10 Dec 14. X-47B to Begin Automated Aerial Refuelling Demonstrations Next Year. The US Navy’s carrier-based unmanned aircraft demonstrator is undergoing preparations for automated aerial refuelling testing next year, including a possible flight demonstration using the aircraft itself, said officials from the service and X-47B manufacturer Northrop Grumman. Until now, the Navy has used a surrogate aircraft for AAR testing. The service in June 2014 awarded a contract modification to Northrop Grumman for aerial refueling research, development, test and evaluation efforts at Naval Air Station Patuxent River in Maryland, Capt. Beau Duarte, the Navy’s X-47B program manager, wrote in an emailed statement. “Those efforts include additional [aircraft carrier] detachments and AAR software coding through the remainder of this calendar year. If resources allow, the Navy may demonstrate autonomous engagement flight testing in fiscal year 2015,” he said. He declined to comment further on the demonstration. The X-47B is the Navy’s first carrier-based drone, capable of almost completely autonomous operations even as the ship moves throughout the seas. The stealthy, tailless aircraft can take off, conduct surveillance and land back on the carrier using a combination of algorithms and sensors that allow it to land on the runway with precision. It first showcased that ability in May 2013 during sea trials on the USS George H.W. Bush when it successfully completed its first touch-and-go and arrested landings. In August 2014, it returned to the carrier deck once again for its first cooperative flight with a manned aircraft. This time, it flew in pattern with an F-18 Hornet over the USS Theodore Roosevelt. Navy officials on the program have long hoped to test the aircraft’s aerial refueling capability. However, there has not been enough funding over the past two years to make that happen. Duarte in August told reporters that, if more money was made available, he would like to further explore autonomous aerial refueling. Combining unmanned aircraft with AAR is a potentially game-changing technology, said Robert Martinage, former under secretary of the Navy and currently a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. (Source: UAS VISION/National Defense)
09 Dec 14. Airbus Markets UAV-Based Surveillance Package for Disaster Relief. Airbus Defence & Space is planning to offer a high-altitude unmanned air vehicle-based surveillance capability for disaster relief, using a variety of systems that it is in the process of finalising. Steve Whitby, strategic business manager, said the company’s Zephyr high altitude pseudo satellite (HAPS) could receive data feeds from aircraft carrying the company’s Mobile IP Node communications relay payload, which could then feed back to the Deployable Communication and Information System (DCIS) that it has developed for NATO. The announcement comes at a time when the company is waiting to deliver three of its NATO Response Force DCIS systems to the Alliance, following a successful trial in March. The system underwent a couple of weeks of testing in Poland – the current signals rotational lead in NATO – and received positive feedback on its performance. “UAVs and aircraft collect lots of imagery. How do you get that back to whoever needs it?” Whitby asks. “We are definitely predicting that this will easily provide the user with a communications hub, particularly in scenarios such as disaster relief, when there is no infrastructure.” The combination of systems would provide a low-cost, easily deployable surveillance capability, Whitby says, which would be ideal for disaster relief situations when speed of deployment is essential and infrastructure is likely to be absent. For this application, the company’s communications relay Mobile IP Node could be integrated onto airborne warning and control system air platforms, as well as other surveillance aircraft. These would feed back to the Zephyr, which