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11 Nov 21. Chinese air force equips 16th Air Division with WZ-7 HALE UAVs. Video footage provided by Chinese state-owned media indicates that the People’s Liberation Army Air Force (PLAAF) has been equipping its 16th Special Mission Air Division with the WZ-7 Xianglong (Soaring Dragon) high-altitude, long-endurance (HALE) unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Released by China Central Television (CCTV) on 10 November, the footage shows at least two examples of the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR)-capable UAV painted in a low-visibility, grey colour scheme and featuring PLAAF insignia. The UAVs, which reportedly took part in a training exercise featuring J-20 and J-16 multirole fighters, J-16D electronic warfare-capable aircraft, Y-20 transport, KJ-500 airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, as well as HQ-9B air-defence systems, were shown bearing serial numbers ‘21071′ and ‘21074′ respectively.
These numbers adhere to the format ‘21x7x’, which is used for aerial assets operated by the 16th Special Mission Air Division, which is under the PLA’s Northern Theatre Command. That said, it is unclear where the footage was taken.
The WZ-7, which has been in PLAAF service since at least 2018, had previously been seen deployed to several other air bases, including Dingxin, Malan, Wuwei, Suixi, Lingshui, Shigatse, and Yishuntun, the latter of which is north of Shuangliao in China’s Jilin Province near North Korea and is probably the type’s main operating base. (Source: Janes)
11 Nov 21. UAVs can enhance carrier airwing range and numbers to address A2/AD threats. Integrating unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) with manned aviation canincrease an aircraft carrier’s operational range and strike aircraft numbers in an operating environment where there is a need to ‘push in’ through greater anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) threats, a senior official from Boeing told the recent UK Government-led Pacific Future Forum conference (20-21 October) onboard the Royal Navy’s HMS Prince of Wales aircraft carrier at HM Naval Base Portsmouth, UK.
“Some of the weapons systems our peer competitors are using push the carrier outside the range that we normally operate our aircraft,” Michael Manazir, Boeing’s vice-president for global sales and marketing, and a former US Navy (USN) rear admiral and aviator told the conference.
Such weapons systems include emerging technologies including hypersonic missiles and established technologes such as anti-ship ballistic and cruise missiles. While carrier airwings and pilots have procedures and tactics to enable operations inside expanding A2/AD threat ‘rings’, “it goes without saying that we need a longer reach for the carrier airwing,” Manazir continued.
He explained that unmanned system operational concepts have evolved to increase integration with manned aircraft to extend carrier capabilities, enhancing manned aircraft range and numbers through providing tanking capability, and offering increased sensor coverage in the future.
Boeing’s MQ-25A Stingray UAV, currently developed as a refuelling aircraft, “is designed to optimise persistent unmanned tanking capability and increase the reach of the carrier airwing”, said Manazir. Operated from a control station on a carrier or from an airborne platform, the MQ-25A “can extend the reach of the airwing a couple of thousand miles”, he continued. “So, the carrier can safely sit outside the range of those anti-ship missiles, and we can push our pilots in … by refuelling just outside the ‘ring’.”
As regards adding numbers, Manazir explained, “Currently, on the flight deck [of a USN carrier], six F-18 fighters carry the refuelling stores and are configured as tankers.” Giving the refuelling role to the MQ-25A “adds six F-18s to the strike force”.
Manazir indicated that sensing capability might enable MQ-25As to operate as ‘wingmen’ for manned aircraft, forming up as “an extension of [the] aircraft”. “These unmanned aircraft can be feeding back information. Let’s say we spread [three] unmanned aircraft out: let’s say each one is 25 miles from one of the others or [the fighter aircraft]; now, I am opening up 100 miles of battlefront [with one manned aircraft],” he explained. “The aircraft can control that battlefront based on what is coming through those systems.” (Source: Armada)
10 Nov 21. Turkish defence firm to test sea-based drones as orders swell.
- Summary
- Baykar has drone export deals with 13 countries
- Battle-tested drones defined Turkey’s military interventions
- New drones can deploy from planned new Turkish naval carrier
The Turkish defence company whose armed drones were decisive in conflicts in Azerbaijan and Libya will soon test-fly two new unmanned aircraft that will extend Turkey’s drone capabilities from land-based to naval operations, its CEO said on Wednesday.
