UAV Europe 2006 - techno paradise for the Defense nerd

July is a bad time for trade exhibitions , holidays and heat combine to make it unpopular, but an important one, that many will not want to miss will be UV Europe 2006 13th - 14th July 2006 (organised by the Shephard Group) at the grisly Novotel London West, Hammersmith. But UAV's are VERY BIG BUSINESS - a Grumman - Northrop Global Hawk when it crashes costs US$72 Mn so far the US Government is spending US$6Bn a year on developing them.

Delegates will enjoy sponsorship A VP Gala Dinner Sponsored by Raytheon - Exciting Black Delegate Bags - Sponsored by Bell Helicopter - and at huge expense the Conference Folders - Sponsored by IAI Malat (Whooooooop di Doooooooooooohhhhhh!!!!!)

"The War fighter is getting used to the idea of having UAV Systems, (says the promo bullshit written by a copywriter who has never been near a war to fight) both tactical and strategic, as part of the standard equipment table (basic equipment ?) for operations.

However, these capabilities come with their own overheads. Increased manpower to operate the systems, demands for spectrum bandwidth, the very real requirement to pass large amounts of information in the form of text, still images and streaming video around the battlefield and the problems of integrating UAVs into already very congested airspace.

Sounds a bit like our house with competing demands on the PC / Mobile / TV / DVD Player / Curtain closers and security CCTV.
UAV Systems must also be easy to operate (statement of the bleedin' obvious) so that the training burden is not increased and operator skills fade (? users get rusty) does not become a very expensive and time consuming problem. How far into the future should the equipment procurers reach in order to secure technologies that will not be out of date before the UAV systems are fielded? (Indeed the UK have been developing their systems for 20 years without much success - see The Raven - google this site) This is a very difficult balance to establish; reach too far and the systems will be unreliable or at worst case will not work at all (Has he been listening to all the Flak about Global Hawk's "crash testing program" and how successful the Predator 4 is ?).

In order to solve these complex problems the whole UAV community must work together. (It says ...oh yeah, yeah, work together) War Fighters, Industry, Acquisition Staff and Scientists must have a common strategic vision (well that will be a fucking first if it happens) and above all else a clear and unambiguous set of requirements. Regulations for the design, manufacture and subsequent use of UAV systems must be drawn up, agreed on a National and International basis and implemented.(Regulations ! Whooooooop deee dooooooooh!!! Again )

UV 2006 seeks to explore these topics and give the UAV Community a forum where problems
can be highlighted, discussed and most importantly possible solutions identified.Key opinion leaders and experts from the unmanned systems industry, will be attending UV Europe as senior conference delegates, as VIP guests and keynote speakers.

Items in the Conference definitely not to miss from a UK perspective will be...
UK UAV MOD STRATEGY 14.25 13th July Wing Commander Andrew Jeffrey, Directorate of the Air Staff – UAV, Ministry of Defence, UK (As this seems to be non-existent it will be fascinating to listen - especially as we are not part of the EU nEURone Combat UAV program)

Speaking at the Bristol International UAV Systems’ Conference on 31st March 2003, Air Vice Marshall Nigel Day announced the aims and objective's for the UK’s proposed Joint UAV Experimentation Program (JUEP).UAV experimentation issues, he said, include doctrine, bandwidth, reachback, balance of platforms, platform reliability/availability and cost. This entails the development of concepts and doctrine, understanding of C4ISR issues within NEC (network-enabled capability) and joint battlefield operations. Around 26 objectives have been defined for JUEP to explore the operational capability of UAVs.

MALE (medium altitude long endurance) platforms will be considered, it is thought that the first year’s experimentation efforts will call for a budget of around £22 million, although that figure was described as ‘aspirational’ by the Ministry of Defence. Two more years of experimentation will follow. (Not much talk about making the fucking things!)

UK UAV Operations Iraq and Afghanistan 09.40 14th July Lieutenant Colonel N.O. Fitzgerald, Commanding Officer 32nd Regiment, Royal Artillery, UK

“There were 22,000 artillery rounds fired in the recent Iraqi conflict,” Mark Lacey, of the Royal Artillery, told audiences at the Bristol UAV conference recently. “The British Army’s Phoenix UAV system was responsible for 40% of these.”

