Forum: Drones

Seems to work fine against stationary targets. I wonder how it would do against a fast and highly maneuverable vehicle, land or sea?

http://www.defencetalk.com/advanced-pre ... ing-38209/

Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System Aces Helicopter Testing

The U.S. Navy and Marine Corps recently successfully fired the first shots of the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS) from a UH-1Y helicopter, in preparation for fielding in 2012.

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APKWS Test Video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sLI70v2A ... r_embedded

"Uploaded by defenseupdate on Feb 14, 2011
Read more @ http://defense-update.com/wp/20110214_apkws2.html
The Navy and BAE Systems are entering a two-year Joint Capability Technology Demonstration (JCTD) program to integrate and demonstrate the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II (APKWS II) on the U.S. Marine Corps' AV-8B and U.S. Air Force's A-10 aircraft platforms."

ONR Hones Carrier Landings

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... adline=ONR Hones Carrier Landings&channel=defense

ONR Hones Carrier Landings

Nov 11, 2011

By Michael Fabey/ Washington

The U.S. Office of Naval Research (ONR) is making sea-based aviation a funding priority and, with unmanned combat and rotorcraft looking to enter the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps fleet alongside planned Joint Strike Fighters, researchers are touting the potential for dramatic effects on the basic nature of naval aircraft design.

The latest effort unveiled is new flight-control software meant to help aircraft “stick” carrier landings more cleanly. It could lead to major aircraft redesigns that would save money, reduce wear and tear on future aircraft and improve overall performance.

“The precision that we can bring to carrier landings in the future will be substantial,” says Michael Deitchman, deputy chief of naval research for naval air warfare and weapons.

...

“The flight-control algorithm has the potential to alter the next 50 years of how pilots land on carrier decks,” Deitchman says.

...

The ONR plans to put the technology into a Northrop Grumman X-47B surrogate for “ride-along” in at-sea evaluations this fiscal year. Researchers intend to start flight tests in fiscal 2015.

More aspects of 'neptune' post at: (as always keep scrolling scrolling scrolling... down)

‘Bedford Array’ May Have F-35C Uses After All 21 Oct 2011 entry

http://www.f-16.net/index.php?name=PNph ... onr#206591
________________

And seach the F-35 forum for JPALS for how UAVs will land with precision on CVNs in future.

Second X-47B UCAS-D Flies by Graham Warwick at 11/28/2011

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/blogs/de ... d=blogDest

"Northrop Grumman has flown the US Navy's second of two X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrators at Edwards AFB in California....

...Air vehicle 1 (AV-1), which has completed 16 flights since taking to the air for the first time on February 4, has wrapped up envelope-expansion testing at Edwards and will now be shipped eastwards to NAS Patuxent River, Maryland, to begin the work-up for the aircraft-carrier demonstration, scheduled for 2013....

...AV-1 will conduct "roll-out" catapult launches and arrested landings at Pax, where it will be joined by AV-2 later in 2012...."

http://sitelife.aviationweek.com/ver1.0 ... b.Full.jpg

Long article about X-47B testing at PaxRiver and stuff:

Unmanned Combat Aircraft Tests Move Quickly Dec 2, 2011 By Graham Warwick

http://www.aviationweek.com/aw/generic/ ... 398723.xml

"Spring 2012 at NAS Patuxent River, Md., and an unusual shape joins the F-35 Joint Strike Fighters flying the pattern at the U.S. Navy’s test center. The tailless flying wing is Northrop Grumman’s X-47B unmanned combat air system demonstrator (UCAS-D), being prepared for autonomous landings on an aircraft carrier in 2013...."

...The speed of envelope expansion is due in part to the accuracy and predictability with which the 62.1-ft.-wingspan X-47B executes the preprogrammed test points. But it is also due to Northrop’s familiarly with its signature cranked-kite planform, and to extensive modeling and simulation. Engdahl says the aircraft simulation model accounts for about a third of the 3.4 million lines of software code for the UCAS-D program.

“The modeling and simulation is correlating so well with flight-test data that we can use it to add confidence and reduce on-aircraft testing. It significantly reduced the number of flights required to expand the envelope,” says Johnson. “The future for UAS with robust modeling and simulation is we will not have to fly the platform as much as manned systems, which are less predictable.”

“The aircraft is flying exactly the way the model said,” says Engdahl, adding no flight-control changes have been required. “Control-law development has been very robust,” agrees Johnson. “We’ve had no issues, but then our developers have quite a bit of experience with this planform design.”

Confidence in the aircraft’s behavior will be crucial at Pax, where the Lockheed Martin F-35B and C are being flight-tested and where disruption to normal operations when the X-47B is flying must be minimized. “When we begin flying there, operating an unmanned aircraft from an active naval air station, it will be a significant step forward,” says Johnson....

...Surrogate trials also validated the distributed control concept, in which a UCAS mission operator on the ship always has positive control of the aircraft, but the carrier air traffic control (ATC) center, primary flight control (Pri-Fly) or “air boss” in the tower, and landing signals officer (LSO) on the flightdeck can send commands to the unmanned vehicle as they would to a manned aircraft.

“Over the last 10 years the Navy has been digitizing its carriers. ISIS—the integrated ship information system—has automated and digitized the information flow around the ship, so ATC and Pri-Fly can share a picture of who’s flying, how much gas they have, etc.,” says Engdahl. For UCAS-D, a ship interface processor is installed to act as gateway between the X-47B mission control element and the carrier network. This allows ATC to pull in data such as fuel state and send commands to the vehicle, while the UCAS mission operator has access to all ATC and deck information....

...At-sea testing will evaluate handling qualities in crosswinds and headwinds, control power as the vehicle passes though the airflow “burble” behind the carrier, touchdown dispersion on the deck and lateral dispersion on “bolter” touch-and-goes. More than one carrier is to be outfitted to work with the X-47B for the 2013 demo. “We will work with the carrier schedule to get as much test time as we can. That’s when it will get interesting,” Engdahl says."

Excellent article - lots of detail - best to read it at the URL jump above...

Navy, MIT Grapple With Managing Drones On Dangerous Decks By David Axe : May 22, 2012

http://defense.aol.com/2012/05/22/navy- ... rier-deck/

"The U.S. Navy's nuclear-powered aircraft carriers flight decks are some of the most chaotic and deadly real estate in the world. Teeming with scores of high-performance aircraft, wheeled vehicles and up to a thousand sailors generating up to several hundred sorties per day, flight decks "are fraught with danger," the Naval Safety Center warned in a 2003 publication. "You can get blown down by prop wash, blown over-board by jet exhaust, run over by taxiing aircraft or sucked up and spit out by a turning engine."...

More at the Jump of course....

Forum: Drones

F-35 newest competitor on the same flight deck!