MOD make extravagent claims for Mantis - which BAE are selling them "off plan"

At Farnborough air show in June ,BAE systems unveiled a full-scale model of an UAV,and also revealed initial details of project Mantis, a UAV on which development began late last year under an advanced concept technology demonstrator (ACTD) contract with partners Rolls-Royce, QinetiQ, Selex Galileo, GE Aviation and Meggitt. The first flight was said to be (very ambitioulsy) scheduled for early 2009.

The T tailed Mantis is designed to be able to carry GBU-12 laser-guided bombs and Brimstone missiles on six weapon pylons.The Mantis features twin-props, a multi-sensor turret and radar under its fuselage, and a satcom antenna in the upper nose section and will use a triplex flight control system. The wings are made at BAE Brough now they have nothing left to make with the Hawk having migrated to India and the airfame is made by Lola who mae F1 cars.

The mock up shown at Farnborough deployed 4 Raytheon Paveway IV dual mode guided-bombs and six Brimstone missiles on two three-round launchers.

Air Vice-Marshal Simon Bollom, the Defense Ministry's director general, combat air, said at the time that the Mantis is "the type of platform with which we can experiment".

A few days later Flight was able to announce that, " the MOD may deploy to Afghanistan its BAE System's Mantis advanced concept technology demonstrator unmanned air vehicle as part of Mantis's second development phase, or spiral. "

How every odd then, that the Sunday Mail reports , under the headline " RAF show off 'killer' drone aircraft which will help protect major dam in Afghanistan" which a "Daily Mail reporter" reports "The RAF has unveiled its latest weapon in the fight to protect the crucial Kajaki dam in southern Afghanistan. The unmanned Mantis killer ‘drone’ aircraft will guard supply pylons in the area where last week British troops carried out a daring mission to install a 200-ton turbine."

Excited observers look forward to seeing this wonderful aircraft fly before it is packed off to Afghanistan to replace the £10 Mn a throw Israeli Hermes UAV's - one of which has already crashed.

Costs of the project shared 50.50 with the contractors and the MOD have not been revealed. Nor how they will take this to operational capability froma mock up at Farnborough in June to 24 hour patrolling the skies over Afghanistan.

Andrew Chuter in Defense News reporting from Farnborough had however raised a note of caution ..."The reticence by the two sides to reveal program costs leads to the suspicion that the amount of cash involved in the program at this stage is small, and the cash-strapped MoD is providing only a small portion of the funding.

Industry sources estimated the investment in the tens of millions of pounds, significantly less than the £124 million being jointly invested by industry and government in the stealthy, jet-powered Taranis unmanned air vehicle technology demonstrator launched in 2006 by now you see him, now you don't race car driving ,by the then-defense procurement minister, Lord Drayson.

Many of the leading players in Mantis are also playing a role in Taranis. That airframe is in assembly.

Air Vice Marshal Bollom with his head firmly in the clouds said the program also was aimed at demonstrating the rapid prototyping capabilities of British industry in the UAV sector.

"Rapid development programs such as Mantis will provide indicators of how we can improve the acquisition process to deliver capability swiftly into fast-changing military environments," Bollom said.

Several of BAE's earlier privately funded demonstrator programs, like Corax /Raven, (It was given 2 synonymns Corax is the Latin generic name for the ravens and crows - perhaps to confuse the Russkis we had 2 diferent models) were developed using rapid prototyping apparently says the MOD. Those not convinced might like to re-read the birthday post of Lord Patel on Wednesday, January 25, 2006 Overmanned BAE produce Unmanned useless UAV out of date, obsolete UAV with catchy name. The Corax (see BBC report) first flew in 2004. Nothing has been heard of it since.

UPDATE : If this flies over Aldershot never mind Afghanistan we will collectively show our arse in Woorlworth's window.

EADS announce progress with SHARC rotary wing UAV at Paris Air Show 2007

Military Air Systems is an integrated Business Unit of EADS Defence & Security (DS - 23,000 employees - Eur 5.9 Bn sales 2006), they not only displayed a mock up of the SHARC UAV (pic) at the Paris Air Show 2007 but announced it's flight test programme had successfully started.

This is a compact, 2.5 m long, 0.7 m high and 1.2 m high vehicle with an all up weight of 190 KG (incl. + - 60 Kg surveillance kit). It is an unconvential unmanned coaxial dual-rotor helicopter and is equipped with a redundant flight control unit, a laser altimeter and control and data links. There are no hydraulic componenents and the dual rotors are controlled by electrical actuators.

EADS are moving to developing a modular or mix 'n' match setup which they also displayed as a 1:10 model of a new MALE UAV concept. The aircraft is configured as a main module, which includes the airframe, twin engines avionics, controls and tail section, with optional wing sets

1 High aspect ratio
2 Low aspect ratio

Payloads would be modular, providing SAR, MPR and EO systems.

Communications can be by

1. Forward satellite section
2. Where sufficient replaced with a line of sight module



The proposed modular design in SHARC of the avionics is a step along the road to integration of a whole range of different mission equipment. Tests on electro-optical and infrared sensors are part of the overall flight campaign. In addition, SHARC can also accommodate a compact synthetic aperture radar (SAR) system.

EADS claims that within the SHARC package they can readily configure systems for military / naval / coastal requirements for unmanned reconnaissance and surveillance as well as aerial target designation and damage control missions, but can also be used for industrial / border monitoring.

Ideally designed for ship based use the dual rotor configuration ( mutually torque-compensating counterrotating rotors make a compensating tail rotor superfluous) has a claimed 30% list at equal wait with conventional helicopters with tail boom designs - providing heavier sensor payload greater attitude stability and comparable flight performance with easier / safer autonomous deck landings.

