TUESDAY, MAY 20, 2003
Unmanned planes win defence spotlight after Iraq
REUTERS
LONDON: Iraq's elite forces were closing in on US troops trapped in swirling sandstorms last month until an unmanned plane soaring high above changed everything.
What could have been a bloody defensive battle for US troops turned into a rout of Iraq's Republican Guard after a Global Hawk flying 12 miles (19 km) above the desert peered through clouds and sand to relay enemy positions for a US air strike.
Industry officials gearing up for the world's largest air show next month in Paris say a key lesson from Iraq was the importance of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), offering hope for bigger budgets and progress for scores of UAVs still on the drawing board.
"They were able to provide intelligence to the strike force within 15 or 20 minutes," said Cynthia Curiel, spokesperson for Northrop Grumman, prime contractor on the Global Hawk. "I think that's really what has sparked the interest in UAVs, it saves peoples' lives."
Used before for reconnaissance, UAVs took on a more active target-finding role in Iraq, and planners say more dangerous spy jobs will be left to UAVs in the future.
"In the field of information dominance, UAVS are really, really important," said Patrick Brunet, spokesman for UAV operations at Europe's biggest aerospace company, Airbus parent EADS.
"So far, we have not shown a lot of things, it will change at the Le Bourget (Paris) air show," he said. "EADS wants to reinforce drastically its defence activities to be on a par with its civilian activities like Airbus."
And EADS is not the only one firing up its UAV plans.
"It's the sexy flavour of the month," said Peter van Blyenburgh, president of the European Unmanned Vehicle Systems Association, regarding the burgeoning sector.
While spending on UAVs remains a fraction of that for expensive fighter jets or missiles, there are now almost 400 UAV projects involving 189 manufacturers in 37 countries, he said, adding the Paris air show would be the first to spotlight UAVs.
UAV agreements
At least two key UAV agreements have been reached in the weeks since the war wound down, including the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) tweaking plans for a combat UAV by asking Boeing Co to develop a joint model for the army and navy.
Separately, Boeing and General Atomics have agreed to study ways to better use General Atomics' Predator UAV in tandem with Boeing's E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) planes and AH-64 Apache attack helicopters.
"There were a lot of lessons learned," said Chick Ramey, integrated defence systems spokesman at Boeing, regarding Iraq.
"It demonstrated the importance of UAVs and the need to be interoperable with the AWACS, with the Apaches, with all the other vehicles."
US Apaches took heavy damage from small arms fire in Iraq, underscoring the need to protect expensive machinery as well as lives.
"It's what the government calls the D-3 missions," said one US industry official about the roles UAVs can fill. "The dangerous, the dull and the dirty."
With more jobs seen for UAVs, manufacturers are working on more variants.
UAVs range from the Global Hawk with wings as wide as a Boeing 737 passenger jet to miniatures the size of toasters.
There are UAVs for maritime patrol, designs that switch fixed wings for helicopter-like rotors, and even combat UAVs such as Boeing's X-45, which in its largest planned layout would be able to carry two 2,000-pound bombs.
EADS is working on a range of UAVs including the Euro Hawk, which is based on the Global Hawk but equipped with EADS' own equipment, including radar, high-powered TV-like cameras, and infrared technology for night missions.
French defence electronics maker Thales has also teamed with Northop Grumman on UAVs to development a system for use by Britain's ground forces.
Defence companies say UAVs offer work not only in making the flying vehicle but in developing systems to control them and disseminate the images they collect.
Today, militaries need reconnaissance planes, ways to jam enemy radars, and finally fighter-bombers that drop bombs or fire missiles.
Industry officials say development concepts envision UAVs taking on more of those roles.
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