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BAE to build Taranis
By Karl Schwarz
The “present size of the (military) aerospace industry is not sustainable,” so the UK Ministry of Defence stated clearly in its strategy paper on the defence industry in December 2005. At the same time, in order to protect British core competencies in the support and the further development of existing jets and future international projects despite the inevitable cutbacks, the MOD in London advanced a ready solution: “targeted investment in UCAV technology platform programmes”. This should not only strengthen the industrial base, but also constitute the foundation for decisions due to be taken after 2010 on the possible production of an unmanned combat aircraft. Last, but not least, this should put British companies in a position to play a part in the evolving market in unmanned aerial vehicles with their own high technology products.
Implementing these requirements has in fact taken a year. First it was necessary to agree the “innovative business practices” with prime contractor BAE Systems: the military and researchers will now work hand-in-hand with industry with the aim of achieving better transparency and information exchange. And of course, the financial issues, notably the importance of “value for money”, also had to be clarified. The order announced on 7 December 2006 by the Minister for Defence Procurement, Lord Drayson, worth a total of £124 million (Euro185 million) assumes that industry will provide around 25% of the funds from its own resources.
The project named after the Celtic god of thunder, Taranis, is extremely ambitious, even though the air vehicle in question will only be the size of a Hawk trainer (9.4m wingspan) and have a take-off weight of eight tonnes. The drawings published by BAE do not contain any big surprises. They show the usual features of a design optimised for low radar and infrared signatures, with the air inlet above the wing and wide thrust nozzle. Otherwise, the capability of the air vehicle to operate autonomously is being stressed. In this area, project partner QinetiQ is working on software that will enable it to take decisions independently. Also involved are Rolls-Royce, which is responsible for the propulsion system, and Smiths Aerospace, which is contributing various system components. Numerous other British suppliers will also be involved.
According to BAE Systems, the Taranis technology demonstrator will commence ground trials early in 2009. Flight testing will then be conducted at the Woomera test site in Australia, commencing in 2010. There are no plans to include the release of bombs during these trials, but weapons deployment will be simulated.
The results of the trials will enable the Strategic Unmanned Air Vehicles (Experimental) team in the Defence Procurement Agency (DPA) to develop recommendations for the procurement of Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles (UCAVs). The SUAV(E) team was set up in May 2005 following the suspension of Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) studies on a Tornado successor, which had been running for many years. The precise form that the mix of manned and unmanned air vehicles will take and whether an international programme for the development of a serial model will follow are still undecided. At any rate, the system will have a long, intercontinental range.
With Taranis, BAE Systems is assuming a leading position in the development of unmanned aerial vehicles in Europe. The comparable Neuron programme led by Dassault does not envisage the maiden flight of a test platform before 2011. Neuron was officially launched in February 2006 after over two and a half years of preliminary work. Its budget of around Euro405 million will be shared between France, Greece (Hellenic Aerospace), Italy (Alenia), Sweden (Saab), Switzerland (RUAG Aerospace) and Spain (EADS CASA).
Neuron will weigh about six tonnes and have a wingspan of ten to twelve metres. The Rolls-Royce/Turbomeca Adour Mk.951 was chosen as the propulsion system in July 2006. On the basis of ongoing feasibility studies, the decision was taken to incorporate two weapons bays capable of taking bombs like the Mk.82 and GBU-12. Flight trials are to include test releases of these weapons. The next major design review of Neuron is due in mid-2007. Final assembly will then be carried out in Istres in 2009.
While Neuron and Taranis are still under development, Alenia is continuing its tests with the smaller Sky-X. The 1,300kg air vehicle completed its first test flight phase in the autumn of 2006. Altogether 17 flights commencing in May 2005 have been completed in Vidsel, North Sweden, latterly in fully automatic mode. These have included flying high g manoeuvres. There was also one trial in which Sky-X performed an overshoot followed by a safe landing. Further tests are now to be carried out at Amendola air base in Italy.
The Barracuda developed by EADS Military Air Systems should also still fly, but due to a programming error the over 3t air vehicle crashed off the coast of Murcia in Spain on 23 September 2006. However, this should not be viewed as the end of EADS's ambitions in the UAV area. It seems that a new test vehicle quite different from the Barracuda is already at the planning stage. Drawings accidentally leaked show an aerial vehicle designed for the reconnaissance role with tapered wing, conventional tail unit, two engines at the rear and a forward fuselage with large fairing for a satellite communications antenna.
The Barracuda successor could become part of the “Agile UAV in Network Centric Environment” programme initiated by Germany, which up to the end of 2007 will focus on concept studies and simulations. Along with EADS, as many international partners as possible are to be involved on Agile. The first such partners to come forward were the Finnish companies Patria and Insta, which are seeking to contribute secure datalinks and IR simulations.
From FLUG REVUE 2/2007
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