Russia: Heavy Turbojet UAV Able to Fly at 950 KM/H

A heavy turbojet UAV under development by Russian designers will be able to fly at least twice as fast as its propeller-driven analogues, said a source in the defense-industrial complex.

The preliminary contract to design the new-generation UAV was granted to the SDB (Simonov Design Bureau) in Kazan. The SDB is currently working on the Altair heavy UAV developed as part of the Altius Project.

It is a medium-altitude craft with an extended flight range of up to 48 hours. The UAV will have a takeoff weight of around 5 tons and a maximum speed of up to 950 km/h.

“Even though this is only a preliminary project we are talking about, with sufficient financing the designers would be able to land an additional contract to bring their work up to a new level,” Denis Fedutinov, a leading expert in the field of unmanned aerial vehicles, told RIA.

He added that while the Altair drone brings to mind the US-made Reaper, the new UAV could be compared with the Avenger unmanned combat air vehicle built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the US military.

General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper 3D model

The General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper (sometimes called Predator B) is an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) capable of remotely controlled or autonomous flight operations, developed by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems (GA-ASI) primarily for the United States Air Force (USAF).

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GA-ASI selects GKN to create fuel bladders for MQ-9B

GKN Aerospace has signed a development agreement with General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc. (GA-ASI) covering the design, development and manufacture of fuel bladders for the MQ-9B Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) system.

GKN Aerospace develops, builds and supplies an extensive range of advanced aerospace systems and components made by Additive Manufacturing (AM) and other innovative manufacturing technologies focused to reduce weight on the aircrafts.

GKN Aerospace will work in conjunction with GA-ASI to design and manufacture the fuel bladders at the GKN Aerospace facility in Tallassee, Alabama. Stefan Svenson, vice president of GKN Aerospace Special Products Group said: “We look forward to working with GA-ASI to provide a vital fuel system solution for this long-endurance Predator B platform variant. We have been supplying fuel systems for many decades and for many airframe platforms and MQ-9B fully exploits all our recent advances in both manufacturing and materials technologies.”

The agreement covers the fuel bladder system for the first production aircraft slated for 2018, with a potential full contract value of USD 15M when the aircraft enters into service with NATO’s UAV AIRWORTHINESS REQUIREMENTS (defined in STANAG 4671). MQ-9B is a "Type-Certifiable" version of GA-ASI’s Predator® B product line. The target is to create fuel bladders in complex shapes that fully exploit all available space on the MQ-9B airframe, maximizing the fuel load capacity and platform endurance.

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General Atomics Jobs: UAV Pilot - Deployable

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

They have an exciting opportunity for a UAV Pilot at their El Mirage Facility near Palmdale, serving as PIC (Pilot-in-Command) of assigned UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles).

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/uav-pilot-deployable-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1146846_KO0,20_KE21,61.htm?jl=2409432107&ctt=1497108863218

General Atomics Jobs: Project Control Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

Currently they are looking for a Project Control Engineer to perform Mechanical Engineering Project Control activities on Unmanned Aircraft (UA) programs.

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/project-control-engineer-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,24_KE25,65.htm?jl=2449269184&ctt=1497097096389

General Atomics Jobs: Staff Software Developer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

Currently they are looking for an Staff Software Developer. Among other duties, the ideal candidate will research, design, develop, and test embedded software for Unmanned Air Vehicles.

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/staff-software-developer-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,24_KE25,65.htm?jl=2420051056&ctt=1497096436485

General Atomics Jobs: Project Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

They have an exciting career opportunity for a Staff Project Engineer in their DMSMS / Obsolescence Engineering Group located in Poway, CA. As their UAV/GCS platforms age, end-of-life from components through complete assemblies has become a critical issue that impacts their entire fleet.

GA-ASI has an exciting opportunity to work in their new DMSMS team to resolve these obsolescence issues across all customers and platforms. They are looking for experienced Project Engineers that are highly motivated, well organized, excellent communicators with strong technical skills to join them.

This position will coordinate with GA-ASI's Engineering Disciplines as well as Customer organizations to develop and implement mitigation strategies to system level obsolescence issues experienced by GA-ASI’s Unmanned Aerial Systems. 

AMONG OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Overall management of complex technical projects from initiation to complete fielding of new or modified UAV systems and LRU's to ensure the continued supportability and viability of the systems.

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/staff-project-engineer-dmsms-obsolescence-group-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,47_KE48,88.htm?jl=2420796643&ctt=1497095517823

General Atomics Jobs: Systems Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

They have an exciting opportunity for a Systems Engineer in their Project Engineering group, to perform Systems Engineering activities on Unmanned Aircraft (UA) programs.

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/systems-engineer-requirements-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,29_KE30,70.htm?jl=2420796646&ctt=1497094878109

General Atomics Jobs: Project Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

They have an exciting opportunity for an experienced Project Engineer with a focus in integration to support the Quick Reactions group. This position supports the Project Engineering Payload Integration Team, providing systems engineering and technical management of new sensors and payloads onto GA-ASI, Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS).

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/project-engineer-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,16_KE17,57.htm?jl=2450988353&ctt=1497093584449

General Atomics Jobs: Systems Engineer

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. (GA-ASI), an affiliate of General Atomics, is a world leader in proven, reliable remotely piloted aircraft and tactical reconnaissance radars, as well as advanced high-resolution surveillance systems.

They have an exciting opportunity for a Systems Engineer within their Certified Predator B UAS group. This position will be responsible for coordinating effort across multiple functional engineering departments to produce functional and performance based specifications from the UAS level down to the component level.

