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Advanced UAV developers weigh speed against endurance
By Brooks Tigner
03 June 2008
Industry partners behind a joint German-Franco-Spanish project to create a new twin-engine surveillance and reconnaissance unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are focusing on long-distance/endurance capabilities versus short-range ones, say industry officials.
The Advanced UAV (A-UAV) project - led by EADS Defence, Thales and Indra - is reviewing two possible prototype configurations, a short-range, fast reconnaissance version (FR) and a long-distance surveillance and reconnaissance version (SR).
"Our customers are interested in SR. Their drivers are distance to theatre, size of the surveillance area and frequency of re-visit time," Peter Hunkel, EADS' programme manager, Advanced UAV Military Air Systems, told Jane's during the ILA 2008 Air Show in Berlin.
The team will draw on lessons learned from EADS' Barracuda UAV demonstrator, a twin-jet vehicle of modular, carbon-fibre design unveiled in 2006, although a subsequent crash brought the project to a halt.
Image: Lessons learned from EADS' Barracuda project will inform the new European A-UAV (EADS)