Haluk Bayraktar, one of two engineer brothers running the defence firm Baykar, said the new aircraft would be tested in the next two years and would be able to take off from a Turkish navy ship currently under production.
Turkey’s deployment of the company’s Bayraktar TB2 drone has been a major factor in conflict in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Azerbaijan, pushing Baykar into the spotlight and transforming it into a major manufacturer and exporter. read more
The firm has now signed export deals with 13 countries including a joint production deal with Ukraine, as its products help reshape the way modern wars are fought, Bayraktar said.
The scale of Turkey’s drone programme puts it in the world’s top four producers alongside the United States, Israel and China, analysts say.
“Smart, unmanned aircraft systems are the two leading technologies that changed the landscape for power projection,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of defence show in Istanbul.
“As everyone is talking about how drone technology is changing battle doctrines … one of our next objectives is the TB3 drone, capable of taking off from and landing on TCG Anadolu,” Bayraktar said, referring to a planned Turkish light aircraft carrier.
Although the ship will be able to carry combat helicopters on its landing deck, Turkey does not operate a plane that can take off from the vessel. The TB3, with a folding-wing design, could deploy from the short naval runways.
With some sections under production, it is expected to see first test flight next year, Bayraktar said.
It will be followed by an unmanned combat aircraft, called MUIS, with first prototype flight expected in 2023, he said. Currently in design phase, MUIS will be jet-powered, with a payload of up to 1.5 tons.
The autonomously manoeuvring craft will be capable of operating in tandem with piloted aircraft, and may carry air-to-air missiles, the company said.
Baykar, founded in the 1980s by Bayraktar’s father, began to focus on unmanned aircraft production in 2005 as Turkey sought to strengthen its local defence industry.
Now it is spearheading Turkey’s global defence export push. President Tayyip Erdogan, whose daughter is married to Baykar’s chief technology officer Selcuk Bayraktar, says international demand for TB2 and the newer Akinci drone is huge.
“Everywhere, even in my Africa trip, they want drones, armed drones and Akinci,” he told Baykar workers last month after returning from a trip to Angola, Togo and Nigeria. “The whole world … want to see and to know what you are doing.”
The first Akinci drone, which has longer flight time and can carry a larger payload than the TB2, was delivered to the Turkish military in August.
Despite the growing demand, the use of Turkish-made drones eastern Ukraine against Russian-backed militia has been criticised by the Kremlin. Planned sales to Ethiopia, mired in civil war and at odds with Egypt, has caused friction with Cairo.
Bayraktar said Turkey had made a “huge leap” in its effort to create its own defence industry over the last 20 years, expanding from 17 companies to nearly 17,000.
“The drone technology is just one success story born from the national and indigenous development drive,” he said. “We started to reap the benefits of work that began two decades ago only recently.” (Source: Google/Reuters)
05 Nov 21. DARPA nabs Gremlin drone in midair for first time. For the first time, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency recovered an unmanned X-61 Gremlin air vehicle to a C-130 in flight, marking a milestone in the U.S. military’s effort to deploy swarms of drones from a mothership. The first successful midair Gremlin recovery took place Oct. 29 at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, DARPA said in a Friday release. The agency noted that this flight test — the fourth deployment of the Gremlins — involved two of the small drones, which successfully carried out all formation flying positions and safety features. While one Gremlin was recovered, the second was destroyed during the flight tests, DARPA said. The Gremlins team then refurbished the recovered drone and flew it again within 24 working hours, the release said.
DARPA hopes the program — named for the imaginary, mischievous creatures that World War II-era pilots blamed when their aircraft or equipment malfunctioned — will one day allow the military to launch groups of small sensor-laden drones from bombers, cargo planes or smaller aircraft such as fighters.
