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First Russian strike UAV to be showcased at Moscow air show Lutch, Russia's first unmanned air vehicle (UAV) designed to carry out air strikes, will be shown at the Moscow air show next week, according to its producer, Vega. "Vega will show a full-scale mock-up of the Lutch medium-range UAV at MAKS 2011," a Vega representative said. "Lutch is designed for optical reconnaissance, radar, radio-relay and electronic reconnaissance missions," he added. Lutch can also carry guided weapons on fuselage pylons or in a fuselage weapons bay. "Up to 150-170 kilograms of ammunition and weapons control systems can be carried," Vega...

The next generation of Top Guns may be gamer geeks. That's because the X-47B just took its very first flight, heralding a whole new era of military flying--automatic or remote-piloted, stealthy, deadly combat aircraft. Technically the X-47B is an unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), but what it really is is an evolution of those Global Hawk and Predator drone aircraft that made the Iraq War look like a computer game when viewed at the military's tech hubs, mixed in with the same kind of stealth technology that makes the B-2 Spirit bomber such a powerful, frightening tool of force projection....

China's Armed Predator Posted by Robert Wall at 11/17/2010 3:10 AM CST China has developed a Predator-like armed unmanned aircraft: the Pterodactyl I medium-extended long-endurance system. Avic says it unveiled the air vehicle for the first time two years ago at the Airshow China, but a colleague who was here at the time says that was not the case -- it may have been on of the programs that was made to disappear last minute, as is often the case here. But one of the key developments for the UAV since then is that authorities in China have given the...

Few people remember the movie Stealth with and that’s probably because it was a bit of a disaster at the box office. But those who watched it probably do remember the Artificial Intelligence-driven Uninhabited Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) named Extreme Deep Invader (EDI). You know, the one that crashes in the end. As far as the public knows, the world’s leading aerospace companies are far from developing an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) with the kind of intelligence that EDI had and just as well, considering how smart machines usually end up turning on their human masters in Hollywood flicks. They...

LONDON (AFP) – An unmanned jet capable of striking long-range targets has been dubbed the "combat aircraft of the future" by the Ministry of Defence. The Taranis -- named after the Celtic god of thunder -- was unveiled at a ceremony at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire, on Monday. The £142.5 million prototype is the size of a light aircraft and has been equipped with stealth technology to make it virtually undetectable. In a press release, the MoD described the Taranis as "a prototype unmanned combat aircraft of the future." It is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance...

India joins bat-wing large UAV club By Stephen Trimble on June 18, 2010 12:20 PM India aerospace journalist Shiv Aroor's LiveFist blog today brings us the first conceptual renderings of AURA, the stealth UCAV project that India apparently decided to leak into the public domain a few weeks ago. India's is part of a growing global craze for bat-wing-shaped UAVs. Consider the following list of acknowledged, bat-wing UCAV projects in development across the world: * BAE Systems Taranis * Boeing Phantom Ray * Dassault Neuron * Lockheed Martin RQ-170 Sentinel * Mikoyan Skat * Northrop Grumman X-47B Perhaps the most...

Unmanned aircraft took a leap forward Monday when Boeing unveiled the Phantom Ray -- an advanced robotic craft that the company calls a test bed for advanced technologies. Describing it as a great day for Boeing, the company took the wraps off its new plane at an event in St. Louis. The fighter-sized aircraft has been in development for about two years by Boeing's Phantom Works division and is described as cutting edge in the world of unmanned aircraft. The developers say it can carry 4,500 pounds of payload. “Phantom Ray offers a host of options for our customers as...

It may look like a futuristic starfighter, but this sleek gun-metal craft is Boeing's latest unmanned spy plane. Called the Phantom Ray, the cutting-edge unmanned airborne system (UAS) was unveiled at a ceremony in St Louis yesterday. The sleek craft has a 50ft wingspan, measures 36ft long and has a gross weight of 36,500lbs. It operates at an altitude of 40,000ft, which is 10,000ft higher than the average long-haul commercial airliner. It will cruise comfortably at a speed of 614mph, or 0.8mach, just shy of the speed of sound. The Phantom Ray is a 'one off' demonstration vehicle intended to...

