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3 décembre 2012 1 03 /12 /décembre /2012 17:30

Neuron 01 dec 2012 photo2 dassault-aviation.com

 

03 décembre 2012 Usine nouvelle (Reuters)

 

Le démonstrateur de drone de combat Neuron a réussi le 1er décembre son tout premier vol à Istres, dans les Bouches-du-Rhône. Il couronne près de dix ans d'efforts de six pays européens emmenés par la France et Dassault Aviation.

 

Dix années d'efforts conjoints de six pays européens emmenés par la France et Dassault Aviation ont été nécessaire pour arriver à cette première étape. Une fois la centaine de vols d'essais du Neuron réalisés, d'ici deux ans, l'avionneur tricolore compte participer à la préparation de la prochaine génération d'avions de combat, avec ou sans pilote, attendue dans les années 2030.

 

Le Neuron a atterri samedi à 8h45 à Istres après 25 minutes de vol sans aucune difficulté, avec plusieurs mois de retard sur le calendrier prévu.

 

Lancé en 2003, le programme Neuron, d'un budget de plus de 400 millions d'euros, est piloté par la Délégation générale de l'armement (DGA) et Dassault Aviation, qui joue le rôle de maître d'oeuvre.

 

L'avionneur français, concepteur de l'avion de combat Rafale, a entraîné dans son sillage le suédois Saab, qui fabrique le Gripen et l'italien Alenia (Finmeccanica, qui fait partie du consortium Eurofighter avec EADS et le britannique BAE Systems.

 

L'espagnol EADS-CASA, le grec Hellenic Aerospace Industry (HAI) et le suisse Ruag sont également de la partie.

 

Pendant ce temps, BAE Systems, avec qui Dassault Aviation coopère dans les drones de surveillance, mène son propre projet similaire, Taranis, avec un premier vol prévu en 2013.

 

AUTONOMIE

 

Le Neuron peut effectuer un vol complet sans recevoir aucun ordre et peut rectifier de lui-même des situations critiques, un avantage crucial dans une zone de combat où il vole beaucoup plus vite que les drones de surveillance actuels.

 

Mais s'il n'y a pas de pilote dans l'avion, le pilote est bien là, dans un "shelter", étroite baraque installée au bout de la piste d'Istres, la plus longue d'Europe. A tout instant, installé face à des écrans similaires à un cockpit, il peut reprendre la main. A ses côtés, un deuxième opérateur vérifie le bon fonctionnement des équipements informatiques.

 

"Parfois, il nous arrive d'oublier qu'on n'est pas dedans", raconte Olivier Ferrer, dit "Nino", ancien pilote de chasse de l'aéronavale devenu pilote d'essai pour Dassault Aviation.

 

"Même s'il n'y a pas de manche de manette, tous les ordres qu'on donne sont quasiment les mêmes que pour un avion".

 

Le pilote reste en contact permanent avec une "salle d'écoute", l'équivalent d'une tour de contrôle.

 

Après avoir reçu à Istres des pièces des six pays d'Europe participant au programme, le Neuron a démarré ses essais au sol qui ont mobilisé 300 personnes depuis fin 2011.

 

Comme ceux qui suivront, ce premier vol d'essai a été réalisé au-dessus de zones faiblement peuplées - moins de 15 habitants au km2 - pour limiter les risques.

 

Le deuxième vol attendra quatre mois. Entre-temps, l'avion sera envoyé au Centre d'essai d'électronique de l'armement de la DGA à Bruz, près de Rennes, où des tests seront réalisés pour vérifier qu'il est bien le plus furtif possible.

 

"L'idée, c'est d'être aussi invisible qu'un moineau. Le moineau de Paris est gris, discret, ne se voit pas, se fond dans l'environnement", explique Didier Gondoin, directeur général technique de Dassault Aviation, qui a dirigé le programme Rafale de 1998 à 2005.

 

Le Neuron devra ainsi demeurer en dessous des seuils de détection des radars, réglés de façon à ne pas détecter les vols d'oiseaux.

 

De la même manière, le moteur de l'avion a été dissimulé pour éviter que la chaleur émise ne soit détectable par les radars infrarouge.

 

Long de 10 mètres, le Neuron a une envergure d'environ 12,5 mètres - légèrement supérieure à celle d'un Mirage 2000 - et peut peser sept tonnes une fois ses deux soutes d'armement chargées.

 

Sur la centaine de vols d'essais prévus, 80 seront effectués à Istres et les autres en Italie et en Suède. Le Neuron sera confronté à des avions de combat de type Rafale ou Gripen et à des radars de détection et des batteries antiaériennes.

 

"On va confronter la nouvelle épée qui est Neuron face aux boucliers que sont les systèmes de détection", résume Patrick Castagnos, directeur des essais en vol de Dassault Aviation.

 

Mais si les Etats ont beaucoup partagé dans la conception du Neuron, ces données-là, ils les garderont pour eux.

 

L'APRÈS-NEURON

 

L'étape suivante, après 2014, s'appelle "Neuron 2" : il s'agit de préparer un véritable projet de drone de combat européen en assimilant les fruits du travail effectué parallèlement par BAE Systems avec Taranis.

 

Dassault Aviation et BAE ont obtenu en juillet un contrat d'études préliminaire de 13 millions d'euros pour le lancement de la première phase du programme de démonstration du système de combat aérien.

 

Les deux groupes commencent à travailler avec le motoriste français Snecma (groupe Safran) et le britannique Rolls-Royce. Pour l'avionique (radars), Dassault Aviation discute avec Thales - dont il est le premier actionnaire industriel avec 26% du capital - et avec l'italien Selex (groupe Finmeccanica).

 

Le tandem semblait l'an dernier en pole position pour le projet de drone de surveillance MALE (Moyenne altitude longue endurance) dans le cadre de la coopération franco-britannique dans la défense scellée depuis fin 2010.

 

Mais l'alternance qui a suivi l'élection présidentielle française a entraîné une remise à plat du dossier et le ministre de la Défense Jean-Yves Le Drian s'est dit peu favorable à la voie choisie par son prédécesseur.

 

La France devrait annoncer prochainement sa décision en matière de drones, un domaine emblématique de la politique de défense des années à venir.

 

Les deux drones (de surveillance et de combat) partagent les mêmes technologies de télécommunications et les mêmes techniques d'essais en vol, fait valoir Eric Trappier, directeur général international de Dassault Aviation.

 

"Ce serait dommage de rater cette opportunité de faire travailler les mêmes ingénieurs, sinon on va réinventer plusieurs fois la poudre."

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20 novembre 2012 2 20 /11 /novembre /2012 08:10

MQ-4C BAMS Unmanned Aircraft

 

SAN DIEGO, Nov. 19, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE)

 

Team Checking Control Software, Subsystems Prior to Flight Operations

 

Northrop Grumman Corporation and the U.S. Navy have added a second Triton unmanned aircraft to ground testing efforts in late September – part of an initial step in preparation for flight operations.

 

Two Triton unmanned aircraft systems are being used to flight test and mature the system for operational use. Ground testing allows the team to further reduce risks associated with control software and subsystems prior to flight.

 

The first Triton entered ground testing in July after production concluded in June.

 

"Ground testing signifies our steady progress toward conducting Triton's first flight," said Steve Enewold, Northrop Grumman's vice president and program manager for Triton. "Through numerous engine runs and checks with communications systems between the aircraft and ground controllers, we can ensure that everything is working properly before entering taxi testing as the next step in our efforts."

 

Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor to the Navy's MQ-4C Triton Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program. In 2008, the company was awarded a systems development and demonstration contract to build two aircraft and test them in preparation for operational missions by late 2015.

 

The Navy's program of record calls for 68 Tritons to be built.

 

Triton provides a detailed picture of surface vessels to identify threats across vast areas of ocean and littoral areas. With its ability to fly missions up to 24 hours, Triton complements many manned surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft.

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18 novembre 2012 7 18 /11 /novembre /2012 08:55

CH-3-drone.jpg

 

Nov. 17, 2012 washingtonpost.com (AP)

 

Pakistan’s largest drone, the Shahpur, has a wingspan of about seven meters (22 feet) and can carry 50 kilograms (110 pounds). The U.S. Predator, which can be equipped with two Hellfire missiles, has a wingspan more than twice that and a payload capacity over four times as great.

 

Pakistani drones also have much more limited range than those produced in the U.S. because they are operated based on “line of sight” using radio waves, rather than military satellites. The Shahpur has a maximum range of 250 kilometers (150 miles), while the Predator can fly over five times that distance.

 

The British newspaper The Guardian reported Tuesday that Pakistan was working on an armed drone but did not provide details.

 

The market for drones has exploded in Pakistan and other countries around the world in recent years, as shown by the array of aircraft on display at the defense exhibition in Karachi. Hoping to tap into a worldwide market worth billions of dollars a year, public and private companies wheeled out over a dozen drones that ranged in size from hand-held models meant to be carried in a backpack to larger aircraft like the Shahpur.

 

All the Pakistani drones on display were advertised as unarmed and meant for surveillance only. One private company, Integrated Dynamics, even promotes its aircraft under the slogan “Drones for Peace.” But several models developed by the Chinese government were marketed as capable of carrying precision missiles and bombs.

 

The Chinese government has offered to sell Pakistan an armed drone it has produced, the CH-3, which can carry two laser-guided missiles or bombs, industry insiders said.

 

Also being offered to Pakistan is a more advanced drone, the CH-4, which closely resembles a U.S. Reaper and can carry four laser-guided missiles or bombs, according to Li Xiaoli, a representative of the Chinese state-owned company that produces both the CH-3 and CH-4, Aerospace Long-march International Trade Co., Ltd.

 

Pakistan has yet to purchase any armed Chinese drones because their capabilities have yet to be proven, but is likely to do so in the future, said the civilian with knowledge of the Pakistani military’s drone program.

 

Only a few countries, including the U.S., Britain and Israel, are known to have actually used armed drones in military operations.

 

“China is a bit of a tough nut to crack as you’d expect,” said Huw Williams, a drone expert at Jane’s International Defense Review. “They frequently wheel out exciting looking aircraft but are yet to really demonstrate anything earthshattering.”

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16 novembre 2012 5 16 /11 /novembre /2012 17:35

Yi Long UAV pic1

 

November 16, 2012 China Military News

 

2012-11-16 — China is flexing its muscles as an arms exporter with a growing array of indigenous weaponry, offering something for most budgets in the global arms bazaar and revealing its wider ambitions to strategic rivals and watchful neighbours.

 

As a new leadership was anointed in Beijing and the world looked on to see what direction it might take over the next decade, military officials from Africa to Southeast Asia were shopping for Chinese weapons in the country’s south.

 

Change has come fast in China, now the world’s second-largest economy, and with its rise has come a new sense of military assertiveness with a growing budget to develop modern warfare equipment including aircraft carriers and drones.

 

All the signs point to newly named Communist Party chief Xi Jinping, who is slated to become president next March, continuing China’s aggressive military modernisation.

 

Now the world’s fourth-largest arms exporter, China laid out its wares this week at an air show in Zhuhai, a palm-lined port between Macau and Hong Kong that becomes a heavily armed industry showcase every other November.

 

In the 10 years to 2011, China’s foreign military sales have increased 95 percent, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

 

Among dozens of items shown publicly for the first time this week were Chinese attack helicopters, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles and air defences. As usual, the exhibit halls contained everything from shoulder-fired weapons to cruise missiles.

 

“China is getting more aggressive in the export market as its own industrial base develops,” said Doug Barrie, senior fellow for Military Aerospace at the London-based International Institute for Strategic Studies.

 

“It looks at Russia and the U.S. as examples of how you can use the export arena to help develop your own industries.”

 

Between them, Washington and Moscow account for more than half of the world’s $410 billion in arms sales, but opportunities abound for China as the United States looks to cut its military spending to manage its mounting debt.

 

Still, U.S. spending dwarfs that of China. In its annual report on the Chinese military, the Pentagon in May estimated Beijing’s total 2012 spending would be between $120 billion and $180 billion. Washington will spend $614 billion on its military this year.

 

Most of Beijing’s trade is done with small states outside of the European Union, which like the United States, put China under an arms embargo after the crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests in 1989.

 

Pakistan, Bangladesh, Iran and Myanmar are among China’s biggest clients, with aircraft at the top of their shopping lists, SIPRI data shows.

 

Beijing does not release official figures for arms sales. Foreign estimates put the figure at about $2 billion in 2011.

 

STAR OF SHOW: STEALTH FIGHTER

 

Shenyang J-31 photo Greg Waldron Flightglobal

 

The undisputed star of the show this week was a sleek, quarter-sized model of China’s second stealth fighter, dubbed the J-31 by most Western analysts.

 

Although officially a concept plane, it bore what industry bible Aviation Week called a “striking resemblance” to a mystery jet that flew briefly at the end of October.

 

Photographs of the jet leaked, or orchestrated to look like a leak, and emerged on the Internet days before this week’s Communist Party Congress and leadership handover, and confirmed China’s place in a select club of stealth-capable nations.

 

“China has stood up,” said John Pike, director of Virginia-based GlobalSecurity.org, an expert on industry strategy.

 

Only the United States has successfully produced more than one stealth jet and the challenges facing China’s less experienced developers are undoubtedly immense.

 

The unveiling also served as a reminder to its neighbours of China’s growing clout as tensions rise over rival claims for territory in the East China Sea and South China Sea.

 

“China is doing this as part of a political equation,” said Robert Hewson, editor of IHS Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons. “It has had a rapidly staged coming out but I am surprised to see it here so soon.”

 

By mixing domestic and international messages, the model also filled a void left by the absence of top Chinese government officials distracted by the transition in Beijing.

 

BASIC BUT RELIABLE

 

The business end of the show is about present-day realities.

 

After relying heavily on Russian and to a lesser extent Israeli technology in the 1990s, China is pushing exports of home-grown equipment to expand its influence in areas like Africa where it is busy buying land and forging new allies.

 

“The Chinese used to simply produce cheap knockoffs of their basic Russian equipment. They have made very considerable advances, but still have problems, particularly with engines,” said Simon Wezeman, senior researcher at the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.

 

“On some technology, they are now competitive on technology with European arms exports and very competitive on price.”

 

China has sold defence systems and co-developed a derivative of a Russian fighter with Pakistan and done smaller deals with African countries. There is also interest from Latin America.

 

Western analysts say China has a reputation for selling basic but reliable equipment with relatively few questions asked about its use, a key selling point.

 

But the range of products on display in Zhuhai is both increasing and gradually moving up in value, while remaining a decade or two behind the most advanced U.S. equipment.

 

COPYCAT APPROACH

 

For the first time at Zhuhai, China showed an export version of a long-range surface-to-air missile, the truck-mounted FD-2000, and a Predator-style UAV called the Wing Loong.

