helping you keep an eye on things...
Military applications
There are a many military applications for the Unmanned Air Vehicles: from enemy surveillance, sniper location, artillery target identification, damage assessment, signals interception to the dropping of small bombs and firing of small missiles...
from www.amtjets.com hotspot3.jpg
At Barnard Microsystems Limited we are developing Unmanned Aircraft systems to be used by soldiers to detect threats to military personnel. This work is being performed as our entry in the U.K. Ministry of Defence Grand Challenge 2008, and is funded by the U.K. MoD. The threats we are working on detecting are as follows:
- snipers
- Improvised Explosive Devices
- armed personnel
- a heavy weapon on the back of a truck
See Grand Challenge for more information on our activities in this area.
Many of the very high performance systems being developed for geophysical applications could also be used in a security, or, in a military application. If you have a military, or, security application you would like to discuss with us, please contact us.
By Arie Egozi
Future manned aircraft procurement programmes will have to be adjusted based on the capabilities of advanced unmanned aircraft vehicles now under development, the Israeli air force admits.
Most of the UAVs under development in Israel and in use with the IAF are highly classified, and will stay that way for years to come. "The UAVs that the Israeli armed forces are using on a daily basis are a super force multiplier," says a senior source at the Israeli ministry of defence, adding that some of the programmes make UAVs "not just a substitute for manned aircraft, but a tool with dramatically enhanced capabilities".
Investment
In addition to programmes funded by the MoD, Israel's two main manufacturers, Elbit Systems and the Malat division of Israel Aerospace Industries, are investing their own research and development money in advanced UAV systems. One partially unclassified project is IAI's Heron 2 or Heron TP. The IAF is test flying this large UAV, which it has dubbed "Eitan". According to an IAF source, the test flights will continue through 2008 "before series production begins".
Industry and air force sources frequently refer to UAVs as a satellite substitute, and when the prototype Eitan was unveiled in late 2007 at Tel-Nof air force base it was fitted with what appeared to be the housing for an advanced multi-sensor payload.
Powered by a Pratt & Whitney Canada PT6 turboprop, and 13m (43ft) long with a wing span of 26m, the Eitan has a maximum take-off weight of 4t. The aircraft is designed for autonomous take-off and landing, a feature of most UAVs developed in Israel. Sources estimate the Eitan has an endurance of over 70h and a ceiling of 45,000ft. Its composite fuselage is designed to carry large-volume payloads, and the new UAV will perform some long-range missions now accomplished by manned IAF aircraft.
Israel has been operating UAVs for more than 30 years and it has become a major supplier to many countries. The IAF will not disclose the scope of its UAV operations, but sources say it is "massive", running all year long, 24h a day. In the first Lebanon war, in 1982, only a few basic Scout UAVs helped suppress Syrian surface-air missiles. By the second Lebanon war, in 2006, the variety and number of UAVs used by the Israelis was huge.
A few years ago the air force became the sole operator of UAVs within the Israel military. This followed years of operating them in parallel with the Israeli intelligence corps. Now the Israeli defence force is in the process of selecting small UAVs that will provide fighting units an "over the hill" capability.
loitering systems
The capability to develop and manufacture advanced unmanned platforms has resulted in a growing number of loitering systems or "hunters". IAI recently partially unveiled its Harop loitering attack UAV, which is being evaluated by India and Turkey. Bigger than the company's Harpy anti-radiation drone, the Harop is equipped with an electro-optical sensor that enables the operator to select targets during the loiter over the target area.
While IAI and Elbit are the leading UAV companies in Israel, others contribute to the wide variety of systems in service and under development. The realisation that UAVs are going to perform many missions in future combat scenarios has brought other companies to the market.
Israel Military Industries, mostly an ammunition manufacturer, has developed a type of UAV that serves as munitions dispenser, but is looking for a US partner for the Modular Stand-Off Vehicle (MSOV). "We are still hoping to find a partner to complete the system," says president Avi Felder, IMI began development of the MSOV as a direct competitor to the US Raytheon AGM-154A Joint Stand-Off weapon.
The wide variety of existing vehicles, and industry's proven capability to develop others on a "needed for combat" basis, has led the IAF to build a three-tier UAV force. A senior IAF source confirms the plans and adds that this force structure will increase the variety of missions performed by UAVs. "If we had twice the number of UAVs, we would have missions for all of them. The demand is simply high and increasing constantly," the source says.