Boeing Monday unveiled its fighter-sized Phantom Ray unmanned aircraft, which is scheduled to fly in December. "We are on a fast track, and first flight is in sight," Darryl Davis, president of Boeing Phantom Works, said in a news release, noting that the program just started two years ago. Phantom Ray, which evolved from the X-45C program, is designed to be a test bed for advanced technologies and support such missions as intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, suppression of enemy air defenses, electronic attack, strike and autonomous aerial refueling, Boeing said. The Phantom Ray is 36-feet long, with a 50-foot wingspan,...

South Korea’s technologically ambitious defense ministry aims to test a scaled demonstrator for a stealthy combat drone by 2013, extending the country’s expertise in unmanned aircraft and hedging against cancellation of the KF-X fighter program. With this project, South Korea will be within 10 years of Britain and Germany in flying substantial development hardware for unmanned combat aircraft. South Korea may be ahead of Japan, which has announced no such development effort. Korea Aerospace Industries is well placed to win the project, since it has already embarked on company-funded work to acquire technology in this field, going as far as...

One of the largest unmanned aerial systems operating in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility, the RQ-4 Global Hawk, surpassed 30,000 combat flying hours and 1,500 combat sorties Feb. 10 here. The Global Hawks are assigned to the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing from Beale Air Force Base, Calif. They provide a broad spectrum of intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection capability to support joint combatant forces in worldwide peacetime, contingency and wartime operations. The 380th AEW Global Hawks reached their 1,500th combat sortie on Feb. 10. The historic sortie and flying hour mark nearly coincided, said Capt. Michelle Campbell, the...

The U.S. Navy has sped up its efforts to ready its X-47B UCAS (Unmanned Combat Aerial System), for carrier operations. This includes an additional $2 billion for development, in an attempt to have the X-47B demonstrating the ability to regularly operate from a carrier, and perform combat (including reconnaissance and surveillance) operations, within five years. Senior admirals see this as a way to solve several problems. One is the dominance of the U.S. Air Force in UAV operations (with their fleet of Predator, Reaper and Global Hawk UAVs). Then there is the growing cost of the new F-35, that is...

Looks like the US military has a new secret aircraft. Either that or the Nazis are taking over the world again, because according to other photos this looks like the Luftwaffe's Go229 Flying Wing:

Unmanned and dangerous Dec 6th 2007 From The Economist print edition Aviation: Unmanned aerial vehicles are a vital tool of modern warfare. Once-harmless drones are now deadly attack aircraft. Where did the technology come from, and where is it going? DUSK falls over Baghdad and Kabul, and the Predators take their places in the skies overhead, ready for action. Western soldiers prefer to fight in the dark, when their night-vision gear gives them the advantage over insurgents. They know that with drone aircraft scanning the ground, with unblinking eyes able to see by day or night and radars that can...

The US Navy's new stealth robot carrier plane is now "structurally complete", according to its maker, and is now being fitted out with subsystems while software tests begin. The Unmanned Combat Air System Demonstrator (UCAS-D) is expected to make its first flight the year after next, and its first carrier deck landing in 2011. "Once we get robust flight controls we will begin failure detection and accommodation testing, which is the real key to any unmanned aircraft," said Scott Winship, UCAS-D project chief at Northrop Grumman, talking to Flight International. Although a firm decision by the US Navy to build...

Sweden offers joint development of jets, submarines to India NEW DELHI: Keen to cast off the ghost of the Bofors kickbacks scam, Sweden has proposed new avenues of defence cooperation to India, including joint development of jet fighters and submarines. "The Swedish government is proposing to invest in Gripen fighters and is keen that India too take a investment stake in jointly developing these new generation fighters," visiting Swedish Vice Minister for Defence H G Wessburg said. Gripen is one of six jets vying for India's biggest ever global tender worth over Rs 42,000 crore (10 billion dollars) for the...