 

There was also a focus on systems that build relationships such as the L-15 trainer, which won its first export deal to an unidentified country at the show.

 

Admittedly, China’s other reputation for copying what it cannot make is unlikely to disappear any time soon.

 

A parlour game among delegates is to tick off the similarities between Chinese systems and foreign platforms.

 

“When you come and see these aircraft you relate them to what you have seen before. The K-8 is a Hawk, the J-10 a Eurofighter, the L-15 an Aermacchi M-346,” said an officer with an African air force delegation, asking not to be identified.

 

“That is why some people don’t want to send their planes here. You come back in five years and it’s called a J-something.”

 

Organisers said a record 650 companies from 38 countries showed up to present exhibits at the ninth Zhuhai show.

 

A few yards and a Chinese wall separate the military part of the show and Western aerospace suppliers striking deals with China’s fledgling civil aerospace industry.

 

This week’s flying displays included a surprise debut of the Z-10 months after U.S. company United Technologies admitted selling software that helped Beijing develop its first modern military attack helicopter.

 

“China’s aviation industry is turning out reasonably decent products,” said Pike in a telephone interview. “They are not there yet and they have a long way to go. But they are open for business.”

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26 octobre 2012 5 26 /10 /octobre /2012 07:20

RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 - Northrop Grumman

 

October 25, 2012 LtCol Jacek Sonta / Press spokesman for MOD - defpro.com

 

Polish Minister of National Defence Tomasz Siemoniak declared Poland's participation in AGS - NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance system at NATO ministerial in Brussels in October.

Application dated October 19 on joining the system by Poland is a result of the decision of Minister of National Defence and an announcement of Polish President during NATO summit in Chicago this year, during which AGS program was included in Defence Package.
AGS is one of the flagship initiatives of NATO. It has a key meaning for transformation of the Alliance and for development of its defence capabilities up to 2020. Realisation of the Defence Package guarantees reaching the capabilities necessary for accomplishing tasks set in Strategic Concept from 2010 including task of collective defence (article 5 of Washington Treaty).

AGS Program is an example of multinational engagement of NATO member states in developed at present Smart Defence initiative.
From Poland's point of view joining AGS Program will be very significant for increasing its meaning and strengthening its position in NATO structures. We will be among 14 NATO states building capabilities within that system and at the same time we gain possibility to strengthen cooperation with countries leading in modern technologies.

Moreover, participation in AGS will enable Polish Armed Forces to complement military capabilities of conducting image reconnaissance and will allow to use it in the future for realisation of national needs or in allied cooperation e.g. during joint exercises.

The AGS Core will be an integrated system consisting of an air segment and a ground segment. Reaching operational readiness is initially planned for 2015. At the moment 13 countries participate in the program: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA and Italy. Canada and Denmark submitted their declarations too.

For more information, please go to http://www.nagsma.nato.int/Pages/AGS_General_Information.aspx

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24 octobre 2012 3 24 /10 /octobre /2012 16:20

RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 - Northrop Grumman

 

2012-10-24 LtCol Jacek Sońta  / Press spokesman for MOD

 

Minister of National Defence Tomasz Siemoniak declared Poland's participation in AGS - NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance system at NATO ministerial in Brussels in October.

 

Application dated October 19 on joining the system by Poland is a result of the decision of Minister of National Defence and an announcement of Polish President during NATO summit in Chicago this year, during which AGS program was included in Defence Package.

 

AGS is one of the flagship initiatives of NATO. It has a key meaning for transformation of the Alliance and for development of its defence capabilities up to 2020. Realisation of the Defence Package guarantees reaching the capabilities necessary for accomplishing tasks set in Strategic Concept from 2010 including task of collective defence (article 5 of Washington Treaty).

 

AGS Program is an example of multinational engagement of NATO member states in developed at present Smart Defence initiative.

 

From Poland's point of view joining AGS Program will be very significant for increasing its meaning and strengthening its position in NATO structures. We will be among 14 NATO states building capabilities within that system and at the same time we gain possibility to strengthen cooperation with countries leading in modern technologies.

 

Moreover, participation in AGS will enable Polish Armed Forces to complement military capabilities of conducting image reconnaissance and will allow to use it in the future for realisation of national needs or in allied cooperation e.g. during joint exercises.

 

* * *

 

The AGS Core will be an integrated system consisting of an air segment and a ground segment. Reaching operational readiness is initially planned for 2015. At the moment 13 countries participate in the program: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Germany, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, USA and Italy. Canada and Denmark submitted their declarations too.

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20 octobre 2012 6 20 /10 /octobre /2012 10:09

Predator over Afghanistan photo USAF

 

19/10/2012 Michel Cabirol – LaTribune.fr

 

Le ministère de la Défense a engagé des discussions informelles avec l'industriel américain, qui fabrique le Predator. Paris veut franciser le drone MALE américain en vue de garder son indépendance opérationnelle vis-à-vis des Etats-Unis.

 

La France et les Etats-Unis discutent à propos d'un achat français d'un drone MALE (Moyenne Altitude, Longue Endurance) américain. Plus précisément, le ministère de la Défense a "entamé à cette fin des discussions informelles avec l'industriel américain General Atomics", fabricant du fameux Predator, a expliqué la semaine dernière le délégué général de l'armement, Laurent Collet-Billon, aux députés de la commission de la défense de l'Assemblée nationale. "Si nous voulons doter nos forces très rapidement de moyens opérationnels, la seule source, ce sont les États-Unis, avec tous les inconvénients" connus, notamment "en matière de maîtrise des logiciels et de certains capteurs". Pourtant la période ne semble pas propice à une accélération des négociations.

 

Pourquoi ? "La période électorale aux États-Unis ne favorise pas un aboutissement immédiat de cette démarche", a-t-il précisé. Surtout et c'est lié, comme le fait valoir, le député PS de Meurthe-et-Moselle, Jean-Yves Le Déaut, "acheter du matériel américain" ne va "pas sans poser des problèmes de codes sources, que les Américains ne livrent jamais, pas même aux Britanniques". En clair, détenir les codes sources, qui relèvent souvent de la souveraineté nationale, c'est contrôler les missions des drones des pays clients, via les systèmes de commucation des drones (liaisons de données). Les pays clients "dépendent opérationnelles des Américains", explique un bon connaisseur du sujet. Cela peut être dérangeant pour la France d'être surveillée par les Etats-Unis ou de soir interdire une opération pour des raisons de stratégie américaine. D'où la volonté de la France de négocier une francisation des capteurs du Predator, qui se heurte aujourd'hui à la campagne présidentielle américaine. L'élection aura lieu le mardi 6 novembre.

 

Une européanisation du drone ?

 

"Nous travaillons sur la possibilité de distinguer la chaîne de pilotage de la chaîne de mission, de manière à doter ces drones de capteurs ou d'armements européens", a détaillé Laurent Collet-Billon. D'où les discussions avec General Atomics, qui ne produit ni les capteurs ni les armements. Pour autant, rappelle le délégué général pour l'armement, la France a réservé des crédits budgétaires à l'achat du système de drone MALE intermédiaire. "J'ai préservé les crédits qui nous permettront en 2013 de commander des drones, notamment le drone MALE intermédiaire", avait confirmé début octobre aux députés le ministre de la Défense, Jean-Yves Le Drian.

 

Pour Laurent Collet-Billon, l'achat du Predator apparait logique dans la mesure où "le Royaume-Uni et l'Italie possèdent déjà des drones de General Atomics. L'Allemagne a déposé en janvier 2012 une demande de FMS - Foreign Military Sale - pour l'acquisition de Predator". En outre, a souligné le délégué général pour l'armement, "l'Allemagne et la France ont engagé une réflexion, en cohérence avec nos travaux avec le Royaume-Uni, sur la possibilité d'entreprendre en commun une démarche d'européanisation des équipements et, progressivement, du drone". À plus long terme, "c'est-à-dire au-delà de 2020, le calendrier dépendra de nos capacités budgétaires et des priorités que nous aurons définies", a-t-il conclu

 

30 millions d'euros dépensés sur le drone Talarion abandonné

 

Sur le projet de drone MALE Talarion développé par EADS, "les crédits dépensés dans le cadre du programme se sont élevés à quelque 30 millions d'euros", a affirmé Laurent Collet-Billon. Et de souligner que "l'opération a été arrêtée parce qu'elle conduisait à un objet trop volumineux qui ne correspondait pas aux besoins de l'armée française". La première partie du travail sur Talarion portait sur la création d'un porteur. "Or cette opération, qui aurait été intégralement réalisée en Allemagne, nous aurait conduits jusqu'en 2017", a-t-il précisé. "Se posait aussi la question de la participation de notre industrie à la réalisation des capteurs. Nous n'avons donc pas poursuivi cette opération. Cela n'a d'ailleurs laissé aucune séquelle dans les relations entre l'Allemagne et la France", a-t-il assuré.

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15 octobre 2012 1 15 /10 /octobre /2012 07:50

Eitan (Heron TP) drone source flightglobal.com

 

Oct 12, 2012 Spacedaily.com (UPI)

 

Tel Aviv, Israel - Israel Aerospace Industries, flagship of the Jewish state's defense sector, is reported to have secured a $958 million contract from India's military to upgrade its IAI-built Heron and Searcher unmanned aerial vehicles.

 

UAVs are one of the biggest money-spinners for Israel's defense industry and India, which is engaged in a massive multiyear rearmament program, is a key customer.

 

Israel's Globes business daily cited Indian media reports that the deal covers some 150 UAVs acquired from IAI since the 1990s that are operated by India's army, air force and navy.

 

The Indian army deploys around 100 Searchers along the country's western, eastern and northern borders. The air force employs Searcher IIs and Herons for reconnaissance and surveillance missions.

 

"Once the upgrades are complete, the air force will be able to use the aircraft for long-range missions and control them through satellite communications systems," Globes reported.

 

Israel is one of the world's leading arms exporters, with most of its key customers in the developing world.

 

The U.S. Congressional Research Service at the Library of Congress reported in August that from 2004-11, Israel signed arms transfer agreements worth $12.9 billion. That ranked it as the eighth largest arms supplier in the world, behind the United States, Russia, France, Britain, Germany, China and Italy.

 

IAI has had major dealings with India in recent years.

 

In early 2006, IAI and the Indian Defense Research Development Organization signed a $480 million contract on missile development. Israeli business sources said the deal was a major boost to IAI's orders backlog at a time when Israel's defense industry, a key revenue earner, had to grapple with a big dip in the global market.

 

IAI won a $1.1 billion deal with the Indian navy in 2009 to provide advanced Barak-8 tactical air-defense missile systems for its warships. The Indian army is jointly funding a project to adapt the Barak-8 into a multipurpose weapons system.

 

Also in 2009, Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems secured a $1 billion contract with New Delhi for 18 Spyder surface-to-air missile systems by 2012.

 

IAI sold the Indian air force three Phalcon early warning aircraft worth $1.1 billion in 2004.

 

All told, Israeli companies have sold India weapons and other military systems worth more than $10 billion over the last decade or so. In 2007, the Jewish state replaced France as India's second largest arms supplier after Russia.

 

India has also expressed interest in Israel's Arrow-2 anti-ballistic missile system jointly manufactured by IAI and the Boeing Co. of the United States.

 

But the technology transfer involved could impede any sale since U.S. approval would be required.

 

With a significant slowdown in the growth of high-tech exports to the United States and Europe, Israeli defense exporters are shifting their marketing focus to Asia.

 

In 2010, Israeli defense sales reached $9.6 billion, with the three largest defense-oriented companies along employing 30,600 people.

 

In March, India blacklisted Israel Military Industries, a major arms manufacturer, for 10 years because of a 2009 bribery scandal that has dogged links between the Jewish state's defense industry and one of its biggest customers.

 

State-owned IMI is the main supplier of defense platforms for the Israeli military and is a significant exporter in the defense field. This sector that has become increasingly crucial to maintaining production lines and developing new systems at a time when the government is slashing Israel's defense budget.

 

The decision by the Indian government "is expected to significantly impact IMI's activities in India, as well as that of other Israeli defense firms," the liberal Haaretz daily reported following the announcement of the blacklisting.

 

"However," Oxford Analytica observed in a December analysis, "these industries are now facing a problem similar to the one they faced in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when they reacted quickly to the lessons learned during the 1973 war and the spate of airline hijackings.

 

"Systems invented at that time included UAVs and sophisticated airport security networks but for a while it was hard to sell these products.

 

"Both systems have since been adopted by the security forces of many countries and form the core of Israeli defense exports."

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29 septembre 2012 6 29 /09 /septembre /2012 08:00

photo-officielle-jean-yves-le-drian

 

28/09 Par Alain Ruello – LesEchos.fr

 

C'est ce que prévoit le projet de budget 2013 du ministère de la Défense. Egalement inscrites, les commandes d'avions ravitailleurs et la hausse des crédits de recherche amont.

 

On ne sait pas encore quoi, mais on sait à peu près combien, et surtout quand. Le projet de loi de finances 2013 du ministère de la Défense nous apprend que parmi les principales commandes budgétées l'année prochaine figure celle d' «un premier » système intermédiaire de drones de surveillance et de reconnaissance Male (moyenne altitude longue endurance). Voila pour la quantité, sachant qu'un système comprend en général une poignée d'aéronefs et les stations au sol nécessaires pour les faire fonctionner. Reste à savoir qui sera l'heureux élu.


A ce stade, la DGA n'en finit pas d'étudier les mérites comparés de la solution poussée par Dassault, basée sur le Heron TP de l'israélien IAI, ou de celle portant sur l'adaptation par Cassidian, la branche défense d'EADS, de Predator de l'américain General Atomics (relire  : Drones  : Jean-Yves Le Drian réserve toujours sa décision).

De nouveaux avions ravitailleurs et de transport

 


Autre bonne surprise, pour Airbus cette fois-ci, le budget 2013, prévoit l'achat de nouveaux avions ravitailleurs et de transport. Il est temps car la flotte actuelle, composée de 11 C135FF et de 3 KC135R, affiche plus de 50 ans au compteur. Les futurs avions, des dérivés de l'A330 civil, prendront aussi le relais des 3 A310 et de 2 A340 qui servent à transporter fret et personnel. Le principe d'une acquisition patrimoniale (plutôt que d'un contrat de location) a été retenu, pour une première livraison prévue fin 2017.


Le ministère de la Défense a aussi prévu de moderniser les avions de patrouille Atlantique 2, de quoi garnir la nouvelle co-entreprise d'optronique de Safran et de Thales avec un premier contrat. De même qu'il s'est montré généreux pour les crédits d'études amont (recherche), qui vont augmenter de 10 % l'année prochaine, pour atteindre 752 millions. Il serait toutefois intéressant de vérifier si cette progression n'est pas due au seul renouvellement de la dissuasion nucléaire.


