Summary
Drones 2009 - Company overview
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Practical lessons ... and remedies.
One important lesson from recent military operations is that, when the adversary has modern air-defence systems, most drones become slow-flying, sore-thumb targets. This first happened on a significant scale over Kosovo in 1999, when at least 30 of the 47 Nato drones lost are believed to have been shot down by Serbian air defences.
A future vision of tactical air defence was provided in December 2008, when a Boeing Laser Avenger ground vehicle acquired and tracked three small drones, before shooting down one of them. Other significant air defence enhancements include Raytheon's optical proximity fuze developed for the Stinger missile as well as Rheinmetall Air Defence's Ahead ammunition. Another practical lesson is that big, beyond-line-of-sight ISR drones, in generating masses of data to be processed on the ground, demand much from the available bandwidth. Also, that there are too few geostationary satellites over southwest Asia to handle the traffic. This shortcoming of drones has encouraged the acquisition of manned sensor platforms, such as the US Army's C-12R Constant Hawk and the US Marine Corps' rival Angel Fire. Both aim to provide wide-area persistent video imagery over city-sized areas, and are important elements in a multi-service effort to counter roadside bombs. Responding to an April 2008 instruction by the Secretary of Defense to deploy more ISR assets in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US Air Force has launched Project Liberty. This programme will form three squadrons from 37 Beechcraft MC-12W King Airs with Sigint facilities and L-3 Wescam MX-15-series turrets, providing day/night full-motion video (FMV). In Afghanistan Britain's RAF operates radar-equipped King Airs under the designation Shadow R1. The Iraqi Air Force has King Airs with General Atomics Lynx radars. The following review considers drone sensor platforms, broadly in reducing order of size, followed by unmanned combat air vehicles (Ucav), targets and decoys. Engines, sensors and control stations are discussed separately. Extreme Endurance Free from the constraints imposed by human aircrews, drones can, in principle, develop into sensor and communication-relay platforms that may eventually remain on station almost indefinitely. Extreme endurance has already been achieved by tethered lighter-than-air (LTA) drones. The Raytheon/Tcom Raid (Rapid Aerostat Initial Deployment) forms part of the US Army's Betss (Base Expeditionary Targeting and Surveillance System) in Afghanistan and Iraq. In Raid, aerostat-mounted infrared sensors work with Eagle Eye motion-detection radars on towers and masts. Several countries, including Israel and India, use Tcom aerostats equipped with Elta radars. Another current system is Israel's Aeronautics Defense Systems' Skystar 300 aerostat with Speed-A stabilised electro-optical sensors, as recently purchased by Mexico. The US Army's Raytheon/Tcom Jlens (Joint Land Attack Elevated Netted Sensor) programme will use an aerostat-mounted 3175-kg payload of surveillance and fire control radars to detect and track incoming cruise missiles, tactical ballistic missiles and moving surface vehicles. Testing of two systems will begin in 2011, clearing the way for 14 production systems. Moving from tethered to free-...See the full content of this document
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