UAV的发展趋向

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http://www.flightglobal.com/Arti ... lobal+Hawk+UAV.html

Northrop and USAF hit back at critics of RQ-4 Global Hawk UAV costs
By Craig Hoyle in London

Stung by recent criticism from the US Congress and General Accountability Office over the RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned air vehicle’s reported spiralling programme costs, Northrop Grumman and the US Air Force have released previously classified unit price information on the vehicle’s current and planned variants.

Ed Walby, Northrop’s business development director for high-altitude, long-endurance systems, says the company recently received air force permission to counter reports that criticised the Global Hawk project for running at more than 25% above its current estimated baseline cost, raising the threat of termination from Congress (Flight International, 18-24 April).


© USAF


The cost of an RQ-4 airframe has increased from $20.3 million for the programme’s original seven Block 10 A-model demonstrators, but to only $27.6 million each for the rest of the 51 aircraft planned through the remainder of the project, says Walby. The prices do not include the cost of ground equipment or mission payloads. Northrop says each air vehicle has a mission endurance of 32h, and a service life of 20 years or 40,000 flight hours.

Walby says the current Block 10 and Block 20 UAV’s electro-optical/infrared and synthetic aperture radar sensors cost a total of $11.3 million per aircraft, while the Block 30 version’s advanced multi-signals intelligence payload will cost $32.5 million, pushing a Global Hawk’s unit price through the $60 million barrier. However, the Block 40 aircraft’s multi-platform radar technology insertion programme payload will cost only $14 million under current projections.

Some calls for the Global Hawk’s termination stem from opposition to the planned retirement of the USAF’s Lockheed U-2 high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft by fiscal year 2011. Published last February, the Department of Defense’s Quadrennial Defense Review pledged to buy six more Global Hawks by the same time.

Speaking at the Royal Aeronautical Society’s inaugural Langley lecture in London on 27 April, Walby said the Global Hawk’s per hour flight costs of $13,000 are almost half that of the U-2’s $23,000, but that the UAV’s true hourly operating cost is around $6,000 once some personnel costs have been removed. Northrop and the USAF are ready to provide Global Hawk pricing information to Congress, and are confident that the new figures will safeguard the project’s continuation. “We are all there with the detail,” says Walby

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http://www.flightglobal.com/Arti ... V+for+Malaysia.html

New UAV for Malaysia
A newly established joint venture company plans to demonstrate a new mini unmanned air vehicle to the Malaysian army in July. Three Malaysian companies – Composite Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM), Ikramatic and Systems Consultancy Services (SCS) – are jointly developing an improved version of CTRM’s Eagle SR2 UAV. A full-scale prototype will be ready to fly in July and will initially be demonstrated to meet an army UAV requirement for battlefield intelligence and assessment, they say.

The new joint venture also plans to market the yet-to-be-named UAV to the Malaysian navy for target identification missions and to potential civilian operators for missions including border and maritime surveillance and fire detection.

A group of about 30 UAV experts from CTRM, Ikramatic and SCS have been working on the project since agreeing late last year to merge their UAV activities to jointly pursue the army’s indigenous requirement. But CTRM chief executive Rosdi Mahmud says the firms are still going through the final processes of formally establishing the joint venture company, currently operating under the unofficial name Malaysian Unmanned Systems. “There will be only one UAV company in Malaysia,” says Rosdi. The new concern will be majority owned by government-controlled CTRM.

Building on the design of CTRM’s Eagle SR2 demonstrator, the new UAV will weigh 100kg (220lb) and be capable of carrying a 25kg payload for up to 2h. Privately owned simulator manufacturer Ikramatic helped the company develop the SR2’s control systems and will perform the same work on the new UAV. SCS will help with payload sensors and flight testing.

SCS engineer Rahimah Khalilur Rahman says the new UAV will incorporate several improvements over the SR2, including a heavier payload and longer endurance, and will “be something closer to army specifications”. She says the army will also be reviewing in July SCS’s 35kg Nyamok UAV – which first flew in 2004 – to determine if there are any features from this vehicle to potentially incorporate in the new design.

pfg1group

对了，
本版军事版只有很少数人对于战机或是空军有兴趣。

今后我将会把所有有关战机和空军的讨论将会移到宇航论坛。


http://chinese.cari.com.my/myforum/forumdisplay.php?fid=300

有兴趣的话，我们在那里继续讨论， 谢谢。