Enfin, les ressources pour l'entretien des matériels s'inscrivent également en hausse, aussi bien en crédits de paiements (2,91 milliards d'euros, +8 %), qu'en autorisation d'engagements (3,66 milliards, +22 %). Les militaires n'ont pas vraiment le choix, car cet effort est le corollaire de la mise en service de très nombreux matériels modernes, hélicoptères et blindés notamment, donc bien plus chers à l'usage.

Tout cela s'inscrit dans un contexte financier qui reste contraint. Si le ministère de la Défense a réussi à stabiliser ses crédits, à hauteur de 31,4 milliards hors pensions, c'est surtout grâce à 1,3 milliard d'euros de recettes exceptionnelles tirées de la vente de fréquences hertziennes et d'immeubles. Surtout, 5,5 milliards de commandes prévues cette année et la prochaine, dont 4,5 milliards d'armements, ont été décalées, en attente des conclusions du livre blanc de la défense et de sa traduction en espèce sonnante et trébuchante dans la future loi de programmation militaire (relire La Défense répartit le gel des commandes d'armement en évitant les décisions irréversibles)

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25 septembre 2012 2 25 /09 /septembre /2012 12:20

RAF-Reaper--photo-UK-MoD.jpg

At Creech Air Force Base, Nevada, a Reaper drone prepares for a training mission

 

24 Sep 2012 By Rob Blackhurst - telegraph.co.uk

 

The unmanned aircraft patrolling the skies above Afghanistan are controlled by pilots sitting in front of screens as far as 7,000 miles away

 

Kandahar Airfield in southern Afghanistan is reckoned to be as busy as Gatwick. Every few minutes the cloudless skies are filled with the roar of a military fighter taking off – hugging the ground to avoid pot shots by the Taliban’s crude rockets before disappearing into the heat haze.

 

In between there is a more persistent sound: the high-pitched whirr of 'drones’ – military aircraft without a human on board – as they head out for 18-hour stints monitoring the vast empty spaces of Afghanistan. This sound, generated by the aircraft’s tail propeller, is a constant white noise for the inhabitants of Kandahar Airfield.

 

It is said the term 'drone’ originated with a 1930s pilotless version of the British Fairey Queen fighter, the 'Queen Bee’. But, with the new generation of insect-like small aircraft, together with its monotonous engine noise, the name has never been more apt.

 


Reaper drone flies over Afghanistan without pilot. Image: GETTY

 

Before 9/11, drones were a new, untried technology. Now it is estimated that 40 countries are trying to buy or develop unmanned aircraft. The United States operates 7,500 drones or, in the official parlance, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), making up more than 40 per cent of Department of Defense aircraft. They have been the weapon of choice for the US to assassinate 'high value targets’ – as the military call them – from al-Qaeda and the Taliban.

Last year in Libya an American drone identified and attacked the convoy Colonel Gaddafi was travelling in. A few hours later, after fleeing, he was caught by rebels and killed. And since the killing of Osama bin Laden, al-Qaeda’s top ranks have been eviscerated by drone strikes, culminating in June in the killing of Abu Yahya al-Libi, the al-Qaeda deputy in Pakistan. In military terms, their success is not in doubt. They have disrupted al-Qaeda by forcing its commanders to abandon telephones (drones can listen in on calls) and avoid meetings, communicating only by courier.

 

But drone strikes have also led to mass protests in Pakistan and spawned numerous campaigns against them. Do they really represent a new, sinister form of battle in which moral judgments are delegated to machines? And does their deadly accuracy ensure that 'collateral damage’ is minimised, protecting civilians in war zones? Or do they encourage trigger-happy pilots, free from risk in their cockpits on the ground?

 

Since 2007 the RAF has operated 39 Squadron, a detachment of five US-built MQ-9 Reaper aircraft at Kandahar Airfield. While America has a sprawling UAV programme targeting Islamic militants everywhere from Pakistan to Somalia, British Reapers have only ever been used as part of the official combat mission against the Taliban over Afghanistan.

 

The vast majority of the 38,500 hours of operations flown by the RAF Reapers have been in intelligence-gathering rather than in attacking targets. Most of the 35 RAF Reaper pilots are based at Creech, an airfield near Las Vegas, where they control the aircraft via satellite as they fly over Afghanistan.

 

An RAF Reaper drone in its shelter at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, armed and ready for a mission (NEIL DUNRIDGE)

 

But the two-second delay between a pilot moving a joystick in Nevada and an aircraft responding in Afghanistan is enough to cause a crash during take-off and landing. Crews in Afghanistan control 'launch and recovery’ through direct contact with antennae on the aircraft. Half an hour after take-off, control of the Reaper is handed to a crew in Nevada; half an hour before landing, it returns to the crews on the ground in Kandahar.

 

Kandahar Airfield is a vast, crowded military camp, full of private-security contractors in new SUVs, soccer pitches, traffic jams, and the 'boardwalk’ – a Midwest-style town square where soldiers carrying automatic weapons visit frozen-yogurt outlets and TGI Friday’s. Far from prying eyes, the Reaper pilots work in a corner of the airfield behind concrete blast barriers to protect them from the sporadic Taliban rocket attacks.

 

Their cockpit is a cabin full of wires and computer servers – a sealed and spotless world without the film of white dust that covers Kandahar Airfield. The crew sit side by side in leather seats as if in a conventional aircraft, dressed in all-in-one khaki flight suits. A technician fiddles with wires on a bank of hard drives. Office carpets cover the floor. Apart from the low rumble of the air-conditioning, it is as silent as a cathedral.

 

A black-and-white screen is filled with the featureless landscape of southern Afghanistan’s red desert. The conventional head-up display is superimposed on the screen, as in any fighter aircraft, giving the details of altitude and pitch that a pilot needs. But, unlike in a conventional aircraft, the pilot can switch the camera view in front of him to see behind or below. He manoeuvres the aircraft with a games console-style joystick. In front of the pilot is a keyboard, next to him a telephone. Reaper pilots can make telephone calls, or email photographs to operational commanders; they can go to the lavatory or get coffee during a flight.

 

A slogan among Reaper pilots is 'no comms, no bombs’: the system is wholly dependent on satellite links working. If there is an IT breakdown, the Reaper’s lost link’ program directs it to land at the nearest air base. Seated next to the pilot, the sensor operator controls a swivelling electronic eyeball on the nose of the Reaper, fitted with infrared sensors for night vision.

 

'We can say to troops on the ground, “Hey, we saw this guy run out of the compound – he’s hiding in the field,”’ Winston, an American former F-16 pilot who has moved to the Reaper, says. 'We can see headlights and engines that are hot from vehicles that have run recently. If a command wire has been placed across the road, the infrared will show the earth a different colour where it has been disturbed – and you can save a convoy from driving over an IED.’

 

Half an hour earlier, via Internet Relay Chat (a kind of instant messaging), the pilots took control back from the crews in Nevada at the end of a mission without a word being spoken. The word ready appeared on the screen in front of us, typed by the pilot in Creech. The pilot in front of us replied, ready. ours. Then yours flashed up on the screen, confirming the handover.

 

Tension fills the cabin as the pilot lines up the Reaper with the runway for landing. No speaking is allowed, since landing the aircraft, with its long, glider-style wings and lightweight body, requires concentration. Sandstorms and 60-knot crosswinds frequently buffet the aircraft, and the margin of error between a safe landing and a crash is only one degree of pitch. As the infrared outline of the hot tarmac looms into view on the pilot’s screen, there is no sense that the aircraft is descending, nor any jolt as the undercarriage retracts.

 

All the sensory instincts a pilot normally uses are missing; he is forced to fly by the instruments. Reaper pilots rely on forward-facing camera and see through the 'soda-straw’ view. As the Reaper nears the ground, the pilot calls out the altitude: '10, 9, 8, 7, 6…’ The only way we know he has landed is when the altitude reading on the head-up display is zero feet.

 

A short walk from the flight cabins are the mess rooms of the huge US Reconnaissance Force Reaper unit that shares facilities and operations with the RAF. On the wall are children’s paintings with messages to Daddy, and vintage Apocalypse Now posters. Small talk is of next week’s squadron barbecue. In this US military milieu, the RAF has colonised a corner with Union flag-covered lockers and photographs of the Duchess of Cambridge. More startling are the 1970s photographs of a thickly mustachioed Burt Reynolds, mirrored in the upper-lip growths of the airmen sitting drinking soda. (It is the end of 'Moustache March’, an annual USAF contest to grow facial hair for charity.)

 

An RAF Reaper pilot at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, controls a Reaper drone, with the help of a sensor operator, to his right (NEIL DUNRIDGE)

 

The RAF crews based at Creech take their place in a four-month rotation in the 'launch and recovery unit’ in Afghanistan. Sitting in the mess are Oz, a bald, middle-aged RAF Reaper pilot who has flown three tours of duty in the Tornado, and DJ, a former Royal Navy helicopter pilot. Both seem too grizzled to be described as PlayStation warriors. Like these two, all the RAF Reaper pilots have been trained to fly conventional aircraft, and most have fought in previous wars.

 

These pilots talk up the similarities with manned aircraft. Although they don’t suffer the exhausting effects of g-force and can’t look out of the window, they admit to flinching when they see something coming towards the aircraft.

'It’s irrelevant where you are physically sitting,’ Oz says. 'You’re attached to the airframe, you’re attached to the view that you see, and you’re attached to the laws of armed conflict.’

 

He reacts with cool anger to suggestions that this mode of war reduces victims to the status of players in a video game. 'It’s a bugbear of mine because I’ve had the accusation levelled that it’s a Star Wars game. It’s anything but. If we act like it’s Star Wars, there are people in the command centre watching us and listening to what we do. The taking of human life is not something to be considered lightly. OK, they are bad guys we are killing, but they are still human beings.’

He also bridles at the suggestion that UAVs leave moral judgments to machines. 'The plane cannot start, cannot fly and cannot release a weapon without us doing it. Human beings are in the cockpit – exactly the same as when I was flying a Tornado. We just happen to be 8,000 miles away from the plane.’

 

The courtly, upright American colonel in charge of Reaper operations, 'Ghost’, arrives, just back from the Kandahar military hospital, where he was visiting an American soldier shot in the leg on the battlefield. His Reapers provided 'overwatch’ while the soldier was evacuated by helicopter. It is common for the squadron to receive texts or emails of thanks from those they have protected. A group of Royal Marines made a trip to Las Vegas last year to thank the pilots in person.'We’ve had Humvees breaking down,’ Ghost says, 'and we’ve provided overwatch. You’re not going to get a good night’s sleep in the middle of the desert in Afghanistan normally, but if you’ve got a Reaper overhead that’s got your back, then you can.’

 

Afghanistan has been the ideal conflict for the Reaper. Unlike conventional fast-jets, which provide intelligence to troops on the ground only for short periods before having to refuel, the Reaper can stay in the air for 18 hours. It can stream real-time video feeds to troops for the duration of a skirmish, allowing them to see the Taliban’s positions on their laptops. And if they are required to fulfil their other major role, killing Taliban forces judged an immediate threat, they can circle for hours above a compound or a village, waiting for a confirmed sighting in the open of their target, before dispatching one of their laser-guided Hellfire missiles. These Taliban fighters won’t even know that they are being watched – at 15,000ft, Reapers usually fly too high to be seen or heard.

 

Stories spill out of the pilots. 'A British vehicle was disabled and the troops had to leave it,’ Oz says. 'The Taliban showed up in numbers. And we provided overwatch for them for hours while they [British troops] withdrew. They were able to withdraw without the fear of being overrun.’ Sometimes the threat of force isn’t enough, DJ says: 'We got called in because US Marines were under fire and were pinned down. We prosecuted [military jargon for 'killed’] two chaps. That broke their fire. The other four scampered, allowing the other Marines to withdraw.’

 

The Reaper pilots insist their high-resolution cameras, as well as the long periods that they can stay airborne, give them more time to weigh decisions before weapons are fired.

 

'On a fast-jet, because of the speed you’re coming in at, you don’t have the fuel and the time to hang around. But we can sit on top of this thing for hours at a time,’ Oz says. 'We have the luxury to pick up the phone and say, look – something just doesn’t look right here.’

 

This recently happened when the RAF Reaper pilots saw what they thought were Taliban insurgents preparing to fire. 'But something didn’t make sense. These guys seemed a bit too casual. So we checked for longer. As soon as these guys hit the road, they suddenly went into tactical column. We suddenly realised they were Afghan National Army. They weren’t the best-disciplined troops until their sergeant was looking at them. The luxury we have is that we can just sit there and say, we’ll just watch this for a few more minutes.’

 

The mantra that the Reaper pilots repeat is 'zero expectations of civilian casualties’. They are forbidden to attack buildings if there are women and children in the area and they avoid targeting property. In Afghanistan village life, Taliban fighters are never far away from women and children.

 

In internal reporting the RAF has dropped the term 'compound’ because it obscures the simple truth that these are houses. As one senior commander told me, 'We’re trying to get it into the guys’ heads that this is not compound no 28, it’s 34 Acacia Drive – so you don’t hit it.’

 

According to Oz, 'We’ll spend hours watching some guy. There have been plenty of times when I’ve had a clearly identified enemy combatant under my crosshairs and I haven’t been able to fire at him because he’s in a village and there are civilians around. If there’s any doubt, we won’t fire. Apart from the tragedy of wounding or killing an innocent civilian, it plays straight into the hands of the enemy for propaganda – it’s a double whammy. You have to wait for your opportunity.’

 

It is curious that civilian casualties from drone strikes receive so much attention, while those caused by conventional attack aircraft, whose pilots are also miles away from their targets, are overlooked. But this is because anti-drone campaigners doubt the MoD’s estimates of civilian casualties.

Reapers have, as of September this year, fired their weapons 319 times and killed four civilians in total since they started operating in Afghanistan, according to the MoD. These civilians died, along with two Taliban 'insurgents’, when two pick-up trucks carrying explosives were targeted by an RAF Reaper in Helmand. A military investigation concluded that this attack had been in accordance with correct procedures and UK rules of engagement.

 

Campaigners complain that the system for counting civilian casualties is flawed because it relies on villagers in remote parts of Afghanistan making the effort to report deaths to coalition forces. They also complain more generally about the secrecy around the Reaper programme, which fuels distrust. Only 40 per cent of drone strikes have been revealed in official RAF operational updates – the others remain classified. And there are no figures of how many 'insurgents’ have been killed (the deliberately vague term includes Taliban and al-Qaeda). The MoD attributes this to the need to not let their enemy know exactly how it is being targeted, and to difficulties in collecting information for an accurate body count.

