Defense Technology International - July 2007 - (Page 38)

AIR OPERATIONS TACTICAL Also active in Europe is Austria’s Schiebel company, which teamed with Diehl to offer its S-100 Camcopter UAV for Germany’s K-130 corvettes, and with Thales to meet an upcoming Royal Navy requirement. The latter, which tested the ScanEagle in 2005, is looking to VTOL for an operational drone. Camcopter is a simThere are no hinges at the roots of the A160 Hummingbird’s rotor blades— ple single-rotor aircraft in it’s a rigid rotor, with the blades moving only in pitch. the same size class as Sharc, each ship—will not start until 2012. Meanwhile, Future Combat offering 6-hr. endurance with a 25-kg. payload. On land, an emerging use for VTOL UAVs is for resupplying units Systems is under ﬁre for being expensive and late and because of in hostile territory. That capability has been demonstrated by Fire Boeing’s powerful role as integrating prime contractor. Competition for the Fire Scout is emerging in Europe, where Scout, by Boeing/Frontier Systems’ Maverick (a test vehicle for the France, Germany and Spain have long planned to put UAVs on A160 Hummingbird, based on a Robinson R44 helicopter) and by board new ships; in fact, Germany’s K-130 corvettes were the ﬁrst Boeing’s Unmanned Little Bird (ULB) demonstrator and its larger warships speciﬁcally designed to carry UAVs. The European De- follow-on, the A/MH-6X, which made its ﬁrst ﬂight in October fense Agency (EDA) has made a shipboard tactical UAV part of its 2006. The newer helicopter is based on the heavier airframe used on project planning for 2007, with France—which needs a UAV for the Army’s A/MH-6M helicopters, with a package of avionics and its new Fremm frigates—in the lead. The French army also intends communication systems that allow it to be ﬂown unmanned. to operate the VTOL UAV as a tactical land-based system. New to the fray are Lockheed Martin and Kaman, which anEADS, which has big plans for its role in the UAV market, has nounced an agreement in March to develop an unmanned logistics two UAV helicopter demonstrators in the works. The newer of them, helicopter based on Kaman’s K-MAX helicopter. The K-MAX is aimed at European navy requirements, is Sharc. Like the canceled a unique “ﬂying crane” designed to carry external loads and uses Seamos, which had been under development for the K-130, Sharc is Kaman’s intermeshing “eggbeater” rotor system. It’s not fast—maxia coaxial helicopter with twin rotors superimposed on the same mast mum speed is a stately 100 kt.—but can lift half its 12,000-lb. weight in cargo. and spinning in opposite direcOther VTOL projects are tions. Coaxials have a reputation more ambitious, some of them for being slow, but are efﬁcient aimed at a U.S. Navy/Marine and more compact, with no danCorps requirement called the ger zone around the tail rotor. Vertical Unmanned Air SysSharc is a fraction of the size tem (VUAS). The timetable for of Seamos or Fire Scout, with VUAS is not firm. It was ina gross weight of 420 lb. and a tended as a replacement for the 130-lb. payload. It incorporates Pioneer Tier III UAS, but the advanced technologies, such as Marine Corps decided in 2006 antennas built into the skin, and to adopt the Army’s AAI RQ-7 is intended to carry a synthetic Shadow as an interim solution aperture radar (SAR). EADS has and is buying the ﬁrst ﬁve of 13 worked extensively on small, efsystems in Fiscal 2008. ﬁcient SAR systems for UAV and This will delay VUAS, but space applications. that is probably a good thing. A EADS also continues to work on look at some of the designs prothe Orka-1200, a larger UAV based posed for VUAS shows a massive on a Guimbal Cabri light helicopcase of requirements creep. ter. Still smaller than the Fire Scout, Sikorsky sees VUAS as a with a 150-hp. Lycoming engine, potential application for its the Orka-1200 has a 180-kg. (396X2 advanced helicopter techlb.) payload and 8-hr. endurance. nology, a high-speed, rigid-roOrka was originally offered in 2005 tor, coaxial design. Sikorsky’s to meet a joint army/navy requireVUAS design has a 250-kt. ment in France. cruise speed, can be armed with four Hellfire missiles Honeywell’s toy-like and has a 4-hr. endurance at Miniature Air Vehicle 200 naut. mi. Combine these lets soldiers examine a with VTOL and Sikorsky gets suspected bomb from a 5,600-lb. vehicle (twice the 10 ft. away without risk weight of a Warrior ﬁxed-wing of triggering it. UAV) with an 1,800-shp. turHONEYWELL BOEING 38 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL JULY/AUGUST 2007 www.aviationweek.com/dti http://www.aviationweek.com/dti

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Defense Technology International - July 2007

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