System level understanding of the UAS design will be used to evaluate quality and completeness of specification documents.

AMONG OTHER DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

Analyze and interprets requirements at the UAS, segment and component level and compiles requirements into test point at the appropriate test level.

More info at:

https://www.glassdoor.com/job-listing/systems-engineer-general-atomics-and-affiliated-companies-JV_IC1147311_KO0,16_KE17,57.htm?jl=2451405499&ctt=1497092486437

UK outlines extent of Reaper UAV strikes

The UK revealed on 21 March the extent of airstrikes being conducted against the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria by Royal Air Force (RAF) General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). (Read more)

Láser de 150 Kilovatios para el Avenger

El General Atomics Avenger (antes Predator C) es un UAV de combate desarrollado y fabricado por General Atomics Aeronautical Systems para el ejército de los Estados Unidos. En estos vídeos se muestran las posibilidades que ofrecerá cuando se finalice el desarrollo del futuro cañón láser que llevará incorporado, así como las capacidades actuales de sus armas:

General Atomics dejará de fabricar el Predator

GA-ASI (General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc.) ha anunciado que la Fuerza Aerea Italiana (ItAF) ha aceptado la entrega de dos últimos sistemas Predator que fabricará la compañía. Con esta entrega se cierran veinte años de historia de este legendario UAV, que ha sido utilizado para llevar a cabo una amplia gama de misiones ISR en todo el mundo.

General Atomics: New maritime capabilities

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has introduced a new sonobuoy capability for its MQ-9 Guardian maritime UAV which, alongside a number of other developing technologies, could make it a contender to help fill the UK’s maritime patrol gap.

While a requirement for a Maritime Patrol Aircraft (MPA) acquisition has yet to be released from the UK government, the developments that General Atomics is incorporating into the MQ-9 suggests that it will look to offer a modified Guardian to complement a manned MPA that is expected to be procured.

Other technology developments that the company is advancing include extended-range wings with external fuel tanks – something that has just been fielded with the US Air Force for the first time. The Guardian has a 1,000nm (1,850km) range and can stay on station for a further 10h, while the extended range variant has a 1,900nm range plus 10h on station.

Meanwhile, the company is developing a certifiable variant of the MQ-9 that will be able to fly in national airspace. This includes integration of the company’s detect and avoid Due Regard Radar system – for which it has been working with NASA and the US Federal Aviation Administration – into a modified MQ-9 nose, plus de-icing, lightning protection and a composite make-up similar to that on a Boeing 787.

A prototype of the detect and avoid system has just completed the third round of testing with NASA’s MQ-9-based Ikhana UAV, and testing using a certifiable system is expected to take place next year and be ready for certification in 2017.

Preparación y despegue de un MQ-9 Reaper

Vamos a ver en este post un vídeo donde se muestran las tareas de preparación y despegue de un UAV GAAS MQ-9 Reaper, dentro de los ejercicios Emerald Warrior.

Los Emerald Warrior son unos ejercicios anuales que se llevan a cabo para entrenamiento de las fuerzas especiales, y es actualmente el único ejercicio de su categoría que lleva a cabo el Pentágono.

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El US Army comienza a instalar sistemas GBSAA

La FAA requiere que todos los aviones en el espacio aéreo nacional - incluso aquellos sin un piloto a bordo - sean capaces de "sentir y evitar" obstáculos.

A tal efecto, el U.S. Army ha comenzado a instalar cinco sistemas terrestres de detección y evitación (GBSAA - Ground-Based Sense-And-Avoid) para impedir colisiones entre UAVs.

El primer sistema ha sido instalado en la base militar de Fort Hood, Texas, que cuenta con dos compañías al mando de UAVs General Atomics MQ-1C Gray Eagle. A esta le seguirán sendas instalaciones en Fort Campbell (Kentucky), Fort Drum (New York), Fort Riley (Kansas) y Fort Stewart (Georgia). 

General Atomics' Predator C "Avenger"

The General Atomics Avenger (formerly Predator C) is a developmental unmanned combat air vehicle built by General Atomics Aeronautical Systems for the United States military.

Unlike the previous MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper (Predator B) drones, the Avenger is powered by a turbofan engine, and its design includes stealth features such as internal weapons storage, and an S-shaped exhaust for reduced heat and radar signature.

The Avenger will use the same ground support infrastructure as the MQ-1 and MQ-9, including the ground control station and existing communications networks.

Armament

Internal weapons bay with 3,500 pounds (1,600 kg) capacity.

6 external hardpoints

6,500 pounds (2,900 kg) payload total to choose:

AGM-114P "Hellfire"

GBU-12 Paveway II

GBU-16 Paveway II

GBU-31 JDAM

GBU-32 JDAM

GBU-38 JDAM 

Predator B ER completes Phase 1 flight testing

Frank W Pace, president, Aircraft Systems, General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, Inc, said: ‘This flight was a significant milestone for Predator B ER in that it closes out its Phase 1 flight test period. The entire RPAS was successfully tested from start to finish, including flying a real-world representative mission with significant loiter time, and then returning to base.’

The ER (Extended Range) variant optimises the aircraft for Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions with a projected increase in endurance from 27 to 33-35 hours by adding two external fuel tanks to its existing wings and heavy-weight landing gear to accommodate an increase in maximum gross takeoff weight.

The flight, which took place from 17-18 June, saw the Predator B ER demonstrate its ability to carry an external fuel tank on each wing, and used a new fuel management system which ensures fuel and thermal balance amongst all fuel sources, including the external tanks, the wing, and the fuselage.