Sep 11, 2013 ASDNews Source : Orbital Sciences Corp.

    Coyote Naval Targets Program Marks 10 Years of Successful Development and Operational Flights

    34 Low-Altitude and 6 High-Altitude Launches Conducted Since 2003

Orbital Sciences Corporation (NYSE: ORB), one of the world’s leading space technology companies, today announced it successfully launched its 40th Coyote supersonic sea-skimming target (SSST) vehicle for the U.S. Navy. The mission included consecutive launches of two Coyote missiles from the Pacific Missile Range in Hawaii. Each of the Coyote missiles was rail-launched from the coast, executed their planned flight patterns and provided a successful target presentation for the customer.

“Since the flight test program began in 2003, we have achieved a very high rate of success with the Coyote SSST system,” said Orbital’s Coyote Program Manager Keven Leith. “Tests of this nature can be costly for customers to conduct from a logistics standpoint. However, the Coyote’s low production cost and outstanding operational track record have provided an excellent value for our customers. Our dedicated SSST product team has worked hard to ensure the success of this program.”

The Coyote program, managed by the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) at the Patuxent River Naval Air Station in Maryland, launched the first test flight of the unguided target in January 2003. This was followed by six additional test flights, each with increasing capabilities, in 2003 and 2004. In 2005, the vehicle began full operations, now having launched 40 targets to date with an extremely high success rate. Coyote targets have been launched from three ranges including San Nicholas Island, California; Kauai, Hawaii; and Levant, France. Additional launch site capabilities are planned for the future to support the operations of current and new customers.

The design of the Coyote target vehicle integrates a four-inlet, solid-fuel ducted-rocket ramjet propulsion system into a compact missile airframe 18 feet long and 14 inches in diameter. Ramjet supersonic takeover speed is achieved using a decommissioned Navy MK 70 solid rocket motor for the first stage. Rail-launched from naval test and training ranges, the highly maneuverable Coyote has two optional flight trajectories: sea-skimmer and high-altitude. Originally designed as a sea-skimming supersonic target, Coyote has completed 34 low-altitude, Mach 2.5-class flights since 2003. These missions included altitudes as low as 15 feet, maneuverability up to 12 Gs of lateral acceleration, and ranges of up to 55 nautical miles. Introduced three years ago, the high-altitude variant of Coyote has completed six Mach 3.25-class flights since 2010. These included altitudes up to 40,000 feet, power dives at user-specified downward angles, and ranges up to 120 nautical miles.

25 June 2012 army-technology.com

General Dynamics UK has received a contract from the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) to supply the first systems information exploitation / health and usage monitoring system (SIE/HUMS) to the British Army.

Under the £4m deal, the company will install the systems in a total of 578 vehicles, including six protected patrol vehicle (PPV) variants in the operational training fleet to help enhance their availability and operations.

Armoured vehicles to be equipped with SIE/HUMS include the Mastiff, Ridgback, Husky, Jackal, Coyote and Wolfhound.

According to GD, the selection was based on the cost-effectiveness of the solution and also took into consideration the company's previous work, which included integration of more than 15,000 vehicles from the British Army's fleet.

The SIE/HUMS system is designed to enable operators and fleet managers to optimise vehicle use and minimise maintenance by providing accurate performance data, obtained through monitoring of onboard systems.

"The SIE/HUMS system is designed to enable operators and fleet managers to optimise vehicle use and minimise maintenance by providing accurate performance data, obtained through monitoring of onboard systems."

Data gathered will also help the personnel to enhance fleet availability, which will deliver an improved army vehicle fleet-management capability, in addition to allowing conditioned-based maintenance where lightly-used vehicles receive less work, which will eventually reduce maintenance costs.

The data collected and analysed by the system will range from engine management-system data, such as oil and water temperature, speed, distance travelled, and performance, to information about shocks and vibration, excessive vehicle speed or high fuel consumption.

Once the data is collected, operators conduct a statistical time-based analysis to identify potential problems; as more information is gathered, prognostics will also allow for better preventative maintenance practices, which contribute to increasing fleet availability.

The system is designed to be generic vehicle architecture (GVA) compliant and can plug-and-play with other GVA devices to improve onboard capabilities, as well as being modified through software configuration to record data as required.