First Look At MiG Skat UCAV [Updated] Alexey Komarov and Douglas Barrie/Moscow MiG today revealed a full-scale engineering mock-up of its unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) design, nicknamed Skat (Skate). Work on the low-observable design began over two years ago, and MiG will produce a flight worthy prototype within 24-months. The MiG program is one of two competing designs that will be presented to the Russian Defense Ministry as a strike UCAV. Sukhoi is also understood to be working on a UCAV. MiG unveiled the program during the Moscow air show, though only a few journalists were taken off the...

Robot air attack squadron bound for Iraq By CHARLES J. HANLEY, AP Special Correspondent 30 minutes ago The airplane is the size of a jet fighter, powered by a turboprop engine, able to fly at 300 mph and reach 50,000 feet. It's outfitted with infrared, laser and radar targeting, and with a ton and a half of guided bombs and missiles. The Reaper is loaded, but there's no one on board. Its pilot, as it bombs targets in Iraq, will sit at a video console 7,000 miles away in Nevada. The arrival of these outsized U.S. "hunter-killer" drones, in aviation...

The MQ-1 Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle's younger, yet larger and stronger, brother, the MQ-9 Reaper arrived March 13 at its new home at Creech Air Force Base, Nev. The remotely piloted aircraft completed initial testing in California, then flew more than 250 miles in two hours to land here. The aircraft was piloted by Lt. Col. Jon Greene, 42nd Attack Squadron commander. Along side him, was his sensor operator Senior Airman Aaron Aguilar, also of the 42nd ATKS. "I am truly honored to be the commander of the Air Force's first MQ-9 attack squadron," said Colonel Greene. Our mission is...

The technological progress of the Unmanned Aerial Vehicle has been astonishingly rapid. At the beginning of the current Afghanistan and Iraq conflicts, it’s fair to say that UAVs were regarded as a reconnaissance tool for improving situational awareness but from the time the first Hellfire missiles were fired from an RQ-1A Predator UAV during 2002, the enormous advantage of an armed UAV that can help identify and eliminate a target has been recognised. Predators can prowl and strike where conventional military force cannot. In September we wrote about the first purpose-built hunter-killer UAV, and now the rush is on to...

Lockheed Martin Corp. has proposed an unmanned version of its Joint Strike Fighter, the F-35, which would make it the first full-scale fighter to operate without a pilot and signal the Bethesda weapons maker's push into the growing market for drone aircraft.

Lockheed Martin Corp., the manufacturer of the F-35/JFX tactical jet, has proposed an unmanned version, making this airframe the first full-scale fighter to potentially operate without a crew. A military seeking to save money and an American public no loner willing to accept any war casualties are rushing the development of unmanned tactical aircraft. At a briefing the week of August 14, 2006, a Lockheed Martin official said that an F-35 unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV) has actually been quietly in the works since 2004. Lockheed is working on an F-35 hybrid – an aircraft that can be operated manned...

Rolls-Royce Eyes Oil-Less Engine, Other Innovative Propulsion Concepts Defense Daily 06/08/2006 Author: Michael Sirak INDIANAPOLIS--Rolls-Royce's LibertyWorks advanced concept shop has divulged a list of novel engine designs that it is pursuing to power the Department of Defense's next-generation missiles, unmanned surveillance aircraft, long-range strike platforms and agile transport planes, according to senior company officials. Among the concepts is a paradigm-shifting aircraft engine that uses magnetic bearings around its core. These bearings form part of the engine's integrated high-speed electrical-power generator for producing the large amounts of power needed to run the aircraft's onboard sensors and even directed-energy weapons. Equally important,...

EDWARDS AFB - A Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle known as N-1 took off from Edwards' main runway Monday evening on a one-way mission to Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Md. The N-1, an RQ-4A Global Hawk - one of two acquired by the U.S. Navy through the Global Hawk Maritime Demonstration Program - is the first of its kind delivered to the Navy and is being prepared for participation in the Navy's Joint Expeditionary Force Experiment 2006. The delivery was enabled by the installation of a launch and recovery element at Patuxent River that allows the Navy to begin...