 

The lengths of deployment for Reaper pilots, split between short stints in Kandahar and three years in Nevada, means that they have more experience of the war in Afghanistan than many of the soldiers on the ground. The terrain and the 'pattern of life’ in the villages they watch for suspicious changes become as familiar as those of their home towns. Often they observe a building for their whole shift and come back the next day to watch the same deserted building for another eight hours.

 

Does it get boring? Winston, the US Reaper pilot, admits, 'The honest answer is yes. You may get information that the unit is going into an area in three days and you’re told, “Don’t take your eyes off that building.” So you will fly in a circle for an eight-hour shift looking at it, and four hours in somebody walks in or walks out. You have no idea who it is. But somebody is watching the feed.’ (The audience for a drone feed can include troops on the ground, commanders in Afghanistan and intelligence analysts thousands of miles away.)

 

At times like this they find ways to relieve the boredom. 'You try and find humorous things. You see kids getting into fights and you’ll watch that, or traffic jams where some guy moves his goats across the road and people get upset.’ The stress of constant operations and long shifts, albeit with rest breaks, has led to fears of burnout among Reaper pilots. The almost limitless demand for 'overwatch’ creates a huge workload: every stream and every suspicious-looking building on a convoy route is checked for IEDs or a potential ambush by Reapers before troops go out on patrol.

 

The usual pattern of war fighting is to spend four months in a war-zone before returning home. But the Reaper pilots at their base in Nevada are commuter warriors: they work five days a week and drive home to their families at the end of their shifts. A tour of duty for them can last years. This changing tempo of war is taking a toll on pilots, even though they are not themselves in harm’s way. According to a survey by the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, nearly half the operators of UAVs have high levels of 'operational stress’ caused by long hours and extended tours of duty.

 


An RAF drone over Afghanistan, armed with two GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and four Hellfire missiles (CROWN COPYRIGHT)

 

The RAF is moving some pilots from three years in Nevada back to three more years on operations in a new Reaper control centre in Britain, where they will also pilot Reapers over Afghanistan. According to a squadron leader with several years’ experience flying the Reaper, 'Six years of permanent ops is something that we’re going to have to pay great attention to. Chronic fatigue could become an issue.’ The effect on pilots of this strange new state of being simultaneously at home and at war has not yet been tested.

 

About four per cent of US UAV operators have developed post-traumatic stress disorder, which some have attributed to the fact that powerful cameras show close-up footage of the targets of drone strikes after they have been killed. 'The cameras are good,’ Oz says. 'A Hellfire missile does have significant effects on the human body, and you should get to see that. If you can’t accept it, you are in the wrong job. But the weirdest thing for me – with my background [as a fast-jet pilot] – is the concept of getting up in the morning, driving my kids to school and killing people. That does take a bit of getting used to. For the young guys or the newer guys, that can be an eye opener.’

 

At sunset at Kandahar we walk on to the flight line to see the angular, insect-like Reapers close up. Two of the RAF Reapers, distinguishable by RAF roundels, are being refuelled and armed with Hellfire laser-guided missiles before being sent out again, two hours after their last mission. 'This is only a small fraction of the Reapers we have here – the rest are in the air,’ Ghost says.

 

The Reapers are sleek, shark-grey and about the size of a light aircraft – 'a Cessna with a missile’, as some of the fast-jet pilots like to call them. They are so compact because they do not need systems to support a human: no air system, pilot’s instruments or ejector seat. If a Reaper is shot down or crashes, the taxpayer loses tens of millions, compared with the hundreds of millions that a conventional jet can cost. And they never risk a pilot being killed or captured.

 

As a Reaper taxis by, I ask the 39 Squadron pilots how they cope with the 'chair-force’ jibes that come from fighter pilots. 'They can say whatever the hell they like,’ DJ says, more than a little testily. 'This is the leading edge of combat. As time progresses there is going to be a bigger appetite for these airframes,’ Oz admits. 'Flying a fighter aircraft was more fun. It was big, it was pointy, it went bloody fast and it carried big bombs. It was sexy. Who wouldn’t want to do that? Twenty-five years later I asked to come to the Reaper because it makes a significant contribution to the war.’

 

A short drive in a battered Land Rover across Kandahar Airfield is the headquarters of 617 Squadron, 'The Dambusters’, which flies Tornado fast-jets over Afghanistan. In the mess-room, where a flat-screen television and piles of DVDs kill time when they are on call to 'scramble’, I ask the pilots whether they would give up their fast-jets for UAVs. With varying degrees of politeness, they decline: 'I’ve no interest in flying Reaper. If I’m flying I want to be airborne,’ one says. But could their jobs eventually be replaced by UAVs? 'Reaper is absolutely the asset for Afghanistan but as soon as you start going up against anyone with a credible air threat we will have to pour money into aircraft that can fight back.’

 

It is a frequent criticism that Reapers work well in Afghanistan, where there is no air force and no accurate surface-to-air missiles, but in a conventional war these slow, fragile aircraft would be easy to shoot down. Though fast-jets such as the Tornado cannot stay airborne for as long, they can travel long distances more quickly. If troops are under fire at the far side of Afghanistan, the battle is likely to be over long before a Reaper arrives on the scene. Nor would Reapers fare well in colder, wetter weather.

 

Already the high rate of UAVs is a matter of concern to military planners. Figures are difficult to verify, but the UK Drone Wars website, run by anti-drone campaigners and using imperfect information, has recorded 14 drone crashes so far in 2012. The Los Angeles Times estimated in 2010 that 38 Reaper and Predator UAVs had been lost in Afghanistan and Iraq.

During the Balkan Wars, experiments with UAVs were abandoned because so many were lost in the bad weather. Fast-jet pilots argue that a crew in the air above the target can always make better judgments than a crew thousands of miles away. 'We can give more an interpretation of what’s going on,’ a Tornado flight commander says. 'It’s hard to put into words, but there is just that feeling of being there. You can see the whole situation and not just the target. The fact that you can look out of a cockpit and say, “There’s a village next to us.” We could be talked into thinking that a couple of men kneeling in the middle of the road at night look dodgy when it’s actually a guy changing a motorbike tyre that’s just had a puncture.’

 

Whatever the counter-claims between Reaper and fast-jet pilots, the arguments in favour of UAVs have been won in the Ministry of Defence. Later this year a new squadron will be established in Lincolnshire to pilot remotely five more Reapers – the first time that drone missions in Afghanistan will be been controlled from British rather than American soil. However, there are practical difficulties to overcome first. It remains unclear where the UK Reapers will be legally able to take off and land when combat operations end in Afghanistan in 2014. Civil Aviation Regulations prevent them from flying in British airspace since reaction times might not be fast enough to avoid collisions.

 

By 2030, the RAF estimates, a third of the force will be unmanned aircraft. An MoD report, 'The UK Approach to Unmanned Aircraft Systems’, predicts, 'Unmanned aircraft will eventually take over most or all the tasks currently undertaken by manned systems.’ The expensive F35B Lightning II fighter currently on order will be, it predicts, the last RAF fighter with a pilot in the air.

 

The UAV technology under development sounds like science fiction – from bee-size nano drones that can fly through windows to nuclear-powered drones that can fly for weeks without refuelling. Even if these wilder plans never see the light of day, the MoD has been funding the development of Taranis, a long-range jet-powered UAV attack aircraft that will be able to fly across continents.

 

The moral question overshadowing UAVs is whether their use trivialises the business of killing. According to the report 'Armed Drones and the PlayStation Mentality’ by Chris Cole, the director of the Drone Wars website, 'Young military personnel raised on a diet of video games now kill real people remotely using joysticks. Far removed from the human consequences of their actions, how will this generation of fighters value the right to life?’

 

From my experience at Kandahar this vision of teenage warriors seems far-fetched: the Reaper pilots I met were approaching middle age, softly spoken and sober about the life-and-death decisions with which they were charged.

It does, however, seem plausible that risk-free, long-distance strikes using UAVs could insulate the Western public from the human toll of war. If we can kill with such ease while protecting Western lives and avoiding the costs of deploying troops, will the bar be lower for governments to make war? Already, the creep towards a permanent state of war, via drone strike, can be seen. This year alone, the Obama administration has conducted drone strikes against al-Qaeda and its allies in Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Pakistan and Somalia. The Ministry of Defence candidly warns of these dangers in its report: 'We must ensure that by removing some of the horror, or at least keeping it at a distance, we do not risk losing our controlling humanity and make war more likely.’

 

These speculations become even more complex with the Frankenstein fear that, as UAVs become more advanced, they will be able to launch weapons without human input. There is a danger of an 'incremental and involuntary journey towards a Terminator-like reality’, the paper warns, and Britain must 'quickly establish a policy on what will constitute “acceptable machine behaviour”’.

 

Drones deliver death out of a clear blue sky. Victims will not have known their fate for more than a fraction of a second. Most of the time they won’t even have heard the Reaper’s engine. Is it possible such powerful weapons will hand a propaganda victory to those they are targeted against?

 

At some point military planners will have to face these issues. But, for the moment, the public is more likely to be swayed by the belief, shared by everyone on the ground in Afghanistan, that the Reaper has saved the lives of hundreds of British troops.

 

For the pilots, misgivings over a new weapon changing the nature of war are nothing new. On the flight line in Kandahar, DJ has to shout over the whine of a fully loaded Reaper about to take off for another long mission. He is dismissive of the angst surrounding unmanned aircraft. 'This goes back centuries. When it was sword versus sword and somebody started slinging an arrow over their head to the enemy – every time there’s an advance in military hardware, the other side says, “Are you playing fair?”’

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17 septembre 2012 1 17 /09 /septembre /2012 17:20

MQ-4C Triton

 

MQ-4C BAMS will soon become the first unmanned system

in US service committed to the maritime patrol mission.

 

September 17, 2012 by Richard Dudley - defense-update.com

 

The United States Navy is planning to deploy Northrop Grumman MQ-4C Triton Broad-Area Maritime Surveillance (BAMS) drones to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam with preparations for deployment projected to begin during Fiscal Year 2014 (FY14).

 

The MQ-4C Triton, only recently introduced, is a large, unmanned drone designed to provide enhanced maritime surveillance in coordination with the Navy’s P-3C Orion and P-8A Poseidon maritime surveillance/anti-submarine aircraft.

 

Guam’s Andersen Air Force Base (AFB) currently operates three Northrop Grumman RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in a limited surveillance role. The RQ-4 was designed primarily to perform land surveillance duties, not long-duration ocean surveillance sweeps.

 

In an interview with ABC News, intelligence analyst Matthew Aid said that the RQ-4 “was designed for pinpoint imagery or eavesdropping on land targets, by over flight, or by flying obliquely up to 450 kilometers off an enemy’s coastline” while the MQ-4C “was designed for broad area maritime surveillance – following ships from high altitude.”

 

Joe Gradisher, Public Affairs Officer for the Assistant Chief of Naval Operations Next Generation Enterprise Network (NGEN), recently told Stars & Stripes newspaper that the Navy’s Tritons would join the Global Hawks at Guam.

 

Mr. Gradisher told Stars & Stripes that current plans “for BAMS include the use of Guam, but other bases may be considered in the future, subject to combatant commander desires and future diplomatic arrangements.” The Japan Times newspaper and ABC News also reported the decision to base the Tritons at Guam.

 

As part of the United States’ “pivot” to the Asia-Pacific region, the US Navy is working towards reinforcing its maritime surveillance capability in the Pacific Ocean arena. Existing plans call for the new Boeing P-8A Poseidon Maritime Patrol/Anti-Submarine Warfare aircraft to be deployed as a replacement for the Navy’s venerable Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft.


The P-8A Poseidon is designed to operate with the Navy’s new MQ-4C Triton in an anti-submarine warfare (ASW) role that includes the interdiction of maritime shipping and performance of electronic intelligence (ELINT) functions. The P-3 has been in service with the navies of many nations since 1962 and is nearing retirement. The P-8s are expected to begin replacing some of the aging P-3s assigned to stateside squadrons next year.

 

Existing plans call for the acquisition of 68 Tritons and 117 Poseidons to replace the P-3C Orions still operational. By pairing the MQ-4C Triton BAMS drone with the P-8A Poseidon in the Pacific, the US Navy will be able to maintain a continuous long-range surveillance over a wide expanse of the Asia-Pacific region to an extent the P-3C Orions cannot match. As tensions between Japan, China, and other Asian-Pacific nations have continued to escalate and are beginning to pose a threat to regional peace, an enhanced surveillance force is a capability US Pacific commanders are anxious to get into operation.

 

There is also a very real possibility that Japan will be deploying its drones to Andersen AFB in the near future as well. Japan’s Kyodo News Service reported that the United States and Japan were discussing a proposal to jointly-base US and Japanese UAVs in Guam. The Japan Times newspaper also released a story, citing an anonymous source, stating that the Japanese Self-Defense Force (JSDF) was in negotiations with US representatives to arrange a joint-use arrangement that would allow the JSDF to operate drones from Guam.

 

The joint-use proposal, as reported by the Japan Times, would provide for the JSDF to share USAF/USN hangars, flight support, and maintenance facilities.

 

A previous Japanese proposal to buy Global Hawks was dropped because of cost considerations, but JSDF officials insist it is their desire to buy surveillance drones sometime between Fiscal Year 2014 and Fiscal Year 2020. The Japanese Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) currently operates 80 P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft, five EP-3C ELINT Orions, and four OP-3C reconnaissance models from various air stations throughout the Japanese Archipelago. These aircraft were built under license by Kawasaki Heavy Industries.

 

United States Navy officials and JMSDF officers are well aware that Japan’s fleet of Orions is not capable of providing the long-duration continuous surveillance of Pacific sea lanes needed to keep an eye on China’s rapidly-growing, technologically-advanced naval presence. A joint-basing arrangement would be advantageous to both nations with respect to cost-savings, workload reductions, information sharing, and joint-force readiness.

 

US military officials at Guam declined comment on the MQ-4C basing reports. Navy Lieutenant William Knight said that he could neither confirm nor deny the reports, but indicated that pertinent information could be forthcoming at a later date.

 

Guam to become forward base for MQ-4C (BAMS) drones in the Pacific. (Photo: US Navy)

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6 septembre 2012 4 06 /09 /septembre /2012 18:53
U.S., Japan consider Guam drone pact

 

September 6th, 2012 by mike.hoffman - defensetech.org

 

Japan and the U.S. are considering plans to use Guam as a hub for spy drones to monitor Chinese naval activities in the Pacific, according to a report in the Japan Times.

 

The U.S. already has Global Hawks stationed at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The U.S. Air Force plans to expand the number of spy drones at Andersen and welcome Japan drones over the next decade as the Japanese military plans to buy its own drone fleet.

 

Japan’s Self-Defense Force had planned to buy Global Hawks of its own before the deal was scuttled due to price concerns. The Japanese have remained confident in their plans to buy their own drones, especially as the Chinese naval fleet has stepped up their patrols throughout the Pacific.

