Predator A: 141.000 missions and more than 2.000.000 flight hours

Predator A did its first flight in July 1994 and its operational debut in 1995. Since then, more than 320 Predator A have been delivered to various customers in support of global security worldwide, and the product line remained in production until 2011.

The Predator A has flown about 141.000 missions and more than two million flight hours in total. More than 90 percent of those hours were flown supporting combat missions. Linden Blue, CEO of GA-ASI has said “With innovation in mind, we have always looked for ways to challenge the industry standard. Our Predator series has evolved over the past 25 years to become MQ-9 and Gray Eagle (MQ-1C), which are the world's most proven combat RPAs.”

GA-ASI won its first major award for the Predator A program in 1994 from the United States Office of Joint Programs, which was later transferred to the United States Air Force. In addition to the United States, Predator A was acquired by the Italian Ministry of Defense for the Italian Air Force, and later in a modernized version known as the Predator XP for the UAE (United Arab Emirates).

Predator A established the GA-ASI legacy of offering a long-lasting multi-mission UAV with integrated sensors and data link systems for persistent knowledge of the situation and fast attack capabilities. The Predator series continues to stand out in combat environments and in conducting civil surveillance missions. David R. Alexander, president of GA-ASI, said “We are proud of our long and distinguished history of support for the combatant. From Predator A to Predator B, Gray Eagle, Avenger® and their various mission configurations, our aircraft and payload systems continue to respond to the changing mission requirements of the US military and civilian users, and from allied countries."

Throughout its 25-year history, the Predator series fleets have flown nearly six million flight hours. GA-ASI is developing the new version of the series, MQ-9B SkyGuardian, that meets the airworthiness certification and air traffic management requirements that will allow the UAV to operate in the NAS (National Airspace System).

General Atomics to upgrade USAF's Reaper UAV fleet

General Atomics has been awarded a contract by the U.S. Air Force for Block 5 kits for the MQ-9 Reaper, just as the U.S. military begins to phase out the MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV).

The contract was announced Wednesday 3 by the U.S. Department of Defense, tapping General Atomics for Block 5 kits, in addition to other services worth more than $14.1 million under a cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price undefinitized contract action, which is a modification on a previously awarded contract.

The UAVs are considered one of the primary weapons in U.S. counter terrorism strategy as both the Predator and the Reaper have strike capabilities, usually carrying a payload of AGM-114 Hellfire air-to-ground missiles. The MQ-9 Reaper is a significantly upgraded version of the MQ-1 Predator UAV, which is primarily used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance missions (ISR).

The U.S. military has long planned the retirement of the MQ-1 Predator in favor of an all-MQ-9 Reaper fleet. The Air Force explained their reasoning to retire the Predator in February 2017, noting that the more modern MQ-9 Reaper has been better equipped with superior features and operational capabilities. Work on Block 5 kits for the contract will occur in Poway, California, and is expected to be completed by February 2021.

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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.

UAVs para desastres naturales: La revolución electrónica humanitaria

El empleo de UAVs para intervenir en las crisis puede sorprender a más de uno: en general se considera que los drones son un gran adelanto para las operaciones de defensa y obtención de información, y los últimos avances han permitido recientemente su despliegue también en las regiones asoladas por catástrofes. (Seguir leyendo)

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.

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". 

Predator XP: 40 horas a 10.000 pies

El pasado Jueves 13, la compañía General Atomics ha difundido la noticia de que su UAV Predator XP ha realizado con éxito un vuelo de prueba durante 40 horas a una altura de 10.000 pies (3.048 metros).

Este UAV derivado del MQ-1 y diseñado exclusivamente para misiones ISR, ha sido concebido como alternativa de cara al mercado exterior. Se cree que las primeras unidades irían destinadas a la fuerza aerea de los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, pues ya en 2013, firmaron un contrato de 197 millones de dólares para adquirir este nuevo modelo.

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Argus: The ISR Power of 100 Predators

A new technology called ARGUS has the ability to capture details (like an individual’s clothing or a bird’s nest!) all from 17,500 feet (5,334 meters) above, and (of course) all the footage could potentially be stored up to a million terabytes of video each day, the same as 5,000 hours of high definition footage.

Developed by the DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), ARGUS is the acronym of Autonomous Real-time Ground Ubiquitous Surveillance. Engineer Yiannis Antonaides designed it using 368 basic cellphone cameras. ARGUS boasts 1.8 billion pixels and is also the world’s highest resolution camera, making it one enviable piece of technology. “Argus is the equivalent of having up to 100 predators look at an area the size of a medium-sized city at once. You can see individuals crossing the street, you can see individuals walking in parking lots. There is actually enough resolution to be able to see the people waving their arms or walking around or what kind of clothes they wear,” Antonaides revealed.