In Europe, several robotic warplanes ( the Neuron, the Barrakuda and the Corax) are under development. These UACV (Unmanned Aerial Combat Vehicles) concepts began in the Untied States, but Europe wants to remain competitive with the U.S. military aircraft industry. All three programs include stealth features, and aim on playing in the same league as the American J-UCAS (Joint Unmanned Combat Aerial System). This program includes the Boeing X45C and the Northrop Grumman X47B Pegasus . These European projects are the first foreign competitors for the American robotic warplane work. The Neuron project is a six nation European effort, which...

ADELANTO - General Atomics Aeronautical Systems will begin work on its latest unmanned aircraft system under the first $6 million installment of a development contract for the Army. The Warrior is based on the company's Predator unmanned vehicle, a system already proven successful in combat over Afghanistan and Iraq. The entire program, including eventual follow-on production, is worth just under $1 billion, said Kimberly Kasitz , General Atomics spokeswoman. "It's a major contract for us," she said. The new system is expected to replace the Army's existing unmanned reconnaissance system, the Northrop Grumman Co.-built Hunter, which entered service in 1996....

The $439.3 billion defense budget proposed last week by President George W. Bush offers good news for programs associated with the Antelope Valley, including increased emphasis on unmanned aerial vehicles and the F-22 Raptor and purchase of the first F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft. However, it also calls for an accelerated pace of retirement for the F-117 stealth fighter and the venerable U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft. On the manned side of the flying fleet, the budget calls for purchase of the first five F-35 joint strike fighter aircraft and funding for continued development of the new aircraft to be used...

January 17, 2006: The U.S. Department of Defense has decided to make the next generation heavy bomber an unmanned aircraft. The Department of Defense also wants the new aircraft in service by the end of the next decade, some twenty years ahead of schedule. At the same time, the current combat UAV program (J-UCAS, run by the air force and navy) is to be changed as well. The current X45 project will be split up, with the air force and navy allowed to develop a shorter range combat aircraft to suit their particular needs. These will be bombers, with some...

Over today's battlefields, unmanned aerial vehicles such as Global Hawk and Predator are already showing their usefulness in gathering information for planners on the ground and, in limited situations, delivering weapons on targets. The battlefield of tomorrow may see even more of these unmanned weapons systems, delivering initial strikes on well-defended targets and capable of working in teams and reacting and adapting to changing circumstances - all on their own. That scenario is the ultimate goal of the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air System, or J-UCAS, a program intended to develop and prove the technologies necessary to field such weapons...

Swarms of unmanned, robotic airplanes may one day form the first attack wave against enemy defenses, using technology successfully demonstrated at Edwards Air Force Base. These twin aircraft, more closely resembling big lawn darts than the traditional airplane, are matching versions of the experimental X-45A. Built by The Boeing Co., they are the first phase in the Air Force's contribution to the Pentagon's Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems program. The program is intended to demonstrate capabilities for unmanned air vehicles to work together in coordinated attacks against enemy air defense systems, working in areas deemed too dangerous for manned aircraft....

6/20/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- An MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle destroyed an anti-Iraqi forces mortar launch site near Al Qaim on June 18 while assisting Marines under enemy fire. The air strike occurred during Operation Spear in which U.S. and Iraqi security forces in Iraq’s Anbar province called in air strikes on terrorist strong holds. An Air Force joint terminal attack controller, whose unit on the ground was under mortar attack, saw imagery from a nearby Predator assigned to another mission and requested control of the unmanned aerial vehicle. After positive identification of the launch site, the Predator...

WASHINGTON - The day is fast approaching when unmanned aircraft of all sizes and purposes will ply the skies, sharing the airspace with the now familiar manned airplanes. Before this future may become a reality, however, the means must be found for these unpiloted aircraft to operate in harmony with others without the safety net of a human in the cockpit to see the surrounding airspace. The task of establishing the means for unmanned vehicles to participate fully in the national airspace falls to the Federal Aviation Administration. "Our job is to make sure the vehicles and the environment they...

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA – 22 March 2005: Metal Storm Limited (ASX trading code: MST and NASDAQ Small Cap ticker symbol MTSX). Metal Storm has successfully completed a series of live fire demonstrations held at the US Army’s range facility at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. The demonstrations consisted of multiple live firings of a purpose-built version of the Metal Storm 40mm weapon system mounted on a Talon unmanned ground vehicle (UGV). During the demonstrations approximately 100 guests saw the Metal Storm equipped Talon engage a variety of targets, including simulated personnel, an infantry carrier and a bunker, with pyrotechnic rounds. The...

