed Martin)


Habitat: In the realm of British and American troops in Afghanistan. Behavior: Once it’s chucked into the air, Desert Hawk follows pre-programmed coordinates to give troops an “over-the-hill” view, day or night, up to six miles away. At two pounds (with a collapsible 4.5-foot wingspan), it’s easy to transport. Notable Feature: Built of injection-molded expanded polypropylene and fitted with Kevlar skids, the Desert Hawk is as durable as a Nerf.

Current: MD4-200 (Microdrone)


Habitat: The surrounds of Liverpool, UK, flown by officers of the Mersyside police department’s Anti-social Behavior Task Force. Behavior: The four-rotor design of the battery-powered, carbon-fiber pod, which weighs just 2.2 pounds, allows it to take off and land vertically. Brushless, direct-drive electric motors keep the noise level below 64 decibels, according to the company. Notable Feature: If it loses signal or senses a low battery, it will land itself autonomously rather than crash.

Current: T-Hawk/gMAV (Honeywell)
Specialist 3rd Class Kenneth G. Takada

Habitat: With U.S. Army infantry in Iraq. Behavior: Looking like a mini Webber grill with four coat hangers for landing skids, the VTOL T-Hawk can zip up to 10,000 feet for up to 45 minutes. At 16.5 pounds its backpackable. Notable Feature: Did we mention the Webber grill?

Current: Aerosonde (AAI Corporation)


Habitat: Stormy seas, or any other inhospitable or inaccessible spot scientific researchers want to study up close. Behavior: The first UAV to cross the Atlantic Ocean, back in 1998, the 9.8-foot, 28-pound research craft can fly up to 30 hours on a single tank of gas. In 2007 it delivered unprecedented weather readings from Hurricane Noel, loitering as low as 300 feet above the surface, and streaming data for more than seven hours before it was ditched in the ocean. Notable Feature: The inverted V tail combines functions of what would be the horizontal and vertical parts of the tail wing, saving weight. It has one horsepower.

Current: FINDER (Naval Research Laboratory)


Habitat: The wing-mounted weapons pylons beneath Predator drones, from which it is launched. Behavior: About the size of Nicole Richie, at 5-foot-3 and 58 pounds, the FINDER, or Flight Inserted Detection Expendable for Reconnaissance, it can be flown via the Predator controls and directed to a smoke plume to sniff out chemical weapons or under a cloud bank to get a closer view of a potential target. Notable Feature: It launches like a rocket, and then its wings unfold. Plus, it’s a drone launched by another drone—spooky.

Current: ScanEagle (Insitu)
Gunnery Sergeant Shannon Arledge

Habitat: With Marine Corps troops in Iraq or aboard U.S. Navy ships anywhere in the world. Behavior: It’s about 40 pounds and four-feet long with a 10.2-foot wingspan, and is powered by a gasoline engine for 15 hours. Its catapult launch makes it ideal for tight spaces, like the deck of the ship that rescued Capt. Richard Phillips from Somali pirates last April. Notable Feature: To land, the ScanEagle’s navigation points it toward a sky hook that snares it out of the sky.

Current: RQ-7 Shadow (AAI)


Habitat: Iraq and Afghanistan, where Army battalions need tactical surveillance. It has flown hundreds of thousands of hours. Behavior: It launches from a catapult, can stay aloft for five to six hours up to 14,000 feet, and lands autonomously on wheels, with the help of a net. It’s a little more than 11 feet long, weighs 375 pounds and has a wingspan of 14 feet. Notable Feature: With its infrared illuminator, it can laser-pinpoint targets for laser-guided missiles and bombs.

Current: Heron (Israeli Aerospace Industries)
SSGT REYNALDO RAMON, USAF

Habitat: Watching over Israel, patrolling India’s borders with Pakistan and China, looking for drug traffickers in El Salvador, and dozens of other missions around the globe, where the unarmed surveillance craft is used by countries importing it from Israel. Behavior: With a 54-foot wingspan and max altitude ceiling of 30,000 feet, the Heron uses an advanced collection of sensors to stream data to its handlers. It can stay aloft for 52 hours. Notable Feature: I can take off and land autonomously, even in poor weather conditions.