 

Japanese military leaders currently fly the P-3C patrol aircraft to monitor Chinese naval movements. The investment in a Global Hawk or the U.S. Navy’s version of the RG-4, the Triton, would be a considerable step up in Japan’s intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance capability.

 

U.S. and Japan air forces would share hangars and maintenance facilities for their drone fleets, according to the Japan Times report.

 

The U.S. Air Force’s Global Hawk arrived at Andersen in 2010. It’s the Air Force’s largest drone, although it does not carry weapons like the Predator or the Reaper.

 

U.S. Global Hawks from Guam flew missions over Japan after the massive tsunami obliterated the country. The Global Hawks provided intelligence and imagery for humanitarian clean up.

 

MQ-4C Triton

MQ-4C Triton

Northrop Grumman unveiled the MQ-4C Triton in June as part of the U.S. Navy’s Broad Area Maritime Surveillance program. It’s expected to fly a considerable chunk of it’s missions over the Pacific monitoring the Chinese and North Koreans.

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6 septembre 2012 4 06 /09 /septembre /2012 07:40
MQ9 Reaper Enhances Capabilities with new ‘Block I Plus’ Configuration

new communications capabilities also will be available in the Block 5, including dual ARC-210 VHF/UHF radios with wingtip antennas, allowing for simultaneous communications between multiple air-to-air and air-to-ground parties. Photo: GA-ASI

 

September 5, 2012 Defense Update

 

A new version of the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc (GA-ASI) Predator B/MQ-9 Reaper has been flying since May 2012. The new version known as the Block 1-plus, made its first flight on May 24 at the manufacturer’s Gray Butte Flight Operations Facility in Palmdale, Calif., with no discrepancies. GA-ASI has upgraded the Predator B and Block 1 versions of the drone that have been in production since 2003. The MQ-9 Block 1-plus test flight occurred on May 24. With the completion of development, testing, and expected Milestone C decision this fall, follow-on aircraft to the MQ-9 Block 1-plus configuration will be designated “MQ-9 Block 5.”

 

The MQ-9 Block 1-plus is a capability enhancement over the Block 1 configuration, which has amassed more than 420,000 flight hours across all customers. Block 1-plus was designed for increased electrical power, secure communications, auto land, increased Gross Takeoff Weight (GTOW), weapons growth, and streamlined payload integration capabilities.

 

Featuring a new high-capacity starter generator, the aircraft offers an increase in electrical power capacity over the current Block 1 design. This increased power provides the aircraft with significant capacity for growth. In addition, the upgraded electrical system includes a backup generator which is sufficient to support all flight critical functions. This vastly improves the reliability of the electrical power system by providing three independent power sources.

 

New communications capabilities will also be available in the Block 5, including dual ARC-210 VHF/UHF radios with wingtip antennas, allowing for simultaneous communications between multiple air-to-air and air-to-ground parties; secure data links; and an increased data transmission capacity.

 

Additionally, the new trailing arm main landing gear will be included in Block 5, enabling the aircraft to carry heavier payloads or additional fuel. This “heavy-weight” landing gear increases the aircraft’s landing weight capacity by 30 percent and its gross takeoff weight by approximately 12 percent, from 10,500 lb to 11,700 lb. (from 4,762 to 5,307 kg). The new landing gear will also be available as a field retrofit to operational Predator B systems.

 

“We continue to enhance the capabilities of our aircraft, improving their performance to meet emerging customer requirements,” said Frank Pace, president, Aircraft Systems Group, GA-ASI. “The first flight of the MQ-9 Block 1-plus follows in the footsteps of the aircraft’s combat-proven Block 1 configuration and is an important technological achievement that will provide increased effectiveness, increased multi-mission flexibility, and even greater reliability.”

“We’ve designed field retrofitable capabilities–lengthened wings, wing-borne fuel pods, and new heavy-weight landing gear–that greatly extend Reaper’s already impressive endurance and range while further increasing its operational flexibility.”

 

The strengthened landing gear was one of two capability enhancements proposed by GA-ASI in April 2012, following a study the company conducted, exploring potential improvements to the aircraft. Taking advantage of the increased GTOW increase, the aircraft will be able to carry additional payloads, including two external fuel tanks, extending typical Intelligence Surveillance Reconnaissance (ISR) mission endurance from 27 hours to 37 hours. To further increase multi-mission flexibility and capacity, GA-ASI proposed to replace the current 66 ft (20.11 mw) wings with 88 ft wings (26.82 m’), and adding two fuel pods, along with the heavy-weight landing gear, thus increasing mission endurance from 27 hours to 42 hours on ISR-only missions.

Predator B is currently operational with the U.S. Air Force and Royal Air Force as MQ-9 Reaper and the Italian Air Force as MQ-9, with NASA as Ikhana, and with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security as Predator B/Guardian. The aircraft is designed to perform multi-mission ISR and “Hunter-Killer” missions over land or sea, with more than 130 vehicles delivered to date.

 

Fully armed MQ-9 takes off on a mission in Afghanistan. Photo: US Air Force

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10 août 2012 5 10 /08 /août /2012 11:30
EADS : «Notre avion sans pilote est mort» (27.07.2012)

 

27/07/2012 Par Véronique Guillermard – LeFigaro.fr

 

Le géant européen a engagé près de 250 millions d'euros pour le drone Talarion. Ces appareils sont en charge de missions de reconnaissance et de collecte de renseignements

 

«Talarion est mort. Le programme est fini». Comme à son habitude, Tom Enders, le président exécutif d'EADS, n'a pas mâché ses mots. «Nous avons investi sur fonds propres pour ce projet. Pour aller plus loin, nous avions besoin d'un engagement sérieux des États, nous ne l'avons pas eu. Donc le programme est mort», a-t-il expliqué vendredi 27 juillet en marge de la présentations des résultats semestriels d'EADS. Le géant européen a engagé près de 250 millions d'euros pour le Talarion, un drone, c'est-à-dire un avion sans pilote MALE (moyenne altitude, longue endurance). Ces appareils sont en charge de missions de reconnaissance et de collecte de renseignements. Ils peuvent aussi être armé pour «des tirs d'opportunité».

 

Talarion était en compétition avec Telemos, un projet de drone MALE porté par Dassault Aviation et BAe Systems dans le cadre de la coopération franco-britannique découlant du traité de Lancaster House signé fin 2010. L'objectif est de mettre en service Telemos aux alentours de 2020-2022 dans les armées des deux côtés de la Manche. Et de donner le coup d'envoi de la création d'une filière industrielle nouvelle en Europe. Les drones sont en effet devenus incontournables dans les conflits modernes. Or, l'Europe a raté ce virage laissant les États-Unis et Israël dominer ce marché.

 

La balle est dans le camp des Etats

 

Si le Talarion est mort, EADS ne renonce pour autant pas à «jouer un rôle dans le futur marché des avions sans pilote». «Les technologies que nous avons développées sont vivantes et nous avons acquis de l'expérience», a souligné Tom Enders. EADS souhaite entrer dans le programme du futur drone MALE européen pour l'heure confié à BAE Systems et à Dassault Aviation. Les deux industriels n'attendent plus que le feu vert de Paris et de Londres pour entrer dans le vif du sujet.

 

Mais le feu vert tarde à venir. «C'est aux gouvernements européens de dire ce quel produit ils veulent, avec quel budget et avec qui», résume-t-on chez Dassault Aviation. EADS ne dit pas autre chose. La balle est dans le camp des États.

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8 août 2012 3 08 /08 /août /2012 13:44
Kestrel supports Australian Army in Afghanistan

 

 

Aug 7, 2012ASDNews Source : Sentient Vision Systems

 

With the second Shadow 200 Tactical Unmanned Aerial System (TUAS) having recently arrived in Australia, Sentient announced today that it has expanded its engagement with the Australian Army, providing additional Kestrel Land MTI licenses in support of the Shadow’s Intelligence, Surveillance, Target Acquisition and Reconnaissance (ISTAR) operations.

 

Kestrel Land MTI is a software solution that automatically detects and tracks movement in electro-optical (EO) and infrared (IR) airborne full motion video. Actively deployed alongside the first Shadow 200 system in Afghanistan, the software processes the video imagery captured by the TUAS and automatically alerts ISTAR operators to small, moving targets such as dismounts and vehicles on the ground.

 

Kestrel increases operators’ overall situational awareness. By visually detecting and tracking any movement, the software allows them to rapidly uncover targets of interest. Especially over long missions, when operator fatigue becomes a challenge, Kestrel assists operators by drawing their attention to targets outside their actual field of view.

 

The ability to assess the Shadow’s ISTAR imagery in real time, thus having a direct understanding of the situation on the ground and therefore being able to respond to potential threats immediately is key.

 

Kestrel Land MTI is operated by the 20th Surveillance and Target Acquisition (STA) Regiment. The additional software licenses are initially used for training purposes.

 

“Kestrel automated target detection is now an integral part of the ISTAR process and an important part of extracting additional capability from the Shadow system, said Simon Olsen of Sentient.

 

“Following extensive in-theatre operations, image analysts and operators find that the target cues they receive from Kestrel help to extend the capabilities of the deployed systems – enabling them do much more with each surveillance asset. Multiplying coverage without the need to multiply assets.”

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15 juillet 2012 7 15 /07 /juillet /2012 11:30

nato-emblem-300-dark-blue-lg

 

July 13, 2012 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: SES; issued July 13, 2012)

 

SES Cooperates with Northrop Grumman on New NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance System

 

LUXEMBOURG --- SES announced today an agreement with Northrop Grumman Corporation (NYSE:NOC) to supply satellite capacity and services for the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) system. Operating under NATO command, AGS will be a major data source for NATO's system for Joint Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (JISR).

 

AGS supports NATO's intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance requirements and a broad range of missions, including protecting ground forces, border and maritime security, counter- and anti-terrorism, crisis management, peacekeeping and enforcement, humanitarian assistance and natural disaster relief. SES will deliver Ku-band capacity over the U.S. and Europe, as well as engineering support in the design and development of the system.

 

As prime contractor for the NATO AGS programme, Northrop Grumman will provide the necessary five Global Hawk air vehicles, supporting systems and payloads. The payloads include the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) radar system capable of detecting and tracking moving objects as well as providing radar imagery of target locations and stationary objects.

 

Northrop Grumman signed a $1.7 billion (€1.2 billion) contract with NATO and 13 participating nations in May 2012. Besides the air segment, the contract also includes the purchase, initial operation and maintenance of the ground stations, comprised of mobile and transportable units and providing real-time data, intelligence and target identification to commanders within and beyond line of sight.

 

“The participation of SES in this multi-national, long-term NATO programme is extremely important for us, as it allows us to contribute our fleet and service capabilities and prove the advantages and know-how that we have in the construction and operation of large, international governmental and institutional systems,” said Romain Bausch, President and CEO of SES. “We are honoured to meet the alliance’s highest standards and needs, demonstrating our expertise in the highly demanding field of service provision for unmanned aircraft systems with our specialised and highly committed governmental and institutions team at SES.”

 

SES is a world-leading satellite operator with a fleet of 51 geostationary satellites. The company provides satellite communications services to broadcasters, content and internet service providers, mobile and fixed network operators and business and governmental organisations worldwide.

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13 juillet 2012 5 13 /07 /juillet /2012 12:20

Predator over Afghanistan photo USAF

 

13 July 2012 defenceweb.co.za (Reuters)

 

Having revolutionized warfare for the United States in the last 15 years, unmanned aerial drones are going global as the number of countries building and operating them soars.

 

Until now, such systems have largely been the exclusive purview of the U.S. and a handful of allies. Washington allowed Britain, Italy and Turkey to buy U.S.-built drones and operate them usually alongside U.S. forces, but largely rejected requests from other nations keen to acquire the same capability.

 

But that is quickly changing. U.S. firm General Atomics expects to make its first sales of an unarmed version of its Predator drones this year, with Latin America and the Middle East seen to be particularly fertile markets, Reuters reports.

 

"There has been very considerable international interest," retired U.S. Navy Rear Admiral Christopher Ames, now director of international strategic development for the company, told Reuters at this week's Farnborough International Airshow.

 

Flanked by video screens showing the firm's products in action in Iraq, Afghanistan and tracking pirates over the Indian Ocean, Ames said their combat record spoke for itself.

 

Not only were human air crew not put at risk, he said, but use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) also offered huge savings in fuel and personnel costs over conventional manned aircraft.

 

"The nations that have been operating with us in coalition... have seen what it can do in practice," he said.. "Their conviction goes beyond what marketing hype can provide."

 

Privately owned San Diego-based General Atomics was one of the pioneers of early drone technology, operating them first in the Balkans in the 1990s. While the Israeli military has long embraced unmanned aircraft, recruiting specialists directly from model aircraft clubs, other air forces including that of the United States were initially distinctly skeptical.

 

But the wars that followed the attacks of September 11, 2001 changed all that. In Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and elsewhere, U.S. forces have become increasingly reliant on drones ranging from tiny aircraft operated by infantrymen to those that can fly hundreds or even thousands of miles and stay aloft over 24 hours.

 

Under the presidency of Barack Obama in particular, they have often been the weapon of choice for targeted killings of leading al Qaeda militants, as well as a favorite tool for long-range spy flights over potentially unfriendly countries.

 

The winding down of combat operations in Afghanistan may reduce the current level of U.S. drone demand, industry executives say. But the global market, they suspect, is only beginning to hot up.

 

Until now, Washington has remained able to exercise considerable control over even those drones it has sold abroad. Britain's Royal Air Force, for example, bases the pilots flying its drones over Afghanistan at a U.S. air force base in Nevada alongside their U.S. counterparts.

 

That, experts say, cannot last.

 

DRONES PRIDE OF PLACE

 

"In the future, if you're a moderately serious air force... you're going to want to have at least a medium-level endurance drone with the capability to mount reconnaissance and probably deploy weapons," says Douglas Barrie, a senior fellow for aerospace at London's International Institute for Strategic Studies. "It also may or may not be stealthy... We are only at the very beginning of that now."

 

With aircraft such as Predator, the much longer-range Global Hawk built by Northrop Grumman Corp and the top-secret and stealthy Lockheed Martin Sentinel -- one of which crashed and was captured on an apparent mission over Iran last year -- the United States remains by far the leader of the pack.

 

But perhaps inevitably, the gap is closing.

 

At this year's Farnborough Air Show, almost every major international aircraft maker brought with them their own latest drone. Outside its large chalet, Britain's BAE Systems displayed its long-range Taranis stealth UAV prototype in prime position alongside its Hawk trainer -- the aircraft used by the RAF's Red Arrows display team -- as well as a World War Two-era Spitfire.

 

"What we're looking at is effectively jumping straight to the next generation," said Martin Rowe-Wilcocks, BAE head of international business development for future combat air systems. "We're able to look at those systems that are already in service and learn from them."