EADS also showed the latest generation of the lightweight EADS SCORPIO of which over 1,000 are in use for short duration, low level surveillance land based use.

Not to be confused with the Saab SHARC (Swedish Highly Advanced Research Configuration) the forerunner of the Saab armed Combat UAV (CUAV).

Pentagon is looking for a VULTURE - keeping it up for 5 years at a time

Steve Davis, (Phone (01) 571-218-4949, Fax (01)703-807-4952, Email Stephen.C.Davis@darpa.mil) at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) wants to hear from you if you have any good notions to , "deliver and maintain an airborne payload on station for an uninterrupted period exceeding 5 years using a heavier-than-air platform system" ... but just check first because he is not interested in any such system that , " uses either radioactive energy sources or employs any form of buoyant flight for this application."

Steve's Air Vehicle Program has been given the stunning and unforgettable title of VULTURE and the goal of providing the Military (DARPA is part of the Pentagon) with a 1000 lb, 5 kW airborne payload for an uninterrupted period exceeding 5 years with a 99+% on station probability. We look forward to the Project's logo. "VULTURE guys keep it up for 5 Years" ?

This platform will / may be involved in environmental energy collection, high specific energy storage, extremely efficient propulsion systems, precision robotic refueling, autonomous materiel transfer, extremely efficient vehicle structural design, and mitigation of environmentally-induced loads.

Steve considers there will be three phases to VULTURE

1) conceptual system definition with a supporting formal reliability and mission success analysis, exiting with a System Readiness Review and an option for continuation task;
2) risk reduction development and testing phase to include a Preliminary and Critical Design of a prototype ending with the flight test of a scaled version of the system;
3) fabrication, assembly and flight test evaluation encompassing an operational demonstration using the design payload.

If this has got you all excited then get on down to the VULTURE Program Industry Day on June 7, 2007 to be held at The Westin Arlington Gateway, Fitzgerald Ballroom (2nd Floor), 801 N. Glebe Road Arlington, VA US 22203

If you fancy sharing the DARPA VULTURE Program vision and philosophy, objectives and goals send an e-mail, with the Subject line "VULTURE Industry Day Request for Information", to Jake Decoto at Decotoj@centratechnology.com. (You won't send many e-mails with that title this year)

Pre-registration is required NO LATER THAN 3:00 PM EDST on May 31, 2007 for attendance - but remeber registration is limited to US citizens and Permanent Residents representing US companies only.

Admin enquiries :Jake at Decotoj@centratechnology.com. ( 01 703-276-7702x146)

Technical enquiries : Dr. Wade Pulliam, DARPA Program Manager, email: Wade.pulliam@darpa.mil
http://www.avinc.com/
Top contenders will include The electric powered option makes AeroEnvironment Inc., based in Monrovia, Calif., a likely candidate for the job. The company developed its “Helios” fuel and solar-cell powered flying wing for NASA, which in 2001 set an unofficial altitude record for a non-rocket powered aircraft of 96,863 feet. The Helios (see pic)developed structural problems on a test flight off the Hawaiian island of Kauai and crashed on a test flight in 2003.

Scaled Composites who made Steve Fossetts Global Flyer (Sponsors :Richard Bransons Virgin Atlantic) are another strong contender. Steve endured 76 hours and 45 minutes in a cramped cabin while circumnavigating the globe and establishing a new aviation long-distance record at

Burt Rutan, President of SC and Richard Branson formed a new aerospace production company to build a fleet of commercial sub-orbital spaceships and launch aircraft. The new company will own the designs of the new SpaceShipTwo (SS2) and White Knight Two (WK2) launch systems that are now in development at Scaled Composites. The SS2/WK2 system will use the 'Care-free reentry' and the 'cantilevered-hybrid' rocket motor technology developed for the Ansari X prize-winning SpaceShipOne (SS1), and will license that technology from Paul Allen's Mojave Aerospace company. The Spaceship Company will manufacture the new launch aircraft, spaceships and support equipment and market them to spaceline operators, including the launch customer, Virgin Galactic.

It is not unlikely that UAV designers in Israel will be following this development very closely - and probably already have something in the works.

USAF spends US$650 MN on 10 Global Hawk UAV systems.

The USAF reported on May 14th that Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Integrated Systems Air Combat Systems, San Diego, Calif., is being awarded a $371,376,333 fixed-price-incentive / firm-target contract modification to provide for 5 Global Hawk Air Vehicles, 3 Mission Control Elements, 3 Launch and Recovery Elements, along with associated equipment.

San Diego-based Northrop Integrated Systems Air Combat Command will also provide three launch and recovery elements for the global hawk and other related equipment.

On March 16th Northrop Grumman Systems Corp., Integrated Systems Air Combat Systems, San Diego, Calif.announced a US$287 Mn USAF contract for 5 RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial systems. They were described ;

The contract includes five air vehicles, one mission control element, one launch and recovery element, four enhanced integrated sensor suites (EISS) and sustaining support. Four of the five air vehicles will be in the Block 30 configuration with one in the Block 40 configuration. Block 30 air vehicles will be equipped with the EISS and will be airborne signals intelligence payload capable. The Block 40 air vehicle will be Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program payload capable.

Mathematicians will note that the price in March per vehicle was US$57 Mn. (ish) and in May was US$74 Mn. (ish) (although this contract included a further 2 Launch and recovery elements)

"This award reaffirms the Air Force's confidence in Global Hawk and our commitment in keeping the program on cost and on schedule," said Jerry Madigan, Northrop Grumman vice president of the high altitude long endurance systems market segment.

UPDATE 20/5/07 at 12.20 Israeli Aircraft Industries just popped in to read the above - their surveillance tip top as usual.