DARPA envisions the motherships will stay out of range of enemy defenses, but the drone swarms would fly into danger and conduct missions such as intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance or electronic warfare.
After the mothership collects the drones and brings them back to base, ground crews would get them ready for another flight within 24 hours, DARPA said in a 2018 report.
The agency hopes each drone would have a lifetime of 20 flights. The agency said flying these relatively disposable drones would allow the military to accomplish missions much more cheaply and with less maintenance efforts than relying on nonexpendable systems meant to fly for decades.
“This recovery was the culmination of years of hard work and demonstrates the feasibility of safe, reliable airborne recovery,” Lt. Col. Paul Calhoun, the Gremlins program manager in DARPA’s Tactical Technology Office, said in the release. “Such a capability will likely prove to be critical for future distributed air operations.”
Previous attempts to conduct airborne retrievals of the Gremlins were unsuccessful. In October 2020, DARPA kicked off a series of flight tests in which it tried, but failed, nine times to recover three Gremlins. DARPA said at the time those attempts were each inches away from working, and all Gremlins safely parachuted to the ground.
DARPA released a video of the successful recovery that showed the Gremlin latching into a docking bullet that extended from the C-130, folding its wings into its body and then being gripped by a recovery arm that took it into the C-130.
This time, four flights were conducted, during which hours of data — including information on air vehicle performance, how contact worked during the airborne retrieval, and the aerodynamic interactions between the Gremlin and the C-130′s recovery bullet — were collected, the release said.
“Airborne recovery is complex,” Calhoun said in the release. “We will take some time to enjoy the success of this deployment, then get back to work further analyzing the data and determining next steps for the Gremlins technology.”
The Gremlin drones are made by Dynetics, a subsidiary of Leidos. (Source: Defense News)
08 Nov 21. Steadicopter unveils its unique RUAV Black Eagle 50 Electric with groundbreaking useful load weight, for electric VTOL, enabling maximum mission flexibility. This is the first ever unmanned helicopter operating on an electric motor, with an MTOW of 50 kg, for military and civilian uses. Steadicopter, a leader in the Rotary Unmanned Aerial Systems (RUAS) industry, has unveiled the Black Eagle 50 Electric – the newest model in its RUAV family – powered by electric motors, and designed for a wide range of law enforcement, maritime, civilian and covert missions.
The Black Eagle 50 Electric is the first electrically-powered unmanned helicopter with a maximum takeoff weight of 50 kg and useful load weight of 30 kg, comprising payload and batteries, capable of up to two hours of flight time. This enables high performance and maximum operational flexibility for both security forces and civilian applications, such as search & rescue, cyber, intelligence, gas & oil rigs, and high-end naval missions.
The electrically-powered engine has significantly reduced the weight of the air vehicle, enabling additional, much required, payload capacity for a variety of missions. With an empty weight of only 20 kg as a platform, the Black Eagle 50 Electric has the capacity to carry additional batteries for longer flights, heavier payloads, and more. With a wide range of mission payloads, the system provides the highest level of mission versatility for covert operations.
Powered by dual-electric propulsion, the Black Eagle 50 Electric is extremely cost effective, simple to operate, easy to maintain and, with no need for fuel storage, both environmentally friendly and safe. It has all the proven capabilities of the gasoline-powered Black Eagle 50, including vertical take-off and landing capability, long hover durations, and leading mission sensor suites for all mission scenarios, whether day or night. Additionally, like the other platforms in the Black Eagle family, it is extremely adaptive to high-altitude flights, making it deployable in many high-altitude operational scenarios.
“The Black Eagle 50 Electric has been developed in response to the need of the company’s customers worldwide for an electric VTOL aircraft, which can still be used in many varied missions, both in terms of being able to carry advanced payloads, and through extended time in the air,” says Noam Lidor, Sales & Marketing Director at Steadicopter. “This is a truly multi-domain, multi-mission and multi-sensor system, coupled with all the benefits of a covert, easy-to-maintain, highly-versatile electrically-powered system.”
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