Explaining that the system was able to carry out a close air support (CAS) role during the conflict, he highlighted its ability to give immediate battle damage assessment (BDA) and pinpoint key targets for allied forces (such as mobile Iraqi artillery). Operating with 32 ( (Fitzgerald's outfit) regiment, the UK’s only UAV Regiment, it has flown approximately 133 sorties in Iraq to date. (Mid '05)

The late lamented GEC-Marconi Avionics Group eventually manufactured The Phoenix UAV system which entered UK service in January of 1999. It was 6 years behind schedule after 10 years development. 50 Phoenix aircraft and 8 ground control systems have been delivered to the British Army. Originally, the UAV was to be used for target location for MLRS systems later its role was expanded to include battlefield intelligence and reconnaissance functions. It flew like a pig.

Insane amounts of money were thrown at the Phoenix system, the British military trumpeted the UAV's use in Kosovo as a smashing success. During the operation "Allied Force" the British Army failed to establish satellite links enabling the Phoenix system to transmit real-time images to the control stations, Making the Phoenix system virtually useless. In all. at least 14 were lost (Nato lost at least 48 between them). There is a lot of feet shuffling when a Phoenix UAV was shot down in Yugoslavia, tumbling slowly to the ground for a relatively soft "landing" which left the aircraft almost intact, it is now in the Yugoslav Aeronautical Museum the electronic gubbins was allegedly provided to the Russians who are even further behind than the UK.

Without doubt the presentation by Shmuel Falik, of Israel Aircraft Industries / Malat will be interesting and unmissable THE I – VIEW FAMILY OF TACTICAL UAV SYSTEMS 1210 14 th July Shmuel Falik, Marketing Manager Europe, IAI, Israel

Israeli Aircraft Industries IAI/MALAT pioneered the world of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and are widely considered to be the world leader in the UAV field. No Doubt he will cover ..
SEARCHER
The Searcher Mk II System is an advanced 4th generation UAV system with Automatic Take-off and landing. It has excellent engine and aerodynamic performance, superior deployment (15 hrs 20, 000 feet , 200 /250 Km range) and handling qualities and a new advanced universal UAV mission ground control center compatible with all MALAT systems. Both Searcher systems are in operational use now configured with Direct line-of-sight datalink or beyond-line-of-sight datalink using UAV airborne data relay.
HUNTER
The contemporary Hunter is designed for airworthiness and airspace integration. It is an advanced 4th generation UAV system evolved from earlier Hunters in operation with the U.S. Army and the French Air Force. Fail-safe design, dual engines 4 stroke 69 horse power petrol engines, built-in redundancy, emergency parachute and other intrinsic features set the new standard for UAV airworthiness. Uses ; Surveillance, reconnaissance, target-acquisition, artillery adjustment, damage assessment and missions based on customer furnished payload with 12 hour endurance, 300 Km range.

The E-Hunter is an enhanced configuration of the standard Hunter UAV. By replacing wing, boom and tail assembly with Heron modules, endurance is increased to 25 hours and flight altitude reaches 20,000 ft.

Belgian Eagle Consortium manufacture the B-Hunter which is an upgraded European version of the standard Hunter UAV system for the Belgian Army.

RANGER
Ranger is a tactical system especially developed for the European theatre to cope with bad weather / geography , surveillance, target acquisition and artillery adjustment.Single 38 Hp petrol engine. Manufactured by Oerlikon and RUAG Aerospace (formerly Swiss Aircraft).

HERON
The Heron UAV System is an operational 4th generation generation long-endurance medium-altitude system based on leading-edge technology with new fully automatic take-off and landing features. It provides deep-penetration, wide-area, real-time intelligence to national
agencies, theater commanders and lower echelons. Up to 52 hours use with 100 hp 4 stroke
engine. Endlessly in use over Gaza.

SCOUT / PIONEER
Scout UAV System has played an important combat role both in the service of the Israeli
Ground Forces and Air Force, during the War in Lebanon (1982) and the The Pioneer UAV
System is in operational use with the U.S. Navy . Battle proven during the Gulf War and in
Bosnia - actually used covertly by US to help the ethnic cleansing of the Serbians from Kranje.

Interstingly the Israelis have only produced the fixed wing UAV , the US have developed (at huge cost and negligible success Unmanned Horizontal rotor / Helicopter vehicles).. such is the craze for Toys for the Boys that several manufacturers have produced a variety of competing platforms ... onyl Atomic's Predator seems to have acheived much battlefield success... unless you include the Global Hawk that many say punched a hole in the Pentagon on 9/11.

In Yogoslavia NATO lost 48 UAV's of which the US : 17 (3 Predators, 9 Hunters, 4 Pioneers, 1 UAV of undetermined type)