 

Israel has long sold small unarmed drones to a range of countries, but other producers are also muscling in. Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported in April that Russia hoped to fly its first prototype domestically produced armed drone as soon as 2014.

 

China has made it clear it is interested in building similar systems, and both countries are expected to have done what they can to persuade Tehran to share its captured Sentinel.

 

As demand but also international competition rises, some U.S. firms worry Washington's attempts to slow the spread of drone technology may leave it falling behind.

 

Diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks show several countries including United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia asking U.S. officials to buy armed drones but being rebuffed.

 

Washington says its commitments to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR), a non-binding international agreement designed to limit the spread of long-range precision weaponry, restrict drone export.

 

U.S. FIRMS DISADVANTAGED?

 

Industry leaders warn that could see the U.S. drone sector going the way of its commercial satellite production, effectively strangled by export controls seen as effectively killing its dominance of the sector just as new rivals emerge.

 

"The unmanned area is growing by leaps and bounds," says Marion Blakey, president of the Aerospace Industries Association. "The Missile Technology Control Regime is something that really needs to be addressed because it's disadvantaging U.S. industry."

 

The export-variant Predator, General Atomics says, should deal with some of those concerns. It will have no "hard points" to attach missiles and would be deliberately engineered to make adding new weaponry impossible, it says.

 

Retailing at $3-4 million an item, the unarmed export drone is way cheaper than most equivalent aircraft, Ames said.

 

"There are countries that for a long time have been asking for Predator," he said. "It (the export variant) opens that up to us."

 

Other U.S. defense firms are also investing growing quantities of their own money in new and innovative UAVs. Boeing recently test-flew its prototype "Phantom Eye", a high-altitude drone capable of staying airborne for days at a time.

 

Even if foreign markets remain sometimes off-limits, the Pentagon is seen as still keen to expand the use of drones into new areas. Lockheed Martin says it is investing in unmanned technologies and plans to compete for a future U.S. Navy contract to build a next-generation drone that will operate from aircraft carriers.

 

That contest is also likely to include Northrop Grumman Corp, maker of the X-47B, a U.S. Navy program that is demonstrating some of the initial capabilities that would be packed on the future carrier drones.

 

Officials say Britain is also increasingly interested in naval drones to operate from carriers as well as a range of smaller warships. But BAE's Rowe-Wilcocks says the real growth area will ultimately be the civilian sector.

 

Within a decade or so, he believes unmanned aircraft will routinely operate in European air space, providing surveillance for law enforcement agencies, maritime patrol and a host of other functions.

 

"The test will be whether the public will accept unmanned aircraft overhead in the way they accept those with someone in the cockpit," he says. "At this stage, I think we're more or less there technologically. It is really going to be a regulatory and particularly cultural challenge."

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11 juillet 2012 3 11 /07 /juillet /2012 17:30

RQ-4-Global-Hawk-Block-40----Northrop-Grumman-.jpg

 

July 11, 2012 defense-aerospace.com

(Source: Finmeccanica; issued July 10, 2012)

 

Finmeccanica Wins New Order Worth EUR 140 Million As Part of NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance Programme

 

SELEX Galileo, a Finmeccanica company, has been awarded a contract worth €140 million by prime contractor Northrop Grumman Corporation as part of NATO's Alliance Ground Surveillance (AGS) programme.

 

The AGS programme is the flagship of NATO’s new defence strategy for security allies. Thirteen NATO countries are participating in the programme via their domestic industries: Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Germany, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Norway, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and the United States. The capability developed and acquired by this group of nations will be made available to the whole alliance as a NATO-owned capability, with NATO responsible for the system’s operations and maintenance.

 

SELEX Galileo has been awarded approximately 12 percent of Northrop Grumman’s overall NATO AGS contract. This will see the company leading the Italian element of the programme and also taking responsibility for Romanian and Bulgarian participation.

 

Interoperability, connectivity and continuous surveillance are the three key concepts of the AGS system capability, which will supply real-time information for airborne ground surveillance and situational awareness. This valuable intelligence will support the entire spectrum of NATO’s operational missions and those of its member nations.

 

The solution chosen by NATO includes an airborne component based on the Global Hawk high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) UAS platform produced by Northrop Grumman Corporation and ground-based elements comprised of fixed mission operational support as well as both transportable and mobile general ground stations. The ground-based parts of the system will deliver mission planning and control activities and data analysis and distribution. The system architecture also comprises training and logistical support elements.

 

SELEX Galileo will be responsible for the fixed mission operational support and transportable general ground station components of the AGS system’s ground-based element. It will also contribute to the telecommunications suite, supplying the wide band data link produced by SELEX Elsag, another Finmeccanica company. This solution will provide a line-of-sight link between the AGS airborne platform and the ground-based components.

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11 juillet 2012 3 11 /07 /juillet /2012 12:40
Mantis Concept Demonstrator Targeted to Fly In the UK

 

July 11th, 2012 By BAE Systems - defencetalk.com

 

BAE Systems has announced its intention to re-fly the Mantis UAS Concept Demonstrator – this time in UK airspace. This will be the first flight of a UAS (Unmanned Air System) of this class in UK airspace

 

Flying Mantis will enable the Company to continue to mature a number of UAS capabilities and technologies, underpinning BAE Systems’ strategy to become a world-class provider of unmanned air systems. The flight activity will support the development of future MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) and UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air Systems) operational capabilities, including the programmes announced at the Anglo-French Summit in February this year. By looking to fly Mantis in the UK, BAE Systems is directly aiming to address the associated challenges of airspace integration and safe operation of an airborne system in accordance with UK rules and regulations.

 

Over the coming months the Company will be working with the appropriate regulators to fully understand the safety, airworthiness and regulatory frameworks which will enable such a flight to take place in 2013.

 

The Company is currently looking at a number of potential locations in the UK which meet the trials objectives and will work with a number of agencies on the feasibility, timing and location of the flights. These locations will be selected in full consultation with the relevant authorities.

 

Tom Fillingham, Future Combat Air Systems Director, BAE Systems said: “We will undertake a further phase of flight trials for the Mantis but this time rather than going overseas we have given ourselves the challenge to conduct the trials in the UK. To secure our position as a provider of key capabilities in the unmanned market it is necessary that we continue to develop key skills and capabilities. Learning from the re-flight of Mantis will be used in future UAS programmes, including our partnership with Dassault Aviation.”

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9 juillet 2012 1 09 /07 /juillet /2012 17:30
Mantis Concept Demonstrator Targeted to Fly in the UK

 

July 9, 2012 defpro.com

 

BAE Systems has announced its intention to re-fly the Mantis UAS Concept Demonstrator – this time in UK airspace. This will be the first flight of a UAS (Unmanned Air System) of this class in UK airspace.

 

Flying Mantis will enable the Company to continue to mature a number of UAS capabilities and technologies, underpinning BAE Systems’ strategy to become a world-class provider of unmanned air systems. The flight activity will support the development of future MALE (Medium Altitude Long Endurance) and UCAS (Unmanned Combat Air Systems) operational capabilities, including the programmes announced at the Anglo-French Summit in February this year. By looking to fly Mantis in the UK, BAE Systems is directly aiming to address the associated challenges of airspace integration and safe operation of an airborne system in accordance with UK rules and regulations.

 

Over the coming months the Company will be working with the appropriate regulators to fully understand the safety, airworthiness and regulatory frameworks which will enable such a flight to take place in 2013.

 

The Company is currently looking at a number of potential locations in the UK which meet the trials objectives and will work with a number of agencies on the feasibility, timing and location of the flights. These locations will be selected in full consultation with the relevant authorities.

 

Tom Fillingham, Future Combat Air Systems Director, BAE Systems said: “We will undertake a further phase of flight trials for the Mantis but this time rather than going overseas we have given ourselves the challenge to conduct the trials in the UK. To secure our position as a provider of key capabilities in the unmanned market it is necessary that we continue to develop key skills and capabilities. Learning from the re-flight of Mantis will be used in future UAS programmes, including our partnership with Dassault Aviation.”

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29 juin 2012 5 29 /06 /juin /2012 11:35

drone-SDTI-Sperwer.jpg

 

29 Juin 2012 Jean-Dominique Merchet

 

En plus de trois ans, douze engins ont été perdus sur ce théâtre

 

Le drone tactique SDTI de l'armée de terre a effectué le 23 juin dernier son dernier vol dans le ciel afghan. Armé par le 61ème régiment d'artillerie de Chaumont, le détachement basé sur la FOB Tora a ensuite fait les cartons pour revenir en France, dans le cadre du désengagement en cours. Les drones Harfang de l'armée de l'air sont, eux, déjà rentrés, en mars dernier.

 

Les SDTI (Sperwer) étaient arrivés en Afghanistan en octobre 2008, après l'embuscade d'Uzbine au cours de laquelle leur absence avait été pointée. Ils ont effectué leur premier vol le 9 novembre 2008 et auront donc opéré plus de trois ans et demi. Huit engins étaient déployés. Selon les chiffres fournis par l'état-major des armées (Ema), ils ont effectué 770 missions pour une durée totale de 2100 heures de vol (soit en moyenne des missions de 2h 45 mn - plus longues en hiver à cause d'une meilleure portance de l'air). Toujours en moyenne, les SDTI ont réalisé quatre missions par semaine sur toute la durée de l'opération.

 

Non sans casse : douze engins ont été perdus en cours de mission. Quatre lors des atterrissages - qui se font sous parachute, le choc étant amorti par des cousins gonflables, et huit en cours de mission, la plupart du temps par perte de contrôle de l'engin. Selon l'Ema, il ne semble pas que les insurgés aient pu abattre un drone en vol. Les appareils cassés ou perdus ont été remplacés.

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25 juin 2012 1 25 /06 /juin /2012 11:50
Renew the “European UAV” Project?

The Talarion UAV

 

24/6/2012 Arie Egozi - israeldefense.com

 

It appears that Germany and France intend to renew the development of the Talarion UAV – which decreases the chances of selling IAI’s Heron TP UAV

 

France and Germany have decided, at least in principle, to renew the project for the advanced Talarion UAV. Should the decision be actualized, it could hurt the chances of exporting the large Heron TP UAV produced by Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) to both countries.

 

France decided to acquire the Heron TP following the cancellation of the French-German program for constructing the Talarion, and Germany had considered acquiring it as well.

 

However, after the elections that were recently held in the country, France is reexamining its policy for acquiring unmanned vehicles – part of an attempt to initiate a pan-European program.

 

As reported by IsraelDefense, it seemed that the chances of selling Israeli-produced UAV systems to European countries had increased considerably after the European EADS corporation decided to significantly reduce its investments in developing the Talarion, prior to the French elections.

 

Several European countries have already acquired Israeli UAVs produced by IAI and Elbit Systems, with France and Germany also operating Israeli UAVs and the British Watchkeeper project being based on the Hermes-450 UAV developed by Elbit Systems.

 

However, as stated, a principle decision has been accepted to renew the Talarion project, which is considered a “European UAV." Several European countries that sent forces to Afghanistan learned of the capabilities of the UAVs operated there. It seems that this will also awaken the market and result in large investments in various European UAV models, lowering the chances of selling the Heron TP.

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17 juin 2012 7 17 /06 /juin /2012 08:39

Hargfang pic12 source FB Armee de l Air

photo Armée de l'Air

 

16.06.2012 Le Fauteuil de Colbert

 

L'actuel système de drones MALE (Moyenne Altitude Longue Endurance) de l'Armée de l'air -et de toute la France à vrai dire- est constitué par le système Harfang (quatre vecteurs et deux stations au sol). Il s'agit d'une version francisée, par EADS, du drone israélien Héron. Les drones sont de la classe des 1 tonnes, et auraient une autonomie de 24 heures. Le rayon d'action d'un drone MALE dépend de sa liaison avec sa station de contrôle :

  • s'il s'agit d'une liaison radio, alors il est, manifestement, dit que la portée du système ne dépasse pas celle de la liaison, soit 200 km, environ ;
  • s'il s'agit d'une liaison satellitaire (bien plus onéreuse) alors la portée du système dépend de l'autonomie intrinsèque du vecteur. 

Les drones MALE de l'Armée de l'Air ont été engagés en Afghanistan et en Libye pendant le conflit de 2011. Le rythme des opérations aurait été assez difficile à tenir avec seulement un système à quatre vecteurs.

 

Le système Harfang devait être remplacé en 2014. Pourquoi ? La raison n'a jamais été très clairement avancée. Mais, il semblerait que la première raison qui amène à s'intéresser à un "remplacement" de ce système c'est que... son contrat de maintien en condition opérationnelle (MCO) arrive à échéance en 2014. Forcément, dans ces conditions là, et tant que les état-majors jugeront utiles une telle capacité pour les opérations passées, présentes et à venir, il faut intervenir.

 

La suite des opérations était assez clair pendant un temps :

  • première phase, il s'agissait de donner une suite (toute neuve) au système Harfang par le développement d'un nouveau système intérimaire. Ce nouveau programme doit permettre de consolider les capacités industrielles françaises en matière de drones (MALE).
  • Seconde phase, il est question de développer un drone MALE "durable" à l'horizon 2020 et d'une ampleur bien plus importante.

Il y avait plusieurs solutions pour prendre la relève des Harfang. A priori, il n'y a pas eu un grand zèle pour renouveler de contrat de MCO. Il semblerait que l'Armée de l'Air tienne absolument à changer d'échelle en obtenant un nouveau système intérimaire, et surtout, un système où les vecteurs tendraient à être de la classe des 3 à 4 tonnes.

Cet renouvellement et cet accroissement des capacités nationales en terme de drones MALE au plan opérationnel doit s'accompagner d'une progression industrielle au second plan. C'est-à-dire que les savoir-faires acquis pendant l'opération Harfang doivent fructifier, et au moins perdurer.

Sur ce dernier point, il est assez difficile de savoir ce qui a été appris par l'industriel européen (EADS) pendant l'opération Harfang. La francisation du système a été l'occasion d'un très beau ratage financier, et de retards exceptionnels puisque le système devait entrer en service en 2003, et il ne vola dans l'escadron d'essais qu'en 2008. L'Armée de l'Air est-elle étrangère à cet état de faits ? La forcée aérienne française ne serait pas tout à fait étrangère à ces péripéties malheureuses car il semblerait que cela soit elle qui ait presque totalement transformée l'achat d'un produit sur étagère en développement d'un nouveau produit.
Est-ce que ce programme a été l'occasion d'enregistrer de nouvelles compétences dans l'hexagone ou dans l'Europe ? A priori, les compétences engrangées sont suffisamment faibles pour que le nouveau programme de drones MALE intérimaires se réalise une nouvelle fois avec un partenaire étranger.

