12 Aug 04. WolfPack, a U.S. DARPA-sponsored program executed by BAE Systems to develop unattended ground sensors, successfully demonstrated its increasing capabilities June 16 and 17 in a milestone event. The electronic wolves are designed to hunt down and disrupt the kinds of radio signals an enemy may use on a battlefield. Like real wolves, the advanced sensors devised by BAE Systems hunt in “packs,” communicating and interacting with each other over a wide area. Like wolves, they operate intelligently and purposefully. More than 30 officials from DARPA, the U.S. Army, Air Force, Navy, Marines, and other government representatives viewed WolfPack at work on an outdoor range located near BAE System’s plant in Merrimack, N.H. The successful Advanced Technology Development tests were the second in a series of four demonstrations that will lead to additional development and eventual fielding to support Army commanders’ real time battlefield intelligence needs.
Aug 04. Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMC), AAI Corporation and Textron Systems Corporation have formally signed the agreement to develop, produce and market the Bell Eagle Eye vertical unmanned aerial vehicle (VUAV) system. Team Eagle Eye will focus on domestic and targeted foreign sales opportunities. The Eagle Eye System consists of one or more Eagle Eye tiltrotor UAVs, ground control equipment, payload (sensors, weapons and other items carried internally or externally by the air vehicle), communications, and integrated logistics support. Core Team members for TEAM EAGLE EYE:
Bell Helicopter will bring a unique, innovative air vehicle and 6000 hours of tiltrotor expertise to the team. Responsible for overall system performance, programmatics, air vehicle design, development, production, flight-testing and delivery. Lockheed Martin Corporation will provide advanced technology expertise, prototyping, network centric knowledge and low cost composite capability to the realm of vertical lift. AAI Corporation will provide its One System* joint, common ground equipment and any integration expertise required. AAI will bring time-tested, operational, combat-proven, real-time UAV expertise to the team. Textron Systems Corporation will provide a variety of specialised UAV weapons payloads specifically designed or adapted for a tiltrotor UAV, to include ordnance integration support. (Source: Bell Helicopter)
11 Aug 04. The British Army Air Corps recently fired Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] AGM-114K Hellfire missiles in a live-fire training exercise at the British Army Training Unit-Suffield (BATUS) in Alberta, Canada. The missiles scored six hits in six launches in their first live-fire tests with the British Army Air Corps. This was the first live-fire event for the Hellfire missiles using the Westland Apache AH-Mk1 (Longbow Apache) helicopter. The Canadian government granted permission to fire the rounds in BATUS. During the first two Hellfire exercises, targets were tank-size mockups and both tests were successful. In the second exercise, all four Hellfire missiles also hit their targets.
The six engagements employed Hellfire in a wide range of modes, including autonomous designation, remote ground designation, and designation by a second aircraft. The high-explosive anti-tank (HEAT) rounds used were manufactured by Thales, near Belfast, Northern Ireland, under a UK industrial partnership with Lockheed Martin under contract from INSYS Ltd. as the UK Apache munitions prime contractor.
Aug 04. A Teal Group study suggests that the US will account for about 90% of the worldwide RDT&E spending on UAV technology over the next decade, and about 70% of the procurement. These represent higher shares of the aerospace market than for defense spending in general. Teal Group expects that the sales of UAVs will follow recent patterns of arms procurement worldwide, with Europe representing the second largest market and the second most significant center for h