Aviation Week has 3 articles (reproduced below) on the increased military use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, or Drones) that is being envisaged in a multiplicity of roles.

Predator Execs Eye Global Expansion
By David Fulghum | 14 August 2009

Avenger (Photo: General Atomics)

There is a sleeper in the race for fielding more unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capability worldwide — General Atomics Aeronautical Systems is already flying a reduced-signature Predator C and the company is looking to bank its existing gains.

“They already have the ground stations and infrastructure in place. Predator C plugs right into that,” says General Atomics chief Tom Cassidy. “Right now there is no prohibition about selling Predator C overseas to NATO countries, Japan or Australia. The entire Predator family is in Missile Technology Control Regime category one.”

The new Predator C has a turbojet engine with hidden exhaust and recessed air intakes, swept wings and V-tail for redirecting radar reflections, and some shaping. Depending on how much a customer wants to spend, the signature can be reduced to the point that by using standoff weapons and cooperative tactics with other aircraft, even advanced air defenses can be finessed and avoided.

The capability is making it interesting to the U.S. Navy, Britain and Italy, and widespread interest in what could be a cheaper, modular, alternative to other stealth designs begs the question of how many different missions the new aircraft could address.

The issue would turn around increasing capabilities without the design becoming too large, slow, expensive and vulnerable.

“Ballistic missile defense is another area we’re looking hard at,” Cassidy tells Aviation Week. “Boost-phase intercept [would be possible] by carrying an interceptor missile that would be cued by other detection devices, as well as an onboard sensor. Or the UAV sensors could cue ground-based or shipboard interceptor missiles. It could go both ways.”

An Aegis-based Standard Missile-3 already has destroyed an ailing U.S. intelligence satellite in orbit. Raytheon is being eyed as the source of an air-launched interceptor missile — a longer-range, faster variant of its AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile.

“We’re looking at Predator C as a player in that,” Cassidy says. In addition, “We could do a lot of the signals intelligence and electronic attack mission from the Predator C since the EA-6Bs are going away. We’re putting 45 KVA [kilovolt-ampere] generators on the Predator B. That’s plenty of electric power to hang jammers on the wings. Predator C would be a natural for that too. We have not decided what level of electric power we will have on the Predator C. We’ll see what kind of new jammer capabilities are out there.”

Predator C illustrations have shown it with a tailhook and folding wings, which indicates an anticipated role on aircraft carriers.

“The Navy has an interest in Predator C,” Cassidy asserts. “We can make it carrier-suitable. We just have to beef up the landing gear, put a tailhook on it and add a nose tow for the catapult. The control system and throttle response is adequate.”

There also is a move to promote modularity and flexibility of payloads and weapons with interchangeable wings.

“We’re looking at the inner-wing box and how the outer panels attach to it,” he says. “We have a wing fold there and we can put on alternative outer wing panels with a several-foot wing tip extension to get longer endurance out of the airplane. It will take a few knots off the top-end speed as a tradeoff for a couple of hours extra endurance.” 

U.S. Navy Plans Worldwide Basing Of UAVs
By David A. Fulghum | 13 August 2009

Global Hawk (Photo: Northrop Grumman)

WEBSTER FIELD, Md. — A huge problem remains for the U.S. Navy and Air Force in positioning their unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) force so that all warfighters have at least an unmanned ISR and possibly a strike capability to call on at any time.

An area of key concern is the Pacific, where bases are few.

“We’re working closely with the operational community in establishing how we’re going to field and integrate BAMS [RQ-4N Broad Area Maritime Surveillance System] into the Navy and [establish a] joint operational construct with the Air Force,” says Navy Capt. Bob Dishman, program manager for BAMs. “On the Navy side, the P-3 community is going to carry the BAMS capability. They’ll transition from their manned [P-3] truck of the last 30-40 years into the P-8A and at the same time integrate [the BAMS] unmanned system. At the same time we’ll have some joint basing and training opportunities to leverage the investment made by the Air Force in infrastructure.”

