BAE arms fury UAV with new missile

David Donald

Thursday, 19 June, 2008

Last week, BAE Systems unveiled its Fury UAV, armed with Thales UK Lightweight Multirole Missile System (LiMMS), which had been made public only days before. The Fury is an armed reconnaissance and close support UAV, based on the piston-engined HERTI surveillance platform, which was used successfully during 2007 in support of UK forces in Afghanistan.

Fury shares the airframe and some system components with HERTI, but combines new mission system avionics and a new stores management system with a proven weapons guidance system. Working in partnership with the Belfast-based Thales Air Systems missile business (formerly Shorts), BAE Systems has already undertaken firing trials of LiMMS using a static Fury airframe, while target acquisition has been demonstrated in the air. Airborne live-fire trials are the next stage.

Thales began LiMMS development in January last year to offer a low-cost precision attack capability for helicopters and UAVs. It uses elements from the company's Starstreak air-to-air missile and has a Roxel two-stage solid propellant motor and 3kg blast/fragmentation warhead. It weights 13kg. Guidance is by laser seeker, although Thales is working on alternatives, including a GPS/inertial solution.

As well as its application on the Fury and other UAVs, LiMMS is being proposed as a weapon for the Apache and Furture Lynx helicopters. It has been tested from a suspended Schiebel Camcopter rotary-wing UAV, which can carry two. LiMMS is not indented as an anti-armour weapon, but has great potential against a wide range of targets where precision is required. This includes employment at sea against small vessels.