Employing the 368 cellphone cameras, ARGUS combines video from each one and subsequently makes a 1.8 billion pixel video stream system. ¿Is ARGUS currently being used to spy on Americans? Antonaides refuses to say. “I’m not at liberty to discuss plans with the government,” he admitted. “But if we had our choice, we would like ARGUS to be over the same area 24 hours a day, seven days a week. That’s not very achievable with manned platforms- this is where UAVs come in and they’re absolutely the perfect platform,” he explained.

Hill AFB gets new workload for UAVs

Hill Air Force Base has a new and additional workload for what many view as the future of defense: Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs).

The Ogden Air Logistics Complex (Odgen ALC) will open a new Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul (MRO) shop dedicated to sustaining the electronic parts that keep three different Department of Defense (DoD) UAVs in the air.

The shop will work on the Air Force’s MQ-1 Predator, the MQ-9 Reaper and the Army’s MQ-1C Gray Eagle. The Ogden ALC already performs depot repair and modification on the ​Predator and Reaper since 2009, but the new workload is different because it will be soley focused on the electronic parts associated with the systems.

Paul Roberts, UAV project manager, said the new workload will eventually lead to new jobs at Hill. "We don’t have exact numbers yet, but we’re already starting to look at adding additional bodies in 2015,“ he said. Russell Kofoed, chief of the Logistic Branch of the Predator and Reaper program office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, unveiled MQ-9 Reapers are becoming an increasingly important component in the DoD’s weapons systems. ”These are the weapons systems that are fighting the war on terror,“ Kofoed said. ”There’s no other weapon that compares,“ he added. The MQ-9 Reaper fly without a human pilot aboard and can be used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance as well as performing the role of a traditional attack aircraft.

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.

UAV Special Operations: In A Secret Desert Base

The United States UAV operations in Djibouti (northeast Africa) will now operate from another airstrip far away from the capital, to prevent the possibility of  issues involving the American UAVs (mainly 1.1 ton Predators and 4.6 ton Reapers), specially bearing in mind these UAVs are sometimes armed with missiles.

U.S. forces in Djibouti were increased after resistance collapsed in Iraq in 2008 and are now the command post for a network of American operations through the region. That includes a UAV facility on the Seychelles Islands (1,500 kilometers to the east) and permission to move troops and aircraft through countries like Kenya and Uganda. 

China: Getting ready for the UAV war

China's new stealthy Unmanned Aerial vehicle (UAV), dubbed Sharp Sword by the domestic media, shows its eagerness to catch up in the field of drone technology.

It bears a striking similarity in its overall shape to the bat-winged RQ-170 Sentinel, built by the US company Lockheed Martin and operated by the Americans since around 2007. China is thus well-behind the Americans but is fast developing an impressive UAV capability of its own.

What is clear from recent air shows and the Chinese technical press is that China has developed a variety of UAVs matching virtually every category deployed by the US. They range from small tactical drones of limited endurance to much larger systems that look strikingly like US Reaper or Predator models, and just like their US counterparts some of these Chinese drones are equipped with hard-points on their wings to carry munitions.

The two leading players in the drone club - the US and Israel - have developed UAVs for a variety of purposes. These range from intelligence-gathering to strikes against targets on the ground. Not surprisingly, China sees UAVs in exactly the same light. UAVs are fast becoming an especially useful tool for Beijing in monitoring activity over contested areas of the South China and East China Seas. China is believed to have converted a number of out-of-date J-6 fighters into UAVs, which may well be being used to monitor the disputed Diaoyu/Senkaku Islands.

China also has the ability to arm some of its drones. Earlier this year, an interview in the Chinese Global Times newspaper provided a striking insight into Beijing's thinking about drones. A senior official in the public security ministry's anti-drugs bureau acknowledged that China had considered using an armed drone against a wanted drug trafficker in northern Burma, also known as Myanmar. In the event the attack was never carried out, but the clear implication is that Beijing has drawn some conclusions of its own from Washington's use of UAVs to take out targets across borders.

(Read more)

Agreement between Aerovironment and Eurocopter

AeroVironment and Eurocopter have agreed to explore business opportunities for their respective products.

The cooperative accord was announced this week at the annual Association of the U.S. Army conference and exhibition in Washington and follows urging from industry and government in Europe for the development and manufacture of European Unmanned Aerial Systems.

