Non-Subscriber Extract
Revolution or curiosity? UCAVs wait for a mission statement
- Article Tools
| 11 November 2005 |
By Bill Sweetman, IDR Aerospace and Technology Editor
Everyone agrees that UCAVs [Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles] are the answer," one speaker commented at a recent conference on unmanned combat air vehicles. "We just have to figure out what the question is."
Like most good jokes this one happens to be rooted in truth. Fast-jet UCAV projects are gathering momentum. The US Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) project is still the biggest unmanned aircraft technology project around despite a USD1 billion cutback. It seems likely to survive the forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) intact: as one insider observes, "if they were going to kill it they would have done it".
The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has terminated its Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) programme, which included UCAV, manned and cruise-missile studies, and is focusing on the UCAV. Under a little-discussed effort called Project Churchill, the UK's long-running and highly classified work into UCAVs and home-grown stealth technology is being linked to J-UCAS. Apparently, the goal is that a future UK-developed UCAV will be fully interoperable with J-UCAS systems.
Cut off by fog in the English Channel as usual, much of the rest of Europe's industry has joined a French-led initiative to build and fly a stealthy UCAV demonstrator named Neuron. A final contract for Neuron development was imminent in November and the vehicle is now expected to be flying in 2010. Meanwhile, major defence customers such as Australia are looking at adding UCAVs to their fleets around 2020.
Despite all the progress to date, the USAF is still uncertain over what kind of operational UCAV it wants to deploy. "If you ask 10 USAF generals what they want the J-UCAS to do you will get 10 different answers," says one USAF officer close to the programme. Within the programme office, there is an increasing belief that "one platform cannot do it all - you need a couple, maybe three". For example, these could include a very stealthy, smaller penetrator; an X-47B-sized carrier (CV) vehicle for the US Navy, for deep strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions; and a much larger US Air Force (USAF) platform, more in the bomber than the fighter class.
One industry insider observes that the "fighter mafia that runs the air force" has made several efforts to kill the UCAV, and that a bigger, longer-range UCAV may be more acceptable because it is less of a competitor to manned fighters. "We do not want to get in the ring with the F/A-22," he said, adding: "Whether you talk to us or our competition, the USAF is not interested in buying something the size of the demonstrator aircraft."
431 of 4,797 words
Short version (47 words)
Everyone agrees that UCAVs [Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles] are the answer," one speaker commented at a recent conference on unmanned combat air vehicles. "We just have to figure out what the question is."