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.

India to Purchase 22 Predator

According to The Diplomat, the Indian Government had expressed interest in purchasing an unarmed naval variant of the Predator already before 2015. However, the United States rejected India’s request because the country was neither member of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) nor did it enjoy Major Defense Partner (MDP) status.

Now, the US Government has approved the deal, which is valued at over $2 billion. The deal, still pending congressional approval, would be the first such purchase by a country that is not a member of the NATO alliance. With these new UAVs, India seeks to protect its maritime assets, in particular in the Indian Ocean, and detect intrusions on a real-time basis.

Next to the threat of terrorism emerging from the maritime domain, India has been in particular concerned about the growing Chinese naval presence in the Indian Ocean.

Estados Unidos permitirá la exportación de UAVs capaces de ser armados

El coro de voces que vienen desde años pidiendo al gobierno de Obama un cambio en su política de exportación de UAVs ha venido incrementando su presión en los últimos años, argumentando que carece de sentido prohibir la venta de un sistema Predator para misiones ISR a un país que ya cuenta con aviones F-16. Finalmente han conseguido su objetivo, y el pasado 17 de Febrero ha sido aprobada una enmienda a la normativa que regula el comercio exterior de aviones no tripulados para uso militar. La enmienda surge en este caso como consecuencia del interés que la administración Obama está poniendo en equipar a sus aliados al objeto de asumir mayores responsabilidades en la guerra global contra el terrorismo, y si bien contempla como hasta ahora condiciones estrictas para la venta o transferencia de UAVs armados, permite sin embargo su exportación a países aliados pero sólo cuando vayan encaminadas a la "mejora de sus capacidades operativas". 

Israeli UAV to Fly in Europe

An unidentified western European NATO member has selected the MicroB UAS for its defense forces.

According to the Israeli OEM BlueBird Aero Systems, this micro UAS has a 10-kilometer communication range and over one hour’s endurance. Equipped with proprietary gimbaled and stabilized EO or HR un-cooled IR payloads, the MicroB can be autonomously launched from its hand-held launcher within seconds – even in a crowded urban environment, or through a window, providing high quality video and images, with GIS information and automatic target tracking capabilities.

Raytheon to provide MTS-B for the Reaper

Officials of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Medium Altitude Unmanned Aircraft Systems office at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, awarded Raytheon a $50.2 million contract to provide the Multispectral Targeting System (MTS)-B for the Reaper  UAV.

The contract calls for Raytheon to provide MTS-B turret units, 37 MTS HD electronics units, containers, spare parts, and support equipment. The MTS-B provides electro-optical, infrared, laser designation, and laser illumination packaged in one sensor package. The MTS-B uses a digital architecture to provide long-range surveillance, high-altitude target acquisition, tracking, rangefinding, and laser designation for the Hellfire missile and for all tri-service and NATO laser-guided munitions, Raytheon officials say.

A turreted or forward-looking pod combining several sensors, the MTS has visible-light and infrared full-motion video cameras for long-range surveillance. The systems offer multiple wavelength sensors; near-infrared and color TV cameras; target illuminators; eyesafe laser rangefinders; image merging; spot trackers; and other avionics. The system’s Advanced Targeting Forward Looking Infrared (ATFLIR) pod also is used with Paveway, JSOW, and HARM munitions. The MTS sensors carry the military designations of AAS-52, AAS-53, ASQ-228, DAS-1 and DAS-2.

Turquía: Zorlu Group presenta novedades en IDEF

El Grupo turco Zorlu está presentando estos días en la feria internacional de industria militar IDEF, sus primeros UAVs tácticos “Karayel” y “Bora”, fabricados para las Fuerzas Armadas Turcas. En palabras del CEO de Zorlu Ömer Yüngül, el Ejercito Turco encargó el Karayel "para llevar a cabo misiones ISR", si bien añadió que ellos esperan una inminente expansión del uso de UAVs en el ambito civil, que provoque un incremento de sus exportaciones en los próximos años.  La subsidiaria de Zorlu Vestel Defense entregará seis UAVs, tres estaciones de control terrestre y una rampa de lanzamiento al Ejercito Turco, que pagará 40 millones de dólares por ello, a finales de 2013, tras los vuelos de prueba. Este será un primer pedido, pues Yüngül ha afirmado que sus previsiones de fabricación para 2014 se situan en torno a 50-60 unidades, a fin de atender pedidos de diversas naciones de oriente medio. Esto situaría a Turquía como el mayor fabricante mundial de UAVs después de Estados Unidos e Israel. En cuanto a los aviones, Karayel es un UAV de observación capaz de volar a una altitud de 22.500 pies (6.858 metros) transportando una carga de pago de 70 kilos durante 20 horas, mientras que Bora es un UAV de ejercicios diseñado para pruebas de aviónica y entrenamiento de pilotos, capaz de volar durante 5 horas a una altitud de 18.000 pies (5.486 metros) portando una carga de pago de 10 kilos.

Unmanned drones likely to take over Nimrod spy duties

 

Using UAVs for coastal patrols and Nato operations cheaper and less risky then developing replacement, says defence secretary (Read more)