"AeroVironment's extensive operational UAS experience in delivering to end-users reliable solutions working effectively in harsh operating environments makes us uniquely positioned to understand customers' requirements and to determine future market trends," said Clive Schley, Eurocopter's senior vice president, strategy and company development. "This cooperation will be particularly valuable as Eurocopter defines its unmanned product strategy, building on the success of our first unmanned flights with the EC145 helicopter this year."

"The combination of AeroVironment's market leading unmanned technology and unique knowledge with Eurocopter's world-class helicopter and systems expertise makes a formidable team," said Roy Minson, senior vice president and general manager of AeroVironment's Unmanned Aircraft Systems business segment. "This cooperative agreement creates the opportunity for both companies to explore expanding into new markets and developing new capabilities to meet future customer needs."

The European focus on unmanned aerial systems is primarily in regard to large, medium-altitude, long-endurance aircraft such as the Grey Eagle and Predator by U.S. manufacturers. EADS, Eurocopter's parent company, is currently developing the Talon medium-altitude, long-endurance with Turkish Aerospace Industries. Another EADS subsidiary, Cassidian, makes small unmanned aircraft systems.

USA: Predators para control de fronteras

 

Uno de los aviones no tripulados tipo Predator está usando un radar de los denominados "VADER" desde marzo 2012 a lo largo de 388 kilómetros cuadrados de área desértica en el sur de Arizona. Este tipo de radar puede detectar a adultos y niños desde una altura de siete mil 500 metros, sin importar las condiciones climatológicas. Los Predator vuelan generalmente tres o cuatro días a la semana, con misiones de ocho a doce horas cada día. (Leer más)

Turquía: Anka y Baykar pisan el acelerador

Turquía ha completado en fechas recientes los tests de aceptación de su nuevo UAV Anka, y la fase de producción empezará en breve con un primer pedido de 30 unidades (diez sistemas) para la Fuerza Aerea Turca, que podría recibir su primera unidad a finales de 2013. Cada sistema Anka se compone de tres UAVs, mas un equipo de control terrestre, mas toda la maquinaria de operación y mantenimiento necesarios. Cada uno de estos UAVs (de aspecto, por cierto, muy parecido al de los Predator norteamericanos) pesa un total de 1.600 kilos y está propulsado por un motor de cola. Su carga de pago puede llegar a 200 kilos y su autonomía puede llegar a las 24 horas alcanzando una distancia máxima de 200 kilómetros de radio desde la unidad de control terrestre, y una altitud máxima de 7.900 metros. En cuanto a su precio unitario, no baja de 2 millones de dólares. En la actualidad, el fabricante está desarrollando ya un modelo más grande (4.000 kilos) que podrá ir armado con misiles.

 

Otra firma turca que está pegando con fuerza es Baykar. Hace un año recibió un pedido de diez unidades Bayraktar-Çaldiran con destino a Qatar, por un valor de 25 millones de dólares. A diferencia de los Anka, estos pequeños UAVs tácticos pesan tan solo 500 Kg y pueden llevar 40 kg de carga de pago.

 

Sin embargo, no son los menores de su familia: Hay tambien un modelo mini que pesa tan sólo 4.6 Kg y está propulsado por un motor eléctrico alimentado por baterías. Con una autonomía máxima de 60 minutos, puede operar en un radio de 15 Kilómetros desde la estación de control terrestre. Pequeño pero eficaz, viene siendo utilizado por el Ejército Turco desde el año 2006.

Secret American drone airbase in Saudi Arabia exposed

The American media has been in an uproar over the past week over reports on the existence of a secret American drone base built in Saudi Arabia for launching unmanned aerial reconnaissance and strike missions against Al-Qaida targets in Yemen and perhaps other countries such as Iran. Since the news came out, reporters and bloggers have been feverishly searching satellite footage documenting the base's existence, but it hasn't been easy. There are no aircraft to be seen in the pictures but the base contains three clamshell-shaped hangars, large enough to contain Predator or Reaper drones, the types most typically used by the United States Air Force and Central Intelligence Agency when conducting secret activity in the region, as well as, two relatively short runways. The base apparently supports missions over Yemen but the range of the drones would enable them to fly over other nations, including crossing the Persian Gulf to Iran. (Read more)

U.S. Weighs Base for Spy Drones in North Africa

A handful of unarmed Predator drones would carry out surveillance missions in the region. The Africa Command’s plan still needs approval from the Pentagon and eventually from the White House. If approved, the base could ultimately have as many as 300 United States military and contractor personnel, but it would probably begin with far fewer people than that, military officials said. (Read more)

Wary eyes shift to the skies as unmanned aircraft are tested in state

 

Unmanned aircraft are being tested in Oklahoma for possible civilian uses, such as by police departments. But testing of the state-of-the-art crafts also has raised privacy concerns. (Read more)