Denel's newborn--it's a male! Compared to the many other types of equipment reviewed in every issue of Armada International, the drone sector is unquestionably the one that yields the largest number of new developments. This time novelties cover the full spectrum from minis all the way up to combat types via males and hales.

A major contribution to the drone world is the Bateleur, as seen in our title picture. Designed by Denel Aviation, this medium-altitude long-endurance project was unveiled in the form of a full-scale mock-up at the recent AAD exhibition in South Africa. Speaking to the author the Bateleur Programme Manager explained that this was still a company-funded project but driven by the fact that both the South African Navy and Air Force have an interest in a real-time coastal surveillance drone.

Denel is currently working with aerodynamic models but should start building a development prototype in 2005 in view of a maiden flight in the first-half of 2006. The Bateleur will feature a fully composite material (glass and carbon fibre) airframe and retractable landing gear. The design is modular to enable a variety of payload configurations. Two petrol engines are being looked at--the Rotax 914 and the automobile-derived turbocharged Subaru EA82T. Although the latter appears to be favoured, the same Denel official said that a diesel engine is also being discussed. In terms of payload, the items so far retained are the Denel Optronics Argos-410 or Goshawk 350 stabilised electro-optical sensors as well as Avitronics electronic support measures and search radar, although a commercially available synthetic aperture radar could eventually be selected.

Still in the context of Males, Northrop Grumman is now offering the Hunter II for the US Army's new Extended-Range/Multi-Purpose UAV System. The Hunter II is basically an IAI-designed Heron drone equipped with modernised flight control equipment and payload.

The General Atomics Predator fleet, for its part, has achieved a major milestone by logging its 100,000th flight hour during a routine mission over Iraq on 27 September 2004. In a separate development, a General Atomic Predator flew with a diesel engine last October as part of the development programme of the Warrior, the Army version of the Predator.

Mini From Rheinmetall

The author was recently invited by Rheinmetall to a flight demonstration of Carolo mini drones at the Hoya sail club airfield near Bremen. The hand-launched aircraft are actually developed under the auspices of Rheinmetall by Mavionics in Germany. The company has developed a number of models, all using the same core mission, control and payload package, including the in-house developed autopilot module (see "Bateleur in Figures"). Of particular interest is the Carolo P50 that is so small it fits in a rucksack. Clip the wing to the fuselage, plot the course on a tablet computer, feed the data into the autopilot GPS module of the aircraft, start the lithium-iron battery-fed electric motor and launch (this preparation hardly takes more time than is needed to type this paragraph).

The course of the mission search pattern can be altered during flight by displacing the waypoints on the touch screen tablet computer. Amazingly, the Carolo P50 has a mission speed of 60 km/hour and a dash speed of 90 km/h, but is so tiny and quiet that spotting it in the sky is a difficult affair--and even assuming that this is done, shooting it out of the sky would remain just as difficult (and probably require a hunting shotgun) not to mention that by the time the weapon is shouldered, the bird will have long been gone with all the relevant data already on the decision maker's screen on the other side of the hill or block of buildings. The high wing-loading combined with a relatively high speed make the Carolo remarkably stable in flight. It was so far tested in wind speeds of ten meters-per-second.

Combat Drones

Unveiled at the 2004 Farnborough Air Show, the X-47B joint unmanned combat air system (J-Ucas) design has since been submitted to a series of low-speed wind tunnel tests. According to Northrop Grumman, the tests completed in late September validated the aerodynamic design of the aircraft, which is "fundamental to the X-47B's success in an aircraft carrier environment that requires frequent catapult launches and arrested recoveries". Under contract from the US Department of Defense, Northrop Grumman is to build three X-47Bs, including mission control stations, for flight demonstrations by 2007. The X-47B system is being developed with a view to provide both the US Air Force and the US Navy with a weapon system that offers the highest possible degree of commonality. The main characteristics call for a radius of operation of 1300 nautical miles, an endurance of 1000 nautical miles, including two loitering hours and a payload of 2.2 tonnes. The X-47B can conduct a variety of (and multiple) missions, but these mainly include first day strike, pre-emptive destruction of enemy air defences, enforcement of no-fly zones and long patrol missions (referred to as 'dull missions'). Both Pratt & Whitney and Lockheed Martin are members of the J-Ucas team.

On the Ucar front, Lockheed Martin has announced that it had recently completed airborne and ground demonstrations involving potential sensors for use on board unmanned rotary wing aircraft that are being developed by Darpa and the US Army. During those tests, Lockheed Martin and Raytheon have managed to simultaneously collect data from a flit and a radar. Raytheon also successfully completed an airborne radar and ground-based distributed aperture sensor demonstration.

Bateleur in Figures

Endurance (hours)                                78 to 24
Action radius (km)                              up to 750
Wingspan (metres)                                      15
Maximum take off mass (kg)                           1000
Payload mass (kg)                               up to 200
Maximum attitude (feet)                           25,000+
Maximum take off distance (metres)     395 for 1000 kg at
                                      ISA +30 clearing 15
Maximum cruise speed (km/h)                           250
Minimum loiter speed (km/h)                           120
Take off & landing                       Automatic, paved
                                                  runways

Carolo in Figures

Wingspan (metres)      0.49
Length (metres)        0.47
Max. takeoff (grams)    530
Max. payload (grams)     50
Max. speed (km/h)        90
Cruise speed (km/h)      65
Endurance (minutes)     >20