En effet, le MALE durable qui doit apparaître en service à l'horizon 2020 doit être le fruit d'un programme à "plusieurs" entre européens. Le marché des drones MALE s'annonceraient juteux pour les prochaines années, et donc, forcémment, celui qui maîtrise le mieux son sujet a le plus de chances de profiter des retombées économiques d'un programme de drones MALE, même réalisé en coopération.

Ce tonnage accru pourrait s'expliquer par le besoin d'emporter plus d'équipements, tout en ayant une capacité à persister sur zone plus élevée. En outre, cela permet d'emporter des armes à bord du drone.

L'armement des drones (avec pilotes en l'occurence, le drone est téléguidé, il n'est pas en fonctionnement sur intelligence artificielle) semble avoir été admis par l'état-major des armées depuis les opérations en Afghanistan. C'est ce que font les américains depuis de nombreuses années avec les drones Predator (classe des 1 tonnes) et Reaper (classe des 4 tonnes) de General Dynamcis. Les drones MALE américians permettent de surveiller des localités dans les zones tribales du Pakistan dans l'optique de réaliser des frappes d'opportunité. C'est-à-dire que le renseignement collecté sur le terrain peut être directement transformé en action. C'est dans le même ordre d'idée que des drones MALE auraient pu servir en Libye : leur persistence sur zone leur aurait offert la possibilité de frapper les troupes loyalistes au moment le plus opportun. Entre un drone MALE persistant sur zone et une patrouille de Rafale, le coût financier pourrait être à l'avantage du drone.

Il y a d'autres aéronefs qui peuvent avoir une endurance assez comparable sur zone à celle d'un drone MALE armé. Mais ce dernier bénéficie de sa très faible taille, et donc de sa très faible surface équivalente radar, ce qui permet de s'affranchir de quelques frontières aériennes sans être repéré, ou bien d'agir dans une très forte discrétion.

Enfin, la vitesse de l'Harfang, environ 200 km/h, aurait été jugé beaucoup trop faible (contre près de 500 km/h pour le Reaper).

 

Ce premier état perceptible des faits permet de constater quels concurrents ont pu être plus ou moins écartés :

  • le premier d'entre eux est le MQ-1 Predator qui est donc de la classe des 1 tonnes : si le Harfang est jugé trop léger par rapport aux nouveaux besoins, alors il y avait peu de chances qu'il soit retenu.
  • Le second, et peut être le plus important, est le Patroller de SAGEM.

Le Patroller représente tout ce que l'on peut demander à nouveau drone MALE sur le plan industriel. L'industriel, Sagem, est le même qui avait, en son temps, réalisé les systèmes Sperwer qui avaient été vendu aux Pays-Bas, au Canada (mais il s'agissait d'un drone tactique) et accessoirement à l'Armée de Terre .
Pour réaliser le Patroller, Sagem délaisse la réalisation de la cellule du vecteur à un industriel allemand qui est spécialisé dans la réalisation de planeurs (l'entreprise STEIME). La firme française s'occuperait essentiellement de l'intégration des divers équipements et logiciels à bord de la cellule pour en faire un drone MALE à part entière. Mer et Marine, et d'autres, ont pu largement commenté que ce système fonctionne, et est en essais en vol.

C'est-à-dire, et il ne faut pas se lasser d'insister très, très lourdement qu'il y a un système de drones MALE, intérimaire, franco-allemand, qui poursuit ses essais en vol depuis presque deux ans.

Qui plus est, Mer et Marine relatait il y a très récemment que le drone Patroller essayait un équipement AIS dans l'optique de proposer une version de surveillance maritime de ce drone (programme AVISMAR ?).

Aussi, si l'industriel français ne reçoit pas de commandes pour son drone MALE d'ici à l'année prochaine, il devra abandonner la partie. La France entreterait dans la situation paradoxale où le seul industriel capable de réaliser les objectifs des gouvernants et des militaires en matière de drones MALE, et qui n'aurait pas été soutenu, devrait disparaître de la partie. Alors, certes le Patroller n'est pas dans le sacro-saint créneau des 4 tonnes de l'Armée de l'Air, mais est-ce que les forces armées et les administrations n'auraient pas à gagner à disposer de plusieurs systèmes de drones MALE ? Il convient de relever que depuis que le nouveau drone tactique de l'Armée de l'Air (le Watchkeeper de Thales qui devrait être prochainement commandé) nécessite une piste de décollage, la frontière est très mince entre ce drone "tactique" et un drone MALE de la classe des 1 tonnes.

 

Par contre, il y a l'autre drone MALE américain, le Reaper, qui rentre dans le cadre des besoins français. Vincent Lamigeon (magazine Challenge) avait eu vent de l'offre que General Dynamics aurait faite à la France : quatre vecteurs, plus deux autres pour l'attrition, un banc d'essais, deux stations au sol, et dix ans de MCO (2000 heures de vol par année) pour 209 millions d'euros (contre 700 millions d'euros pour la proposition de Dassault avec le même nombre de vecteurs et des capacités inférieures). Il faut dire que le système américain est produit à la chaîne.

 

Du côté de l'Europe, il y avait plusieurs propositions pour un nouveau système de drones MALE intérimaires :

  • EADS souhaiterait soit prolonger les Harfang actuels (ce qui heurte les besoins de l'Armée de l'Air) tout en poursuivant le développement du drone MALE maison, le Talarion,
  • Dassault Aviation souhaiterait, visiblement, se positionner sur le marché en francisant un nouveau système de drones MALE israélien (le Héron TP, qui semble être la succession du premier) avec, pour l'avenir, le projet de réaliser un drone MALE franco-britannique (le dénomé Télémos).

Il semblerait que pendant un temps il y ait eu un "deal" entre les firmes française et européenne :

  • l'une avait en charge la maîtrise d'oeuvre du démonstrateur d'UCAV européen (le nEURON dont les maitres d'ouvrage sont Dassault et la DGA) tandis que l'autre y est équipementier :
  • l'autre avait en charge la maîtrise d'oeuvre du programme de drones MALE durable européen (EADS avec le Talarion) alors que l'autre n'y était que équipementier. 

Cela aurait été le partage des tâches en Europe. En fait, il s'agirait avant toute chose (et comme souvent) de logiques industrielles : les deux entreprises veulent se positionner sur le marché des drones MALE qui semblent bien plus profitable puisque le "marché" des UCAV n'existent pas. Le programme nEURON ne prévoit que la réalisation d'une mission de démonstration avec un bombardement, il n'aboutira pas à la construction en série de drones.

 

Dassault Aviation se serait donc positionné finalement sur le marché des MALE en prétendant réaliser le nouveau système MALE intérimaire pour l'Armée de l'air. Pour ce faire, l'industriel français choisit l'israélien IAI pour franciser le Heron TP. L'arrivée en service de l'engin dépendra du degré de francisation de celui-ci : selon les exigences, il arrivera en service dans les deux à quatre ans après la décision prise.
Il va s'en dire que personne n'a vraiment fait remarquer ouvertement que si la décision était défintivement prise en 2012, alors le nouveau système arriverait en service en 2014 ou en 2016 pour durer jusqu'en 2020 où le drone MALE "européen" doit lui aussi entrer en service : entre 4 à 6 ans de service pour un investissement de 700 millions d'euros pour un système, c'est très coûteux.

 

Il y a de très nombreux obstacles au projet de Dassault :

  • à quoi bon franciser encore un drone israélien ? Est-ce que l'achat des drones Hunter et la francisation du drone Harfang ont été à la source d'enseignements ? Il faut croire que les industriels israéliens savent travailler sans vendre leurs secrets. 
  • Un programme pour pérenniser l'indépendance de l'industrie nationale ? "Un argument étrange, sachant que Dassault et Thales n'auront guère que quelques systèmes de communication (satellite, notamment) et peut-être un radar SAR à se mettre sous la dent".
  • L'investissement a-t-il été contrebalancé avec une prolongation des Harfang ?
  • Le plus beau, et c'est notamment l'argument qui aurait pu écarter le Patroller, la solution industrielle franco-allemande : le drone israélien ne peut pas emporter d'armes car il s'agit d'un drone conçu dans le cadre de missions de surveillance et de renseignement avant toute chose !
  • Enfin, et encore une très belle chose à relever : "Avec francisation, les sénateurs jugent que les chiffres de Dassault-IAI (370 millions d’euros) « appellent les plus expresses réserves, tant ils paraissent sous-estimés », rappelant qu'une même proposition de francisation du Heron TP émises par Dassault en 2010 était de 700 millions d’euros, soit presque le double".

C'est donc pourquoi les sénateurs ont fait barrage pendant un temps (puisque l'Assemblée a le dernier mot) au projet du gouvernement sortant, quand le Sénat a changé de majorité. Vincent Lamigeon relate très bien et très régulièrement les péripéties de ce programme.

 

Le journaliste relate une oppositon qui explique bien pourquoi les choix sont minces : la filiale Défense d'EADS, Cassidian, et notamment l'allemand Bernhard Gerwert, aurait bloqué autant que possible une autre solution : la construction de systèmes Reaper américains par l'industriel européen. En effet, il semberait que ce projet là ait inquiété l'industriel qui aurait craint pour le projet Talarion de drone MALE européen durable pour 2020.


Mais cela pourrait donner du grain à moudre au moulin de Dassault car l'industriel qui pointe la question de l'indépendance de l'industrie aérospatiale française a aussi pointé la question des inquiétudes à avoir vis-à-vis des industriels allemands qui auraient toutes les bonnes places à bord du programme Talarion. Dassault viserait donc, notamment, pour cette raison la coopération bilatérale sur le Télémos franco-anglais entérinait lors des accords du 2 novembre 2010. L'industriel  ne souhaiterait pas mettre un pied dans un programme qui pourrait l'amener dans une vague de rapprochement avec la multilatéralité et la recomposition de l'industrie européenne à son désaventage, et il voudrait se positionnier sur un marché porteur pour continuer à subsister seul. Ou bien en coopérartion avec un autre industriel qui ne semble pas vouloir de ce même mécanisme intégrateur européen : BAE Systems.

C'est pourquoi donc ni EADS, ni Dassault Aviation ne veulent entendre parler du Reaper puisque celui-ci obère leurs capacités à se positionner sur le drone MALE européen de 2020. En outre, s'ils ne participent pas à un programme de drones MALE à franciser (ou à "produire" sous licence, plutôt, où ils auront à leur charge l'intégration d'équipements français et européens), alors ils partiront dans de très, très mauvaises conditions pour tenir les délais pour parvenir à livrer les premiers systèmes dès 2020.

 

La situation en était restée au choix du gouvernement précédent en faveur de Dassault pour les drones MALE intérimaires et durables (le second va difficilement sans le premier).

 

Le problème, c'est que la fronde des sénateurs de gauche de 2011 prend un relief tout autre avec le changement de Président et de gouvernement.

Le nouveau ministre de la Défense, Jean-Yves Le Drian, a annoncé qu'il remettait à plat le dossier du nouveau système de drone MALE intérimaire. "Sur les drones, ma posture est très simple : je remets à plat, sans passion et avec pragmatisme", avait assuré le ministre, promettant une décision avant le 14 juillet".Comme cela a été dit à plusieurs reprises plus haut, le choix de l'industriel pour le nouveau MALE intérimaire implique de choisir le MALE durable de 2020. Faudrait-il penser que Dassault Aviation pourrait être écarté de l'un ou l'autre des projets ? En effet, les nouveaux gouvernants issus des élections présidentielles, et bientôt législatives, ont indiqué leur volonté de recomposer le secteur de la Défense avec une stratégie industrielle plus européenne et moins "patrimoniale". Il n'est un secret pour personne que l'avionneur de Saint-Cloud est dans la ligne de mire.

Cependant, il serait trop simple de revenir à EADS (et son Talarion) puisque le but de la manoeuvre, et quelque soit la couleur politique des gouvernants, est de positionner les industriels français sur un créneau porteur et crucial. Que Dassault soit bien vu ou non, peu importe, l'important est que un ou ou des industriels français maîtrisent tout ou partie des phases critiques du programme. En ce qui concerne les drones, ce n'est pas tant la cellule du vecteur qui est importante -la France sait encore concevoir et construire des planeurs ?- que l'intégration des équipements. Dans ce dernier domaine, les industriels français sont très bien positionnés dans la conception et la construction des liaisons radio, satellitaire, des boules optroniques, des radars, etc... Cette orientation est renforcé par le fait que si Sagem devait abandonner le Patroller alors l'entreprise se consacrerait à la "chaîne images" pour drone, c'est bien la preuve que la production de drones clefs en main n'est pas l'objectif primordial. En vérité, de très nombreux pays annoncent à tour de bras des programmes de drone aérien (même l'Arménie) : construire la cellule et la faire voler, c'est une chose, la remplir, c'est une autre.

 

Qu'est-ce que le nouveau gouvernement va bien pouvoir faire et décider ?

  • A priori, il semblerait que le programme Télémos soit maintenu et signé pour juillet. C'est en tout les cas ce qui peut être annoncé dans la presse.
  • Est-ce à dire que le nouveau MALE intérimaire sera donc le Héron TP, rebaptisé Voltigeur ? Dassault veut toujours croire en ses chances, et vanterait le fait que le Héron TP bénéficie dres retours d'expériences des israéliens. C'est un drôle d'argument pour un drone qui pourrait être opposé au choix du Reaper américain qui a été employé "à plusieurs reprises"...
  • Rien n'est moins sûr puisque Vincent Lamigeon évoque la dernière carte d'EADS : la francisation du Reaper !

Cette dernière solution qui semblait avoir été écarté au préalable reviendrait sur le devant de la scène (il vaut mieux le Reaper de chez EADS que rien du tout...) avec l'argument notable que, outre le fait que le drone MALE américain réponde à toutes les demandes de l'Armée de l'air (dont le fait d'être armé), les drones arriveraient en parc bien plus rapidement que les deux à quatre années avancaient par Dassault pour son projet. En effet, les compétences acquises (!) lors du développement de l'Harfang servirait pour ce projet.

 

Est-ce logique de donner le drone MALE durable à Dassault et le système intérimaire à EADS tout en ne s'engageant plus sur le Talarion (MALE durable) ?

 

A priori, et en lisant l'ouverture de l'article de monsieur Lamigeon du 12 juin 2012, oui : "Le ministère de la défense peut-il franchir le pas en acceptant une offre de Reaper francisé ? Il faudrait composer avec une inévitable réaction antiaméricaine d’une partie des parlementaires et de l’industrie. La pilule passerait mieux avec une forte participation de l’industrie française, et le lancement définitif du futur drone MALE européen, que le Vieux Continent ne peut plus de payer le luxe d’attendre. Avec, pourquoi pas, Dassault et EADS enfin sur le même bateau".