In the last five years, the IAF has decreased by 60% the operational cost of its UAVs. The average flight-hour cost is currently estimated at $1,000. This is also a byproduct of technologies incorporated in new systems and the growing operational experience.
The IAF is deploying new generations of vehicle as they reach maturity. The air force will soon phase out its IAI Searcher 2 UAVs and base its squadrons around yet-to-be-selected mini-UAVs, Elbit's medium-altitude Hermes-450 (which it calls the Zik), IAI's Heron-1 (Shoval) and the high-altitude, heavy Eitan.
Heron TP: test flights by the IAF will continue this year
While the IAF will use a three-tier fleet, the IDF's ground forces command is getting ready to select the baseline mini-UAV for its fighting units. The main candidates are the Rafael SkyLite, Elbit's SkyLark and IAI's I-view.
The massive deployment of new UAV systems has created a parallel effort to develop a variety of payloads - by the manufacturers themselves and by dedicated payload companies. Electro-optic payloads are being developed by Controp, Elbit and IAI radar payloads by Elta, an IAI subsidiary. According to the senior IAF source, some of the new UAVs will have dual electro-optic/radar payloads for greater flexibility.
Advanced payloads "open the envelope" and unmanned platforms are slowly replacing manned aircraft. Only recently, the IAF equipped two of its Soval UAVs with maritime surveillance sensors and will soon operate them for the navy to replace manned patrol aircraft. "At first they will be operated parallel to the Seascan. These will gradually be phased out and the UAV will do the mission," a senior IAF source says. The air force has been operating the Seascans, modified IAI Westwind business jets, since 1978.
As technology matures, Israeli companies are working to increase the variety on UAVs they produce. In the pipeline are a system that will transform a manned helicopter into an unmanned rotorcraft and a ducted-fan unmanned vehicle developed by Urban Aeronautics. The latter is designed to be used for medevec and supply missions in combat zones.
Miniaturisation
Shlomo Tsach, director of advanced programmes at IAI, is the man behind some of the company's UAV systems. He says that, in the coming years, efforts will be focused on shorter take-offs, lower operating costs and on a greater use of solar power and fuel cells. "The miniaturisation of the payloads also dictates the development of small UAVs," he says. "With a 10g camera with excellent quality, the capabilities are very clear."
Tsach espouses the view that the Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, which Israel plans to purchase, will be the last manned fighter. "UAVs will take over all the missions before this aircraft will finish its operational life."
From uav_roadmap2005.pdf
Most of the military activities in Unmanned Air Vehicles, or in Unmanned Air Systems as they are starting to be called, is taking place in the USA, not surprisingly. The military interest in the potential of UAVs mushroomed after the extensive and very effective use made of them by the Isreali Air Force when it destroyed most of the fighter planes of the Syrian Air Force over the Bekaa Valley in the Lebanon in 1982.
From presentation by Colonel Langlois of the EDA at the Unmanned Systems Europe 2007 Conference in Cologne
Rapidly increased use of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, from a presentation "DoD UAS operations in the National Airspace System" by Fred Pease at the UAV 2007 Conference in Paris.
Above from US DoD http://www.acq.osd.mil/usd/Unmanned%20Systems%20Roadmap.2007-2032.pdf
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Battlefield_UAVs_(1)
The Israelis were the prime movers in establishing the battlefield UAV as a standard military weapon. After the Yom Kippur War in the Middle East in 1972, when the Israelis suffered substantial air losses from Soviet built SAMs fired by Arab forces, the Israeli military searched for new technology to ensure they would not have the same problems in the future. This led them to cross paths with Alvin Ellis, who had been born and raised in the US and haf worked for Ryan on the Firebee and the Lightning Bugs. He emigrated to Israel in 1967 to join Israel Aircraft Industries and work on the Kfir fighter, a derivative of the French Dassault Mirage fighter but fitted with an American GE J79 engine.
