UAV Roundup 2011

Cover-0311-final_AA Template 2/15/11 10:12 AM Page 1 AEROSPACE AMERICA 3 March 2011 MARCH 2011 UAV roundup 2011

Quieter flight: A balancing act China’s military space surge

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Page 12 DEPARTMENTS COMMENTARY 3 How far can you see? INTERNATIONAL BEAT 4 Europe confronts intel capability shortfalls.

WASHINGTON WATCH 8 Space, stealth, and Spartans. Page 14 THE VIEW FROM HERE 12 Mapping a course to the asteroids.

AIRCRAFT UPDATE 14 MPAs: Statements of global power.

ENGINEERING NOTEBOOK 18 ICESat 2: Laser eyes on Earth’s changing ice.

OUT OF THE PAST 44

CAREER OPPORTUNITIES 46 Page 18

FEATURES UAV ROUNDUP 2011 22 With UAVs on the wish list of more and more nations, the growth in sales of these systems will likely continue at a brisk pace. by J.R. Wilson

CHINA’S MILITARY SPACE SURGE 32 Experts say China is accelerating its military space program to target U.S. aircraft carriers. by Craig Covault Page 32 QUIETER FLIGHT: A BALANCING ACT 38 NASA aeronautics research seeks engineering breakthroughs that will lead to quieter aircraft and softer sonic booms. by Jim Banke

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COVER An MQ-1 Predator armed with AGM-114 Hellfire missiles flies a combat mission over southern Afghanistan. See the latest on UAVs beginning on page 22. (USAF photo by Lt. Col. Leslie Pratt.) Page 38

Aerospace America (ISSN 0740-722X) is published monthly, except August, by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. at 1801 Alexander Bell Drive, Reston, Va. 20191-4344 [703/264-7500]. Subscription rate is 50% of dues for AIAA members (and is not deductible therefrom). Nonmember subscription price: U.S. and Canada, $163, foreign, $200. Single copies $20 each. Postmaster: Send address changes and subscription orders to address above, attention AIAA Customer Service, 703/264-7500. Periodical postage paid at Herndon, VA, and at additional mailing offices. Copyright © 2010 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc., all rights reserved. The name Aerospace America is registered by the AIAA in the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. 40,000 copies of this issue printed. This is Volume 49, No. 3. Rapid Prototyping Autocoding HIL Testing

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Elaine J. Camhi Editor-in-Chief Patricia Jefferson Associate Editor Greg Wilson How far can you see? Production Editor Jerry Grey, Editor-at-Large Christine Williams, Editor AIAA Bulletin Much has been written about the apparent decline of science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education in the U.S. and, to varying de- Correspondents grees, other Western countries. Four years ago, the National Academy’s Robert F. Dorr, Washington oft-cited “Rising Above the Gathering Storm” study, chaired by former Philip Butterworth-Hayes, Europe Lockheed Martin Chairman and CEO Norm Augustine, sounded the alarm Michael Westlake, Hong Kong on challenges facing the nation, with recommendations to bolster STEM Contributing Writers disciplines to improve American competitiveness. Other studies see Amer- Richard Aboulafia, James W. Canan, ican science and engineering being surpassed by nations that are more Marco Cáceres, Craig Covault, Leonard actively investing in infrastructure and stressing education. David, Philip Finnegan, Tom Jones, David Key among these concerns is the relatively sparse percentage of U.S. Rockwell, J.R. Wilson students seeking advanced degrees in science and engineering, especially Fitzgerald Art & Design compared with their counterparts overseas. While some concrete steps Art Direction and Design have been taken to reverse this trend, recent economic concerns, coupled with inevitable cutbacks, pose a threat to this progress. And nowhere do Craig Byl, Manufacturing and Distribution those threats seem as alarming as in the aerospace community. Present Mark Lewis, President uncertainty in NASA’s direction and budget, calls for “efficiencies” in the Robert S. Dickman, Publisher DOD, and even funding threats to national test and evaluation infrastruc- STEERING COMMITTEE ture all suggest that aerospace will not fare well. Michael B. