Covers come off UK spy plane

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mysterious

New Member
Covers come off UK spy plane

Images of the UK's first prototype stealth surveillance aircraft have been unveiled.

The unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), which has been built by BAE Systems, is known as the Corax, or as the Raven.

The Corax bears some resemblances to a cancelled US military spy plane called DarkStar, analysts have said.

Jane's International Defence Review said the unmanned aircraft "indicated a new direction in combat vehicles for the UK's armed forces".

Bill Sweetman, the magazine's aerospace and technology editor, said Corax could represent one member of a family of stealthy aircraft based around a similar central body but using different outer wings that are optimised for different missions.

"If you look at that Corax shape, it's very reminiscent of something that's designed to fly fairly high, fairly slow and have quite a long endurance. It looks rather typical for a surveillance aircraft," he told the BBC News website.

"But if you take those long outer wings off and put on shorter swept wings, you have a somewhat faster aircraft that would be more of a penetrating strike platform."

The UK has reportedly terminated plans for a future manned combat aircraft and is working closely with the US on "Project Churchill".

This effort is focused on the joint, airborne command and control of pilotless combat air vehicles from 2015 onwards.

The Corax prototype has been built to investigate the stability, control and performance of the design, which is said to maximise all-round stealth.

Stealth technology refers to a variety of techniques used to render aircraft, ships and missiles less visible - and ideally invisible - to radar.
The prototype Corax was first flown in 2004 after a 10-month development programme.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/06/sci_nat_enl_1137425830/img/laun.jpg

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4617588.stm

Looks like none of the leading military powers are interesting in piloted combat jets as part of their long-term startegy. Can anyone comment a bit more in detail on Project Churchill? Gary? It would be interesting to see if they come up with a strike version of this platform on par with, lets say, the Predator. Anywayz, good to see UK joining 'the club'.
 
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Berserk Fury

New Member
By Bill Sweetman, IDR Aerospace and Technology Editor

Everyone agrees that UCAVs [Unmanned Combat Air Vehicles] are the answer," one speaker commented at a recent conference on unmanned combat air vehicles. "We just have to figure out what the question is."

Like most good jokes this one happens to be rooted in truth. Fast-jet UCAV projects are gathering momentum. The US Joint Unmanned Combat Air System (J-UCAS) project is still the biggest unmanned aircraft technology project around despite a USD1 billion cutback. It seems likely to survive the forthcoming Quadrennial Defense Review (QDR) intact: as one insider observes, "if they were going to kill it they would have done it".

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) has terminated its Future Offensive Air System (FOAS) programme, which included UCAV, manned and cruise-missile studies, and is focusing on the UCAV. Under a little-discussed effort called Project Churchill, the UK's long-running and highly classified work into UCAVs and home-grown stealth technology is being linked to J-UCAS. Apparently, the goal is that a future UK-developed UCAV will be fully interoperable with J-UCAS systems.

Cut off by fog in the English Channel as usual, much of the rest of Europe's industry has joined a French-led initiative to build and fly a stealthy UCAV demonstrator named Neuron. A final contract for Neuron development was imminent in November and the vehicle is now expected to be flying in 2010. Meanwhile, major defence customers such as Australia are looking at adding UCAVs to their fleets around 2020.

Despite all the progress to date, the USAF is still uncertain over what kind of operational UCAV it wants to deploy. "If you ask 10 USAF generals what they want the J-UCAS to do you will get 10 different answers," says one USAF officer close to the programme. Within the programme office, there is an increasing belief that "one platform cannot do it all - you need a couple, maybe three". For example, these could include a very stealthy, smaller penetrator; an X-47B-sized carrier (CV) vehicle for the US Navy, for deep strike and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) missions; and a much larger US Air Force (USAF) platform, more in the bomber than the fighter class.

One industry insider observes that the "fighter mafia that runs the air force" has made several efforts to kill the UCAV, and that a bigger, longer-range UCAV may be more acceptable because it is less of a competitor to manned fighters. "We do not want to get in the ring with the F/A-22," he said, adding: "Whether you talk to us or our competition, the USAF is not interested in buying something the size of the demonstrator aircraft."

http://www.air-attack.com/news/news_article.php?id=771
http://www.janes.com/aerospace/military/news/idr/idr051111_1_n.shtml
So it's going to be somewhat of a joint project, I suppose.
 
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Cootamundra

New Member
Geez this Corax UAV looks the business, seems to me that in some areas we are looking at the end of manned aircraft. Bombing platforms and Surveillance seem to be the first ones that will benefit from UAV technology. I would love to see Australia get its proposed maritime surveillance UAVs upgraded to carry strike weapons as well.
Coota
 
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Cootamundra

New Member
Berserk Fury said:
Well, that'll probably end up happening in the near future. Plus, who wants to attack the home of all the cool aussies? xP
Click to expand...
No one right now but it pays to be prepared...Armed Mariners (Maritime UAVs), new aircraft (probably JSF it is doesn't explode $ wise) and maybe some kind of Stealth Strike UCAV would be optimal. Then anyone that would want to attack the 'cool aussies' would pay dearly ;-0

Coota
 
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