Insitu Inc., Bingen,Washington, is being awarded $22,728,810 for modification P00030 to a previously awarded firm-fixed-price, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract (N00019-13-D-0016).
No funds will be obligated at the time of award. Funding will be obligated on individual task orders as they are issued. The Naval Air Systems Command, Patuxent River, Maryland, is the contracting activity.
This modification provides for additional field service representatives, training and program management services for the ScanEagle Unmanned Aviation System in support of Navy Special Warfare fleet operations. Work will be performed in Bagram, Afghanistan (83 percent); and Bingen, Washington (27 percent), and is expected to be completed in September 2018.
According with Arutz Sheva, Iran has revealed a previously unseen Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) base in a new video released today, coming amid rising tensions with Washington.
The clip shows a long line of UAVs parked on the tarmac at an undisclosed air base. Iran is estimated to have considerable UAV capabilities, but today is the first time it has ever revealed its UAV's base.
¿More reasons to worry? OK: Tensions have been rising between the Islamic Republic and Washington ever since President Trump instituted new sanctions in July over its ballistic missile program, but Iran also announced yesterday that it was testing its new Bavar-373 air defense system, which it claims rivals the Russian S-300.
The state of the art of DE (Directed Energy) technologies against UAVs (and many other targets) were exposed by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), at the recent Air Force Association Conference in Washington, D.C. Let us see them briefly:
Microwave
A single High Power Microwave (HPM) weapon could provide low-collateral damage of multiple targets.
It is an alternative to the kinetic means of defeating an emitting/electronic target.
The next step will be to design, develop and test a multi-shot, multi-target HPM cruise missile.
Laser: COIL vs HEL
The Chemical-Oxygen Iodine Laser (COIL) technology demonstrated by the Boeing YAL-1 Airborne Laser Testbed has effectively been superseded by solid-state high-energy lasers.
The next step, by 2022, will be to repackage a HEL (High Energy Laser) in the 10kW-class into a pod that could be carried by an F-15 fighter. Such an airborne HEL could engage and defeat enemy aircraft or air-to-air missiles at moderate range, or provide precise and selectable (power), low-collateral attack of ground targets.
Later in the next decade, a sixth-generation fighter could carry an efficient, lightweight HEL in the 100kW class with a conformal aperture beam.
Officials of the Naval Air Systems Command at Patuxent River Naval Air Station, Md.,awarded an $8.8 million contract this week to Boeing Insitu Inc. in Bingen, Wash., for one low-rate-initial-production of RQ-21A Blackjack UAV, to include air vehicles, ground control stations, launch and recovery equipment, and air vehicle support equipment.
The Boeing Insitu RQ-21 is a twin-boom, single-engine, monoplane UAV for surveillance and reconnaissance. The Blackjack — so-named last September — is eight feet long with a 16-foot wingspan designed to carry multi-sensor payloads in large pod below its nose. The UAV can fly as fast as 104 miles per hour, cruises at 63 miles per hour, can fly as long as 24 hours, and can fly as high as 19,500 feet.
It is a version of the Insitu Integrator UAV. The multi-mission RQ-21A Blackjack’s open-architecture payload bays can be customized with visible-light and infrared cameras, communications and other tools to give warfighters on the forward edge of battle situational awareness information. The Blackjack’s standard sensor payload consists of a visible-light imager, mid-wave infrared imager, laser rangefinder, infrared marker, communications, and Automatic Identification System (AIS).
The RQ-21A will provide persistent maritime and land-based tactical Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA) data collection and dissemination capabilities to the warfighter. For the Navy the Blackjack will provide persistent RSTA information to Navy ships, Marine Corps land forces, Navy expeditionary combat command forces and Navy special warfare units. In the future the U.S. Air Force may use the RQ-21A for persistent RSTA for security forces, integrated base defense, convoy protection, and weather analysis.
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.
Hace unas horas, Iran ha anunciado que tiene ya la capacidad tecnológica necesaria para fabricar copias del UAV (Unmanned Air Vehicle) norteamericano Lockheed Martin RQ-170 "Sentinel" capturado hace un año. Avaz Heidarpour, miembro del comité de seguridad nacional, ha declarado que mediante el uso de ingeniería inversa los militares iraníes han logrado reproducir el RQ-170 "Sentinel" y tienen la posibilidad de poner en marcha una línea de producción. Como banderilla, Heidarpour ha añadido que la producción del Sentinel costó a los Estados Unidos alrededor de 20.000 millones de dólares, pero esa costosa tecnología está ahora en posesión de Irán.
Hagamos memoria
El Sentinel fue capturado en Diciembre de 2011. Iran declaró que lo había interceptado y hecho bajar, pero fuentes oficiales de Estados Unidos declararon que el UAV había sufrido una avería y tuvo que aterrizar. Washington pidió su devolución, pero Teherán no sólo se nego a devolverlo, sino que publicó unas imágenes de militares iraníes examinando el UAV capturado.
¿Qué hay de cierto en todo este asunto?
Iran anuncia con frecuencia innovaciones tecnológicas y militares, la mayoría de las cuales resultan imposibles de confirmar, y al menos una hasta ahora tenía toda la pinta de ser un montaje fotográfico. Ahora bien: El Ministro de Ciencia, Investigación y Tecnología Mohammad
Mahdinejad declaró la semana pasada que Iran está exportando sus UAVs domésticos a varios países, incluyendo Siria y Venezuela. Mahdinejad dijo que Iran es ahora un líder global en tecnología de UAVs y que sus exportaciones así lo demuestran. ¿Es posible todo esto? Como posible, todo es posible. Pero cabe ponerlo en duda: Es relativamente fácil y asequible para un conjunto de ingenieros aeronauticos escanear una pieza en 3D, y reproducirla posteriormente. Ahora bien: ¿Y la electrónica? ¿Y el firmware? Eso ya no estan fácil de reproducir, y aun cuando se reprodujese la electrónica, falta decodificar el firmware. Claro que, si han sido capaces de interceptarlo y hacerlo aterrizar, desde luego tienen bastantes conocimientos, lo cual resulta inquietante habida cuenta de su beligerancia contra Israel.
¿Qué es el Sentinel?
El RQ-170 Sentinel es un UAV fabricado por Lockheed Martin bajo encargo de la USAF (United Stater Air Force) con el fin de ser usado en el marco de la Operación Libertad Duradera sobre Afganistán. Está desarrollado por Skun Works, filial de Lockheed Martin. Su diseño es de ala volante y cuenta con con sensores alojados en los márgenes de cada ala. No porta armamento.
