Oct 26, 2009



By Bradley Perrett

Korea Aerospace Industries (KAI)is funding a technology acquisition effort in anticipation of a future combat drone program.

The companys work extends to building a scaled version of its design, which it has already put in the air.

KAIs concept, called K-UCAV, would conduct air-to-air and air-to-ground missions, including suppression of enemy air defenses. The stealthy airplane would also operate as an intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft with an excellent sensor system, the company says.

No concrete South Korean requirement for a combat drone has been revealed, and industry executives say there is none.

But research into such aircraft may be one way for Korea Aerospace to maintain its combat aircraft skills. The company has built up a fighter design capability with the T-50 supersonic trainer program, which has also produced the FA-50 light attack aircraft, but approval of its next fighter project, the semi-stealthy KF-X, is in doubt.

One criticism of the KF-X is that it would appear too late in the history of the piloted fighter and that South Korea would more wisely focus its development resources on unmanned aircraft.

At the Seoul International Aerospace & Defense Exhibition here last week, KAI displayed the 20% scale model of the KUCAV that it has built to validate the aerodynamic aspects of its design.

The research effort began last year, initially focusing on a blended-wing design that was dropped after aerodynamic analysis suggested it would be difficult to control.

Flight testing of the model, which began last year, confirms that the finally adopted configuration, with a V tail and a distinct body, is easily controlled.

The K-UCAV would have a gross weight at takeoff of 4.055 metric tons (8,900 lb.) and fly as high as 12,000 meters (39,000 ft.) and as fast as Mach 0.85. Endurance is given as 5 hr., wingspan 9.1 meters and length 8.4 meters. No details about propulsion are available.

We are preparing for a future program, even though we dont know when it will appear, says one Korean Aerospace research engineer, adding that the project has been interesting but very difficult.

The model shows a portly aircraft with a chine that runs down each side of the forward fuselage to become the highly swept leading edge of the inboard part of the wing. Outboard, the wing is not so greatly swept, but the leading edge angle is still high at about 45 deg.

The engine inlet is on the top of the fuselage and is made up of angled edges.

Project engineers say the forward fuselage would be filled with equipment and, directly under the inlet, a weapons bay. Stores have been successfully dropped from the models weapons bay, they add. Fuel would probably be stored in the body as well as the wing. A camera is mounted under the nose.

The flying model was not designed with the uncluttered surface and fine tolerances needed to control reflections of radio waves. Another will be tested in a radar range to measure its radar cross-section, says the research engineer.

Less ambitious but more immediate is the South Korean armys requirement for a battlefield reconnaissance drone to be operated at divisional level. Korea Aerospace and Korean Air Aerospace, the manufacturing division of the airline, are preparing to bid.

A request for proposals is due by the end of the year and a selection should be made in 2010, say industry executives.

Both contenders feature electro-optical and infrared cameras and use blended wings, although the Korean Air version has a boom-mounted tail.

Korea Aerospace says its Night Intruder NI-100N (or DUV 4) would have a maximum takeoff weight of 100 kg. Ceiling is given as more than 3,000 meters, radius beyond 60 km. from the nearest communications node, endurance 6 hr. and speed about 210 kph. (110 kt.).

The aircraft would be fully autonomous and land by descending under a parachute and then touching down on an airbag deployed from its belly. A company executive says that the turnaround time between missions will be 30 min.

Other features are billed as commercially available components, and a next-generation ground-control station.

Korea Aerospace built the earlier RQ-101 corps-level battlefield-reconnaissance UAV between 2001 and 2004. The army bought five sets of RQ-101s, each set including six aircraft, a launcher and a ground-control station, says a company executive. The NI-100N offers the same performance, he says.

Flight testing began two weeks ago.

Korean Air will probably offer its 165-kg. KUS-9 or an aircraft based on it. The KUS-9, made of carbon-fiber reinforced plastic, lands by flying into a net at a speed as low as 90 kph., says an executive. The blended-wing-body shape was chosen partly to spread the loads of that impact over a greater frontal area, but it also offered a higher ratio of lift to drag and more volume, he says.

The ceiling of the aircraft would be 4,000 meters, maximum speed 200 kph., cruise speed 140 kph., endurance six hr., and maximum range for communications 60 km.

The army is expected to order more than 25 such aircraft.

Photo: Bradley Perrett

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/

Future limited scale wars belong to UAV's

EADS Barracuda




"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."

With all the recent interest in UAVs, I did a search to see who actually fielded the first true UAV. I thought it was Israel; but, to my surprise, the first true UAV was actually Russian.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2nvXywN7IU


Milkman

What was the thing about Tanaris UCAV? A fight will erupt in a few minutes I'm sure.

Great development by South Korea by the way.

The Sweedish SHARC was, and it also was the FIRST to carry over a fully automated mission from take off to landing.
http://www.saabgroup.com/SaabGroup.Web.WebSite/Templates/PressRelease.aspx?NRMODE=Published&NRNODEGUID={248E4179-C9D2-42D9-87BD-B3215A9FCEBE}&NRORIGINALURL=/en/MediaRelations/Pressreleases/Pressrelease.htm&NRCACHEHINT=Guest&Year=2004&PressreleaseId=102272


Thunder Supports Rafale

http://rafale.freeforums.org
http://rafale.freeforums.org/rafale-vs-f-16-aerodynamics-compared-t69.html

With all the recent interest in UAVs, I did a search to see who actually fielded the first true UAV. I thought it was Israel; but, to my surprise, the first true UAV was actually Russian.

What defines the first "true" UAV? These things have been around longer than Israel has.

What was the thing about Tanaris UCAV? A fight will erupt in a few minutes I'm sure.
Great development by South Korea by the way.

