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Europe wakens to Males.
Drones are the most upwardly dynamic aerospace sector, with growth rates that manufacturers of traditional aircraft can only dream of. The Pentagon's FY11 budget request for drones is only 7.4% of the aircraft total, but this represents a solid $ 4.1 billion. The Teal Group's 2010 market study estimates the current worldwide expenditure on unmanned air vehicles at $ 4.9 billion.
Progress is being made across a broad spectrum of drone-relevant technologies, from stealthy airframes to low Reynolds Number (less than 15,000) aerodynamics, flapping wings, slowed helicopter rotors, ducted fans, foliage-penetrating radars, fuel cells and heavy fuel engines. Expanding Capabilities Aside from providing ISR (intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance) and target facilities, drones are already employed in roles such as electronic and counter-mine warfare and (in the form of GPS-guided parafoils) for front-line resupply. Requirements are being developed for casualty evacuation by drones and for cargo deliveries by (self-recovering) unmanned helicopters. Tests using General Atomics MQ-9 Reapers are investigating the prospects for such air vehicles detecting and tracking cruise and ballistic missiles, through triangulated infrared sensing. The development of the Ucav (unmanned combat air vehicle) is this year being advanced significantly, as the US Navy's Northrop Grumman X-47B or Ucas-D makes its maiden flight, with carrier trials scheduled for 2012. Other important new operational concepts include the aerial refuelling of drones, which Boeing hopes to explore with the X-45C Phantom Ray, due to fly before the end of 2010. The US Air Force plans to refuel future high-performance drones from existing tankers. In the long term, the US Air Force sees a family of large multi-role drones (MQ-L) with duties including tanking. The MQ-La of around 2020 will be primarily devoted to Sigint duties, with potential to replace Awacs and JStars. The later MQLb will add transport and tanker roles. The MQLc will take in global strike. Air and Sub Launches The launching of small 'attritable' drones from conventional aircraft and larger, more expensive drones is being evaluated. An early example of an air-launched small drone (AL-Suas) was the Naval Research Laboratory's air-sampling Finder, tested from a General Atomics Predator in 2002. Another was the Raytheon Silenteyes, ejected from an Ale-50 towed decoy launcher on an MQ-9 during a test in 2004. More recently, in a demonstration for the US Army, a Northrop Grumman MQ-8B deployed ground robots. Originally developed by Advanced Ceramics Research (which has since been taken over by BAE Systems), the 5.9-kg tandem-wing Coyote has recently been launched from the sonobuoy tube of a Lockheed Martin P-3. The Coyote is an electrically powered sensor platform with an endurance of 90 minutes. Boeing's swing-wing Scaneagle Compressed Carriage (Secc), designed to be dropped from an aircraft such as the Boeing P-8A and to be slowed by ballute and parachute prior to wing extension, may also be developed to suit launch from a submarine's Trident tubes. The US Army's Boeing AH-64D Apache Block III will come with Level IV drone control, which excludes only the take-off and landing phases. This will allow the Apache to receive and transmit real-time drone imagery and metadata. In ...See the full content of this document
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