Drone Wars

“Our offering for AIR 7003 is a system that provides persistent situational awareness with a bite; another way of saying long-endurance armed reconnaissance,” said Linden Blue, chief executive officer of General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, speaking at the Avalon Airshow.

“And that system needs to be tightly integrated with the rest of the Air Force and the land force, as well as the air and land and sea forces of the United States and other allies, to guarantee that interoperability.”

General Atomics has not yet made a final decision on what specifically it will offer for the Medium Altitude Long Endurance Unmanned Aerial System project, and at this stage could put forward either the current US Air Force MQ-9 Reaper or the Type-Certifiable Predator B system, which is also known as SkyGuardian.

The company displayed both the MQ-9 Reaper and its Advanced Cockpit Ground Control Station at Avalon.

Under the banner of Team Reaper Australia, Cobham will be focusing on through-life support and training; CAE brings its simulator expertise to the team; meanwhile, Raytheon will be responsible for the MTS-B sensor package; and Flight Data Systems will provide a flight data recorder.

“Cobham and GA-ASI have been working in partnership for more than 12 years to introduce and prepare for the whole-of-life support requirements for remotely piloted aircraft systems in Australia,” stated Peter Nottage, president of Cobham Aviation Services.

Ian Bell, CAE vice-president and general manager for the Asia Pacific and Middle East, stated: “We are pleased to join Team Reaper Australia as part of our growing international partnership with General Atomics to provide comprehensive training solutions for the Predator family of remotely piloted aircraft.

“Our support of delivering academic, simulator and live flying training to the US Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper aircrews gives us a wealth of experience we can leverage in helping the Australian Defence Force create a well-trained and mission-ready cadre of RPA pilots and sensor operators.”

General Atomics is looking to add to its nascent team and better define the specific roles that teammates will play.

Blue said that General Atomics is seeking a range of other capabilities from Australian industry, including: supply chain partners; sensor partners, especially in the electronic warfare (EW) and signals intelligence (SIGINT) fields; companies that can help with the integration of unmanned aircraft into non-military airspace; and companies that are working on the automation of data-exploitation processes.

“Team Australia is focused on several areas of industry; we are going to maximise Australian through-life support and training, first of all,” Blue said. “And we are looking to team with additional partners that can be proactive in solving problems and improving the product or the service to the end-user.

“So innovation and some proactiveness in a local context is essential to making this kind of a project successful in Australia, and when you are able to do these things, those kinds of services and products are also exportable beyond Australia.”

Air Chief Marshal Sir Angus Houston, chairman of the Defence SA Advisory Board, said he expects that much of the in-country support for the AIR 7003 platform will be undertaken in South Australia.

“Defence SA is looking forward to a final decision from the Australian Government to progress this important capability,” he said.

“I understand the aerospace support facilities provided in South Australia, particularly those centred around the Edinburgh Defence Precinct, will play a vital role in support of the armed remotely piloted aircraft systems capability.”

Sir Angus said it is “absolutely imperative” that Australia moves ahead with acquiring this sort of capability, given the support that Special Forces received while in Afghanistan.

“I am very familiar with this capability; when I was Chief of the Defence Force these aircraft supported Special Operations operations in Afghanistan; they were very good in the ISR role, but they had a huge punch in terms of what they could bring to the operation when there was a need to strike a target,” he said.

“There is absolutely no doubt lives were saved because we had this highly versatile, highly flexible platform supporting us when we were in harm’s way.

“So the combination of the mature capability, proven support to the warfighter, interoperability and its mission versatility demonstrate the Reaper as a very strong potential candidate to meet the capability requirements of the Australian Defence Force.”

They were very good in the ISR role, but they had a huge punch.

Willing challenger

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) was at the Avalon Airshow on a mission to demonstrate that the Heron TP multipurpose unmanned aircraft system is a viable option that should be considered for the AIR 7003 project.

“Give us the chance to compete, to see our capabilities, to compare, to see the benefit that we can bring with our system, and then choose,” said Shaul Shahar, IAI executive vice-president and general manager, Military Aircraft Group.

Shahar told Australian Aviation that IAI plans to partner with a leading Australian defence company that would act as the prime on a bid for AIR 7003, while the government-owned Israeli defence and aerospace company would itself be playing the role of subcontractor, bringing “significant work-share” to Australia.

IAI is looking at three or four potential partners, and in coming months will be in a position to announce which Australian company it is joining forces with.

“Heron TP can integrate whatever the Australian customer will ask to integrate; if it has a requirement we will fulfil the requirement,” Shahar said.

Talking about the capabilities of the Heron TP, he declared that IAI offers “the same or better in any aspect, in any domain” when compared with the Type-Certifiable Predator B system from its California-headquartered rival General Atomics.

The Heron TP has been in active service with the Israeli Air Force since 2010, and was on display for the first time in Australia at Avalon. The smaller Heron remotely piloted aircraft has accumulated some 30,000 flight hours with the Royal Australian Air Force, according to a statement from IAI.

“Heron TP allows many different tasks to be performed that give a whole solution to the Royal Australian Air Force,” Shahar said.

“This is due to its high performance, with an emphasis on high flight speed, high-altitude capability and enhanced payload capability, thus allowing long-range, multirole operation with a wide scope of observation and intelligence capabilities; presenting Heron TP in Australia is therefore a direct continuation of the Royal Australian Air Force’s tradition of operating the Heron 1.”