Taranis first flight is due for 2010 IIRC, though I think it starts ground testing this year.


"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."

Timeline of UAVs

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/uavs.html

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Define "True UAV".

What are the current UAV programs of Europe, do different countries go for their own designs or do they cooperate this time?

"What was the thing about Tanaris UCAV? A fight will erupt in a few minutes I'm sure".

There is NO TARANIS UCAV.

Taranis is an UAV designed to demonstrate UCAV technologies, not UCAV capabilties (NO weapons).

Thunder Supports Rafale

http://rafale.freeforums.org
http://rafale.freeforums.org/rafale-vs-f-16-aerodynamics-compared-t69.html

Timeline of UAVs
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/spiesfly/uavs.html

It defines the V1 as a UAV, it's actually a missile.

Sampaix said something about Neuron (French of course) being the best and only UCAV in Europe, and indeed the universe

... ect ect

What are the current UAV programs of Europe, do different countries go for their own designs or do they cooperate this time?

There are a LOT of UAV programmes in Europe, some are a joint development, others are not. There are two UCAV programmes:

1. Taranis: Developed by BAE UK



2. Neuron: Developed as a joint effort by France, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Italy (the image is a wooden mockup)





"He lives in a world where concept is reality..."

Too many already

Many new to come

PPP56)
It defines the V1 as a UAV, it's actually a missile.

V-1 Germany


At the outset of World War II, Adolf Hitler commissioned a flying bomb with a chilling mandate: It would be used against "non-military targets." Fieseler Flugzeuhau designed the Fieseler Fi-103, better known as the Vergeltungswaffe (Revenge weapon)-1, or V-1, to launch via a long catapult-like ramp and fly at 470 mph. The V-1 UAV was powered by a thrust pulsejet, which produced a signature buzzing sound. It could carry a 2,000-pound warhead and was pre-programmed to fly 150 miles before it dropped its bomb. First launched against Britain in 1944, V-1s killed more than 900 civilians and injured more than 35,000 in British cities.

By clicking on the image, the information is displayed

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"2. Neuron: Developed as a joint effort by France, Greece, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain and Italy (the image is a wooden mockup)"

WRONG: The image is a composite mock-up like Replica.

nEUROn is an UCAV demonstrator not an UAV UCAV technology demonstrator and BTW first cuts for nEUROn were made month before that of Taranis.

Taranis doesn't have a weapon bay nor does it have weapon systems developed for L.O..

Its budget is WAY lower and also is the complexity as it uses a LOT of previous programes technologies (Corax, Raven) weither nEUROn will only use engines, landing gear and processors COTS and focuse on developing state of the art technologies instead of using existing ones.

It will also demonstrate combat capabilties as opposed to Taranis.

In Europe there is only ONE UCAV in the making today and it is nEUROn.



Here: Programe goals and amount of systems to be used from existing ones.

Sigature integration = L.O technologies.

Air Vehicle performances = Same flight characteristics than Corax/Raven.

Vehicle management = Same monitoring systems.

Command Control, Snesor integration, Communication Integration and playload integration.

= ALL existing from previous programes.

NO demonstration of combat capabilties but "Emulation".

nEUROn =

The scenarios to be performed in this demonstration are as follow:

Air to ground subsonic mission. The range of the mission is not considered as a critical parameter.
Test range airspace insertion. It is not a target to demonstrate a complete traffic insertion of the technological Demonstrator inside the Air traffic, where other working groups in Europe study this subject.
Air to Surface weapon delivery from internal bay, with external designation.
http://www.dassault-aviation.com/en/defense/neuron/a-technological-challenge.html?L=1

Building on the experience gained from recent projects, for the first time in a military project, it will be designed and developed within the frame, a completely integrated PLM (Product Lifecycle Management) environment, through a virtual development platform, allowing Dassault Aviation and its five partners, in six countries, to simultaneously work together on the same design, independently from the location where the work is performed.


Thunder Supports Rafale

http://rafale.freeforums.org
http://rafale.freeforums.org/rafale-vs-f-16-aerodynamics-compared-t69.html

Another non-existent "project" devised to promote KAI funding. With the KFX in trouble and nothing else to carry the firm once the T-50, F/A-50 contract expires, this is more of a desperate gambit. What you see is all there is, no concrete plans, just a wooden mock-up and nothing more. Still, if it's between this and the KFX, I say go for it. There's nothing they can't do with proper funding and the right partners.




_________________________________________________
"Made from 100% Quality Korean Genes"

"Mantis214)
There's nothing they can't do with proper funding and the right partners".

Agreed.

A point i'd like to make though, no flame intended, with this curent configuration and appearent level of EM L.O technology, this project is more of the (advanced) T-UAV class than an UCAV by today's standards.

It is worth developing, though.


Thunder Supports Rafale

http://rafale.freeforums.org
http://rafale.freeforums.org/rafale-vs-f-16-aerodynamics-compared-t69.html

What about KAI's indigenous helicopter programs? That should keep them getting funded and busy in case there is no other fixed-wing aircraft project.

There is the Surion multi-purpose heli and also the upcoming KAH program, also a light weight civilian helicopter can be developed too, like TAI and Istanbul Technical University is working on now. Is there a light-weight helicopter program on the agenda for KAI?

I'm sure a light helicopter requirement will worm its way in through KAI eventually. They killed Bo-105 program to fund the Surion, but KHP is too big for some roles. A light helicopter program will be revived one way or the other, just not right now when KHP needs focus and production.

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Swiss Army Knives...up to a dozen tools, and the only thing you learn to use is the bottle and can opener.

It's like me, only prettier.