PALMDALE - Northrop Grumman Corp. will build three unmanned X-47B aircraft and their associated systems under a $1 billion contract awarded Wednesday. The contract with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is part of the Joint Unmanned Combat Air Systems demonstration program, intended to produce the technologies for unmanned aerial vehicles capable of delivering munitions. The three vehicles will be assembled at Northrop's facility at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale. Company officials, however, do not foresee a large increase in employment at the site due to this contract, said Jim Hart, Northrop spokesman. The X-47B is expected to begin...

EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) - Two unmanned jets being developed as a robotic combat system made a coordinated flight under the control of a single pilot-operator, Boeing researchers said Tuesday. Sunday's joint flight marked the first time such a feat was accomplished, according to Boeing Integrated Defense Systems of St. Louis. The X-45A jets took off four minutes apart from NASA's Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base, joined up above the test range and flew formations that involved autonomous maneuvering to hold their positions relative to each other. Both jets then landed on a common...

EDWARDS AFB - A century after the first airplane flew with a pilot on board at the controls, a new generation of aircraft is emerging that removes the pilot from the vehicle altogether. These unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are the next wave in military and commercial flight systems, performing tasks that are too dangerous, tedious, strenuous or otherwise unsuitable for manned aircraft. As it has been through its long history of flight test, Edwards Air Force Base is at the epicenter of this latest trend in aviation, using its unique combination of facilities and talent to further the field....

April 21, 2004: The U.S. Air Forces X-45A combat UAV (UCAV, or unmanned combat air vehicle) dropped it’s first smart bomb on April 19th. During the test, the X-45 was flying at 35,000 feet, and moving at about 700 kilometers an hour. The bomb was an SDB (Small Diameter Bomb), a new type of smart bomb that weighs only 250 pounds (and is six inches in diameter and six feet long). A human operator on the ground authorized the release of the bomb when the X-45 signaled that it was within range. The bomb, which carried no explosives, hit the...

They've served, mostly, as spies. Once in a great while, they've moonlighted as assassins. But now, unmanned aircraft are slowly starting to become full-fledged killing machines -- armed to the teeth, and designed for the deadliest parts of war.In just five years, the U.S. military wants a handful of fighting drones ready to take into battle. This week, in a hotel ballroom just a few miles from the Pentagon, a group of a hundred or so Defense Department officials and military contractors laid out their roadmap for how they'll reach this goal.The next step will come in a few days,...

In celebration of the past, the Air Force chief of staff got an eyeful of the present and future of flight at the world's premier flight test facility. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. John Jumper visited Edwards Air Force Base on Nov. 22 as part of a Centennial of Flight celebration. The event featured aerial demonstrations and static displays of many of the current and future aircraft in the Air Force arsenal, and hosted members of the Eagles, distinguished aviators who have advanced the world of aerospace. "What we have here is the trace of history, a bloodline of...

The US Department of Defense's (DoD's) leading scientific advisory panel is expected to join the growing chorus later this year within the department calling for a penetrating, survivable, long-endurance unmanned combat air vehicle (UCAV), Jane's Defence Weekly has learned. The DoD's's Defense Science Board is in the middle of a study on unmanned air vehicles (UAVs), whose findings are due around September. One of the panel's preliminary recommendations is for the DoD to begin research and development on a stealthy, long-range UCAV that could be available within the next decade to perform persistent intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) as well...

Microwaving Saddam: New weapons likely to see combat Prototypes could paralyze Iraqi militarySpace-age warfare may be used in attack against Baghdad regimeEd Blanche Special to The Daily StarSaddam Hussein may be in for a shock - literally - after telling US President George W. Bush to do his worst in the looming war against Iraq. It seems possible that his command network will become the first target of high-power microwave (HPM) weapons, probably carried by cruise missiles or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). These squirt pulses of high-frequency energy that can knock out electronic and communications systems in milliseconds, scrambling computer...