The history of Ellis and the battlefield UAV tends to recall that of Reginald Denny and the target drone. Ellis liked to tinker with RC models, and after the Yom Kippur War he decided that a small drone with a TV camera might be an answer to some of Israeli's battlefield needs. He joined up with an IAI colleague named Yehuda Manor and the two put together a prototype in Manor's garage. They flew the prototype for a short time, but it crashed when one of its two engines failed. Ellis still felt the idea was good and pitched it to IAI management, but they turned him down. Undiscouraged, Ellis took the idea to Tadiran, the Israeli electronics conglomerate, and they funded a second prototype.
The prototype flew in 1973. It was just a large hobbyist's RC airplane, similar in configuration to Reginald Denny's early Radioplane drones. The new prototype was successful and led to a demonstrator named the "Owl" that was fitted with a cheap TV camera. It was demonstrated to Tadiran and military brass in early 1974. Tadiran management was sold on the idea and gave Ellis a contract to develop an operational system named "Mastiff". The Mastiff had a different configuration from the early prototypes, featuring the pusher-propeller twin-boom configuration that would become common for combat surveillance UAVs. The Mastiff was introduced in 1975, but nobody seemed interested.
Ellis did a stint back in the US in the late 1970s working on drone autopilots for American companies, while the Mastiff gathered dust. Only two were sold by 1979. The lack of activity was deceptive. The Israeli military was becoming increasingly interested in battlefield UAVs, and in response IAI management finally decided they were interested in the concept as well. Tadiran and IAI found themselves in bitter competition for military battlefield UAV contracts. The Israeli military began to buy more Mastiffs, while IAI came up with a competitor with the appropriate name of "Scout" and sold it to the military as well. The Scout, also known as "Zahavan (Oriole)", had a similar configuration to the Mastiff, with a pusher propeller and a twin-boom tail.
In June 1982, the Israelis began major military operations in Lebanon, where they were confronted by Syrian SAMs, which were heavily sited in Lebanon's Bekaa Valley. All 28 SAM sites in the Bekaa were destroyed, however, partly through the use of Sampson decoys to get them to reveal their presence, and partly through reconnaissance information obtained by the Mastiff and Scout UAVs.
Israeli battlefield UAVs had proven a great success, and soon came to the attention of the US military, particularly after the American intervention in Lebanon in 1983. This led to the US Navy's request for a battlefield UAV in 1984, and Tadiran and IAI decided, or were told to, join forces to submit a proposal for the American requirement. The result was an IAI division named "Mazlat", now "Malat".
The US military is reluctant to buy from foreign sources, so foreign companies always team up with an American company to push a sale. AAI had already worked with Tadiran to sell the Mastiff in the US, so AAI was a logical choice, and Mazlat and AAI developed the Pioneer, which won the competition. Since then, Malat has developed more advanced battlefield UAVs, and has collaborated on battlefield UAV developments with partners such as AAI.
from Bassey’s“Unmanned Aircraft”,
published by Arthur Reid in 1979, ISBN 0 904609 32 4, page 88
Early use of Unmanned Air Vehicles: World War II
from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_unmanned_aerial_vehicles
Reginald Denny and the Radioplane
The first large-scale production, purpose-built drone was the product of Reginald Denny. He served with the British Royal Flying Corps during World War I, and after the war emigrated to the United States to seek his fortunes in Hollywood as an actor. Denny had made a name for himself as an actor, and between acting jobs, he pursued his interest in radio control model aircraft in the 1930s. He and his business partners formed "Reginald Denny Industries" and opened a model plane shop in 1934 on Hollywood Boulevard known as "Reginald Denny Hobby Shops".
The shop evolved into the "Radioplane Company". Denny believed that low-cost RC aircraft would be very useful for training anti-aircraft gunners, and in 1935 he demonstrated a prototype target drone, the RP-1, to the US Army. Denny then bought a design from Walter Righter in 1938 and began marketing it to hobbyists as the Dennymite, and demonstrated it to the Army as the RP-2, and after modifications as the RP-3 and RP-4 in 1939. In 1940, Denny and his partners won an Army contract for their radio controlled RP-4, which became the OQ-2 Radioplane. They manufactured nearly fifteen thousand drones for the army during World War II.
It was at the Van Nuys Radioplane factory that in 1944 that Army photographer David Conover saw a young lady named Norma Jeane, and thought she had potential as a model. This "discovery" led to fame for Jeane, who soon changed her name to Marilyn Monroe.
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