At full operational capability, the Navy will operate five orbits worldwide, Dishman says. Notionally, each numbered fleet commander will have a BAMS unit to deploy. The fleets so equipped will include 2nd (East Coast), 3rd (West Coast), 6th (Mediterranean), 7th (Western Pacific) and 5th (Arabian Gulf supporting NavCent). They will be aligned with the P-8A fleet as it is introduced into two main operating bases in the U.S. and three primary deployment sites overseas.

A recent change in the Navy’s concept of operation will have all the BAMS ground stations in the U.S. instead of deployed overseas at the tactical support centers, Dishman says. The ground stations will be co-located with fleet concentration areas in the U.S., including Jacksonville, Fla. (2nd and 6th Fleet orbits), Whidbey Island, Wash. (3rd, 5th and 7th Fleet orbits) and Point Mugu, Calif. Point Mugu will offer a high concentration of reservist manpower in the Los Angeles area, unused facilities and access to the Point Mugu and China Lake weapons ranges. There are P-3 reserve squadrons already there.

Two other bases being considered for joint Navy and Air Force operational hubs at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam and Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy and, possibly Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Dishman says. There also are conversation on-going about the two services consolidating training, maintenance and hangar space programs.

“BAMS [initially] will be a 3rd [West Coast] and 7th Fleet [Western Pacific] asset,” says Rear Adm. Bill Shannon, program executive officer for unmanned aviation and strike weapons. “Each [fleet commander] will have access to an orbit 24/7. We’ll have four air vehicles for each of them. Requirements are that they are in the air, providing an orbit with 80 percent probability.”

P-8As and BAMS will only be part of the surveillance formula. Amphibious ships such as LHAs will have smaller STUAS-class (Small Tactical Unmanned Aerial System) aircraft — which are currently in source selection. Smaller destroyers with no hangars will carry a scaled-down version called STUAS-light that is about the size of the Boeing ScanEagle.

“There is a confluence of requirements to rationalize, so there is a need to make use of existing facilities that may be underutilized [for example] having Air Force Global Hawks and Navy BAMS stationed and maintained together,” says Gary Kessler, deputy program executive officer for unmanned aviation.

Two Designs for USMC Unmanned Cargo Lift
By Paul McLeary | 12 August 2009

A160T Hummingbird (Photo: Boeing)

The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory has whittled down prospective bidders for its unmanned cargo lift contract to two competitors: the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-MAX helicopter.

Eliminated from the competition are the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout and the MMIST SnowGoose.

The Marines are looking for an unmanned air vehicle that can resupply its troops in austere locations in Afghanistan and can deliver at least 2,500 pounds of cargo in less than six hours for three consecutive days. The original request for proposals called for the autonomous cargo platform to be capable of lifting 750-1,000 pounds of cargo (or 10,000 pounds of cargo in a 24-hour period) while flying at a 12,000-feet density altitude, and be able to reach 15,000 feet with a full cargo load while maintaining a 70-knot airspeed on a 150-nautical mile round trip.

As part of the downselect to two competitors, Boeing received $500,000 and the Lockheed/Kaman team $860,000 to demonstrate their designs by February 2010. Following that, if there is a clear winner and a vehicle ready to be deployed, the Marines will issue a contract for immediate deployment to Afghanistan.

The announcement was expected in mid-July, but it came at the start of the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International’s trade show in and around Washington, D.C., this week.

The Marine demonstration is relatively modest in its ambitions, but at least one bidder believes unmanned systems could turn the battlefield logistics equation on its head, making cargo delivery by air more cost-effective than by ground.

The U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory has whittled down prospective bidders for its unmanned cargo lift contract to two competitors: the Boeing A160T Hummingbird and the Lockheed Martin/Kaman K-MAX helicopter.

Eliminated from the competition are the Northrop Grumman MQ-8B Fire Scout and the MMIST SnowGoose.

The Marines are looking for an unmanned air vehicle that can resupply its troops in austere locations in Afghanistan and can deliver at least 2,500 pounds of cargo in less than six hours for three consecutive days. The original request for proposals called for the autonomous cargo platform to be capable of lifting 750-1,000 pounds of cargo (or 10,000 pounds of cargo in a 24-hour period) while flying at a 12,000-feet density altitude, and be able to reach 15,000 feet with a full cargo load while maintaining a 70-knot airspeed on a 150-nautical mile round trip.