Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 - (Page 36)

FA R N B O R O U G H 2 0 0 8 Britain’s Killer UAVs: a Quiet Revolution Over the last few years there has been a quiet revolution in UK air operations. With little fanfare Royal Air Force crews have been flying armed U.S. Air Force MQ-1 Predator UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), delivering weapons in combat. Remotely piloted from sources. Within the UK there is the Taranis UCAV technology demonstrator project, headed by BAE Systems. Taranis will be a full-scale air vehicle with a low-observable (stealthy) design. The Hawk jet trainer-sized prototype is now in production and is due to fly at However, the advent of the Reaper has given an entirely new dimension to the UK’s experience of armed UAV operations. As Jonathan Barratt, SUAVE integrated project team leader, explained, “Reaper is part of the current SUAVE capability, but we are now well out of the experimental phase. We are controlling it from 10 and 12,000 miles away. It is a paradigm of how we operate a weapons system today.” The UK acquired one Reaper system, comprising three MQ-9 Reaper air vehicles and all associated support equipment. They are flown by the RAF’s No. 39 Sqn. with each sensor-equipped MQ-9 priced at GBP7.8 million. The UK has developed its own command and control architecture, and does not use the U.S. Global Broadcast System. Squadron Leader Andy Bird, SUAVE requirements manager and an experienced RAF Predator operator noted, “The Reaper is pioneering the development and integration of networked operations in the UK. I think its real legacy will be the networks it establishes.” Britain’s Reapers were ordered in early 2006 but were tied up by endless export rules and ITAR restrictions. The first RAF aircraft was delivered in November 2007— and was flying just six weeks after the first Reapers entered USAF service. The second arrived in December 2007 and the third in May 2008. Unfortunately, one Reaper was written off in April— halving the available fleet at the time. A replacement will be delivered as soon as one can be acquired. An RAF Reaper used weapons in combat for the first time in June. The Reapers are now operating as part of a two-year UOR program, which is likely to be extended. There is an ambition to expand the fleet to as many as 10 aircraft, but the current financial climate makes that unlikely. The Reaper team is proud that it delivered a developmental system to the front l i n e i n 1 5 m o n t h s . T h e U K ’s MQ-9 fleet will have an influence on future combat operations out of all proportion to its modest size. —Robert Hewson “The Reaper is pioneering the development and integration of networked operations in the UK. I think its real legacy will be the networks it establishes.” —Squadron Leader Andy Bird, SUAVE requirements manager and an experienced RAF Predator operator consoles half-a-world-away in Nevada, the “British” Predators were seamlessly integrated into the round-the-clock UAV war in Iraq and elsewhere. This experience convinced the British Ministry of Defence (MoD) to begin combat UAV operations of its own. To meet an urgent operational requirement (UOR) for Operation Herrick (UK combat operations in Afghanistan), a batch of three MQ-9 Reapers was ordered. The Reaper is a significant step up from the Predator. Bigger, faster, heavier and fitted with more of everything, the Reaper has an endurance of up to 24 hours, flies at 240 knots, can reach 30,000 ft and carries a payload of 3,000 lb. While the British Reapers were ostensibly acquired for the ISTAR (intelligence, surveillance, target acquisition and reconnaissance) role, they were built from the outset to be armed hunter-killer platforms. No sooner had the Reapers been acquired than the RAF moved swiftly to arm them with Hellfire missiles and GBU-12 Paveway laser-guided bombs. The Reaper force is part of a wider move to field unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) capabilities in the UK. This program, known as Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicles (Experimental), or SUAVE, has been underway for several years with input from two 36 The RAF MQ-9 Reaper does far more than gather intelligence. Woomera, Australia, in January 2010. Alongside Taranis is a collaborative U.S./UK initiative, known as Churchill, that deals with future operational concepts, interoperability, logistics and cost management. Both Taranis and Churchill feed into the Deep and Persistent Offensive Capability (DPOC) plan to develop a UCAV system capable of 30-40 hours of continuous flight on armed and ISR (intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance) missions. The MoD hopes to launch DPOC design and development in 2011. Other UK UAV research includes the BAE Systems Herti, already deployed for ISR missions to Afghanistan in Operation Morrigan, between July and November 2007. BAE is now proposing an armed version of the Herti, known as Fury. Each Reaper can be equipped with the MTS-B sensor turret or the Lynx synthetic aperture radar. Operations are supported by nine three-man crews, based at Creech AFB, Nevada. It takes nine crews to maintain one constant 24/7 Reaper orbit. The cost for the system (three Reapers), two years support, spares and training, plus the communications network was GBP60 million, “Reaper is part of the current SUAVE capability, but we are now well out of the experimental phase. We are controlling it from 10 and 12,000 miles away. It is a paradigm of how we operate a weapons system today.” —Jonathan Barratt, SUAVE integrated project team leader July 14, 2008 www.aviationweek.com/shownews http://www.aviationweek.com/shownews

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008 Contents Thirty More Years CFM Reveals New Engine Boeing Reduces Forecast UAVs’ Quiet Revolution Finmeccanica: U.S. Success A Plethora of AESAs BAE North America Plus L-3 Becomes a Prime Better Late Than Never A Peek Behind the Curtain China’s J-10 Revealed Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner Breaking LM’s Hegemony

Farnborough Show News - July 14, 2008

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