 

Le nouveau gouvernement doit donc résoudre une certaine quadrature du cercle :

  • d'une part, il semblerait que l'onéreux programme Voltigeur de Dassault soit retoqué pour de nombreuses raisons (financière, politique, industrielle et opérationnelle).
  • De l'autre côté, il n'est pas évident d'acheter des équipements américains en France à cause d'une vision gravement déformée de la politique gaullienne d'indépendance. Pourtant, le drone Reaper est la dernière solution (d'un drone MALE de 4 tonnes) pour ne pas attendre 2020 -bien que se passer d'un drone MALE intérimaire sur la période 2012-2020 présenterait l'avantage de donner le temps et l'ambition, forcée, aux bureaux d'études de parvenir à une solution satisfaisante.


Donc oui, le cheval de bataille du nouveau gouvernement pourrait être de rapprocher les équipes d'EADS et de Dassault Aviation. Ce beau projet, qui résoudrait bien des problèmes, se heurterait à deux grandes sources de difficultés interdépendantes :

  • comment créer une filière nationale au sein d'une entreprise multinationale ? Chacun des Etats de l'entreprise gardent un contrôle plus ou moins grand sur des compétences qu'ils jugent essentielles, et la tâche est ardue. La France garde la main sur les briques de sa dissuasion nucléaire, malgré MBDA et EADS : est-ce reproductible a minima dans les drones ?
  • Comment entamer un tel mouvement alors que d'autres européens veulent aussi les bénéficies du drone MALE européen durable -les allemands les premiers ?

Pour répondre à ces questions, il faut avoir une très bonne connaissance d'EADS et de la manière dont s'est déroulé le programme Harfang.

 

Malgré les retards, la situation est assez heureuse puisque la France possède des entreprises qui rayonnent dans les équipements pouvant être utilisés dans les drones : Zodiac, Thales, Sagem, etc...

 

Mais, il n'en demeure pas moins que la meilleure des solutions, vraiment la meilleure, et non pas la moins pire, réside dans le Patroller de Sagem. En tout cas, sur le plan industriel, c'est celle qui répond à l'ambition de la maîtrise nationale. L'Armée de l'Air bloquerait-t-elle cette solution car il faudrait "absolument" un drone MALE de la classe des 4 tonnes ? A tout hasard, il faut souligner que des drones MALE serviraient bien pour le programme AVISMAR de la Marine nationale et pour la Sécurité civile.

 

Il est étonnant que cette entreprise française, Sagem, soit autant ostracisé de ces manoeuvres industrielles alors qu'elle possède une très grande partie du savoir-faire recherché.

 

Si les drones MALE permettent bel et bien de faire progresser les capacités opérationnelles de toutes les Armées, voir d'autres administrations, alors il conviendrait, peut être, de choisir une solution qui ouvre des perspectives plus larges et permettent l'achat de plusieurs systèmes de drones.

 

Mais aussi, il est terriblement plus simple de rapprocher Sagem de Thales car une nouvelle répartition des compétences est déjà en cours entre les deux entreprises, bien que les discussions soient très, très difficiles. Cette nouvelle découpe des périmètres industriels de chacun pourrait englobe Dassault : la solution la plus confortable pour la France ne serait-elle pas de constituer une filière drone MALE franco-française ? Et pourquoi pas les équipes qui ont travaillé sur le drone Harfang ?
C'est bien ce qui qui a pu être fait la navale militaire (rapprochement DCN-Thales) et ce qui va être fait dans l'industrie militaire française terrestre (recomposition entre Thales, Nexter, RTD et Auverland (Panhard).

 

Ce que va faire le gouvernement entre Sagem, Dassault et EADS dépendra de ses ambitions pour la recomposition de l'industrie militaire française. Le nouveau gouvernement veut des rapprochements européens et doit composer avec Dassault Aviation (qui possède une bonne partie du capital de Thales (qui est également présent dans les drones... tactiques) qui souhaiter rester indépendant.

 

Il va s'en dire que la création d'une coentreprise drones MALE (voir aériens) en France serait une très belle manière d'aborder avec force le programme franco-anglais (Télémos de Dassault Aviation et BAE Systems) ou européen (Talarion d'EADS).

Il va s'en dire que les retards sont nombreux car si le gouvernement précédent avait fait fi des exigences de l'Armée de l'Air, alors le Patroller serait peut être en service à l'heure qu'il est.
Le dossier ne doit pas concerner la seule Armée de l'Air : les drones MALE peuvent servir dans la Marine nationale (AVISMAR, piraterie, AEM), dans la Sécurité civile (surveillance des forêts), voir dans l'Armée de Terre. Si cette dernière choisit un drone tactique opérant depuis des pistes en dur pour remplacer les Sperwer, alors aurait-elle était outrée de recevoir des Patroller, surdimensionnés par rapport à son besoin ?

A l'heure actuelle, nous devrions plutôt évoquer a mise en oeuvre de drones MALE depuis les ponts plats (BPC, porte-avions) de la Marine. Le Patroller se positionne en matière de drones de surveillance maritime, tout comme avait pu le faire le Reaper pour le programme Broad Aera Maritime Surveillance (c'est le RQ-4 Global Hawk qui a été choisi pour ce programme). Le Camcopter S-100 aurait alors constitué l'excellent partenaire de "Patroller-M" dans le cadre d'un système de surveillance maritime : le MALE serveille la zone, l'hélidrone tactique sert à la discrimination des échos.
Alors, le nouveau gouvernement, pour répondre aux exigences de l'Armée de l'Air, lancerait dès cet été un "Patroller 2" ou tout autre projet en vue de fournir un drone de 4 tonnes, en attendant le MALE franco-anglais ou européen de la classe des 7 tonnes.

 

Il faut peut être espérer qu'il s'agira d'un Reaper francisé pour le nouveau système de drones MALE intérimaire : le gain financier avec la proposition de Dassault pourrait être investit dans d'autres projets pour les drones MALE. La Marine pourrait profiter des bonnes relations franco-américaines pour développer les techniques d'appontage de drones à voilures fixes, après l'avoir fait avec des drones à voilures tournantes.

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14 juin 2012 4 14 /06 /juin /2012 07:55
Sagem awarded new tactical drone contract for French army, continues to modernize fleet

Paris, Eurosatory exhibition, June 12, 2012 Sagem DS

 

French defense procurement agency DGA has awarded Sagem (Safran group) a contract for five Sperwer Mk II drones, which will join the fleet of SDTI tactical drones already in service with the French army. These new systems will be delivered between the second half of 2012 and mid-2013, and will enable the French army to maintain its tactical drone capability.

 

At the same time, the DGA announced another contract award for Sagem, this time to modernize the GPS code P(Y) module on all Sperwer drones in service. Developed by Sagem for the Rafale multirole fighter, this GPS module is coupled to the drone's navigation system, enabling very precise geo-location of ground targets by the Sagem Euroflir 350+ optronics pod.

 

The Sperwer tactical drone system has been deployed in Afghanistan since 2003 to support NATO troops. For France, the 61st Artillery Regiment has deployed this system since November 2008.

 

The drones themselves are produced by Sagem's Montluçon plant. Sagem has produced over 25 complete tactical drone systems to date, including 140 aircraft.

 

(1) Système de drones tactiques intérimaires.

* * * *

Sagem, a high-tech company in the Safran group, holds world or European leadership positions in optronics, avionics, electronics and safety-critical software for both civil and military markets. Sagem is the No. 1 company in Europe and No. 3 worldwide for inertial navigation systems (INS) used in air, land and naval applications. It is also the world leader in helicopter flight controls and the European leader in optronics and tactical UAV systems. Operating across the globe through the Safran group, Sagem and its subsidiaries employ 7,500 people in Europe, Southeast Asia and North America. Sagem is the commercial name of the company Sagem Défense Sécurité.

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6 juin 2012 3 06 /06 /juin /2012 11:55
 Le SIDM (système intérimaire de drones de moyenne altitude longue endurance)


06/06/2012 DGA

 

Le système intérimaire de drones MALE (SIDM) permet la réalisation de missions de surveillance et de reconnaissance, de désignation d'objectif et d'illumination laser de cibles.

Ces missions, réalisées au profit du renseignement interarmées, du commandant du théâtre et des composantes de forces, s'appliquent sur l'ensemble d'une zone d'intérêt ou d'un théâtre d'opérations.

Elles peuvent être réalisées dans la profondeur, jusqu'à des distances supérieures à 1000 km de la base de départ, en assurant une permanence sur zone de 24 heures de jour comme de nuit et par tous temps. Les charges utiles embarquées sont une boule 3 voies dénommée MOSP (voie électro-optique, voie infrarouge et voie laser) et un radar à ouverture synthétique (imagerie et détection de cibles mobiles).

Le système, qui a été déployé en Afghanistan jusqu'en mars 2012, comprend deux véhicules aériens, un segment sol et des moyens de soutien associés ; un système complémentaire, composé d'un véhicule aérien, d'une station sol et des moyens de soutien associés, a été livré à l'armée de l'air sur la base aérienne de Cognac fin 2010, et porte ainsi à 2 le nombre de véhicules aériens présents sur cette base (parc total de 4 véhicules aériens). Ce second système, principalement destiné à la formation et aux missions intérieures, a été déployé dans le cadre de l'opération Harmattan d'août à octobre 2011.

 

Développement

Après l'expérimentation des drones Hunter, l'armée de l'air a décidé de les remplacer par les drones SIDM, en attendant le drone MALE qui lui apporterait à terme une capacité complète.

Le SIDM a fait l'objet d'un appel d'offres sur performances qui a retenu la proposition EADS (maître d'œuvre) sur la base du porteur israélien Eagle réalisé par IAI. La notification du contrat est intervenue en août 2001.

La livraison du système SIDM a été échelonnée entre mi 2008 et début 2009, à l'issue d'une phase de réception ayant fortement sollicité les centres de la Direction Technique (notamment : DGA EV, DGA MI, DGA TA) ; dès la livraison, l'armée de l'air a mené les premières expérimentations technico-opérationnelles, et a participé à une opération intérieure en septembre 2008 (intégration du système dans le DPSA mis en place lors de la visite du Pape à Lourdes).

 

Activité opérationnelle

Il a été décidé fin 2008 de projeter le système sur le théâtre afghan, suite aux évènements du mois d'août dans la vallée d'Uzbeen. Après une modification de la liaison satellitaire, pour s'adapter aux caractéristiques particulières de la ressource disponible sur le théâtre (satellite à orbite inclinée), la première capacité opérationnelle a été prononcée fin janvier. Le système a ensuite réalisé son premier vol en opération extérieure depuis la base aérienne militaire de Bagram le 17 février 2009.

En mars 2012, au départ d'Afghanistan, ce sont 579 vols qui ont été réalisés pour ce déploiement, pour un total de 5100 heures de vol.

L'activité sur la base de Cognac a débuté fin 2010, à des fins d'entraînement du personnel et de missions intérieures (G8 de Deauville, etc.)

Entre août et octobre 2011, le second système a été déployé en Sicile dans le cadre de l'opération Harmattan. 24 vols auront été effectués à cet effet, pour 316 heures de vol.

 

Fiche technique

L'architecture physique d'ensemble du SIDM s'organise autour des segments suivants :

 

Segment aérien

Véhicules aériens :

- masse maximale au décollage : 1 250 kg

- envergure de 17 m

- équipé de GPS et de moyens inertiels

- équipé d'un moteur à pistons (ROTAX 914) et d'une hélice à pas variable

- atterrissage et décollage automatique tous temps sur la base d'un système GPS différentiel et d'un moyen de secours à technologie laser

- protection anti-givre

Charges utiles :

- caméras d'imagerie (visible et infrarouge) sur plate-forme gyrostabilisée

- télémètre/illuminateur laser

- radar SAR disposant de 2 modes d'imagerie (STRIP et SPOT), permettant une haute résolution, et d'un mode de détection de cibles mobiles (MTI)

- capacité de suivi automatique de cibles

- fonction ROVER / Remote video terminal, permettant de diffuser les images directement vers les troupes au sol (charge exclusive du radar SAR, intégrée par le CEAM et opérationnelle depuis mars 2010)

Segment liaisons de données :

- à vue directe (LOS)

- par satellite (SATCOM)

 

Segment sol modulaire

- un module de préparation de la mission

- un module de mise en œuvre système (gère les phases de décollage et d'atterrissage et contrôle le drone en vol)

- un module de mise en œuvre déportée (contrôle complet du drone en vol)

- un module d'interprétation et de diffusion des images (SAIM )

Le segment sol permet de gérer simultanément deux véhicules aériens en vol et d'effectuer des relais sur la zone d'observation.

 

Performances

- altitudes d'évolution opérationnelle comprises entre 15 000 et 25 000 ft

- vitesse maximale de 110 kts

- endurance de 12 heures à 1 000 km (pour un véhicule aérien), permanence H24 sur zone pour le système

- capacité d'observation tous temps, de jour comme de nuit

 

Avancées capacitaires

En comparaison avec le système Hunter, le SIDM présente de véritables avancées technologiques offrant une capacité opérationnelle accrue. Ces améliorations sont essentiellement :

- l'intégration d'une liaison de données par satellite permettant un contrôle du drone à très grande distance. Cette capacité permet à la fois, d'envoyer le drone sur des théâtres d'opération éloignés de la base de départ, mais aussi, de répartir géographiquement les stations de contrôle recueillant en temps réel l'information en fonction du besoin opérationnel

- l'intégration d'un radar d'imagerie SAR permettant de réaliser des images par tous temps et, grâce au mode MTI, de détecter et suivre des cibles mobiles

- la capacité à emporter simultanément les différents capteurs (optique, infrarouge, radar), permettant d'assurer la mission quelle que soit l'évolution des conditions météorologiques

- le développement d'un système d'atterrissage et de décollage automatique (ATOL ) permettant d'augmenter le degré d'automatisation du système, de limiter le risque relatif à ces phases critiques du vol, et de garantir une capacité de décollage et d'atterrissage tous temps

- l'intégration d'un système de dégivrage permettant le vol en conditions givrantes

- l'intégration d'un système d'analyse image (SAIM) faisant l'interface avec les systèmes d'information et de commandement

- la capacité Rover décrite supra, depuis mars 2010 (capacité exclusive du radar SAR)

A noter que le système SIDM dispose depuis fin 2010 d'un certificat de type.

 

Architecture industrielle

La maîtrise d'œuvre industrielle du SIDM est assurée par les sociétés EADS et IAI, en organisation de cotraitance. L'origine des composants principaux est la suivante :

- véhicule aérien : IAI-MALAT (Israël)

- liaison de données SATCOM : IN-SNEC (France), groupe Zodiac Data System

- centrale inertielle : SAGEM (France)

- boule électro-optique : IAI -TAMAM (Israël)

- radar SAR : IAI-ELTA (Israël)

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