Defense Technology International - September 2007 - (Page 16) DISPATCHES AEROVIRONMENT GLOBAL FIVE-YEAR PLAN Darpa wants a UAV that can stay aloft for five years RAMON LOPEZ•WASHINGTON he Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is extending the notion of persistent surveillance. Its latest unmanned aerial vehicle program seeks to develop a platform that will stay airborne for five years—no small feat considering that the endurance of operational UAVs is measured in hours. Known as Vulture—or Very-high-altitude, Ultra-endurance, Loitering Theater Unmanned Reconnaissance Element—the heavier-than-air UAV would carry a 1,000lb. payload. Darpa doesn’t say why five years of nonstop flying is the goal nor does it define a mission or payload for the aircraft, except to suggest that ultra-persistent flying capabilities would have major advantages over anything now performing reconnaissance, intelligence, surveillance and target acquisition missions. “The ability to maintain a continuously operating airborne payload on station for five years would provide a dramatic new capability to the U.S. military,” Darpa says. Short of fielding such a capability, the re- T search agency says “it is envisioned that the program will, at a minimum, develop and demonstrate advanced reliability technologies for air vehicles.” Requirements call for 5 kw. of electric power for the payload and 99% on-station reliability. Darpa is leaving the operating altitude to bidders. The research agency is open to almost any idea in achieving its lofty goal, except nuclear-powered platforms and airships. It appears to be leaning toward a remotely refueled aircraft or an electric craft that derives energy from the Sun, fuel cells or both. Steven Welby, head of Darpa’s Tactical Technology Office (TTO), dubs Vulture one of the most interesting programs of the past few years. “This is exciting work that opens up research on unmanned aircraft.” Although Darpa had a hand in developing UAVs like Global Hawk and J-UCAS, “Vulture aims to extend the limits of aircraft endurance,” Welby says. “This represents a real change in the way we think about military airborne technology. I have no idea what the aircraft will look like. This program will push us to explore the QINETIQ AeroVironment’s prototype Global Observer has a 50-ft. wingspan. The full-size version will have a 247-ft. wingspan. critical technologies that are important to the future of aviation.” TTO program manager Wade Pulliam says, “Aircraft take off, operate, land, refuel and then do it all over again. I want to change that. We need to operate more like a satellite. But unlike spacecraft, Vulture would be able to stay on target. I want to bring space flight concepts to aircraft design.” The program seeks to develop a robust system design that maximizes military utility and critical enabling technologies, and validate through simulations, ground tests and flight demonstrations that sustained five-year flight is achievable. Darpa has structured a three-phase program that begins with concept definition and progresses through risk-reduction and flight-testing of a subscale vehicle, to fabrication, assembly and fl ight-test of a full-scale operational demonstrator with design payload. Bidders need to have proposals in by mid-September. Multiple Phase I contracts should be awarded in November or December for a year’s worth of preliminary research. During Phase II, vendors will build 1/6th-scale system demonstrators able to support 200-lb. payloads with 1,000 watts of power. Phase III will include full-scale demonstrator flight tests. During Phase I, contractors will perform military utility analyses, develop concepts Qinetiq’s Zephyr UAV runs on solar power by day and a rechargeable battery at night. 16 DEFENSE TECHNOLOGY INTERNATIONAL SEPTEMBER 2007 www.aviationweek.com/dti http://www.aviationweek.com/dti
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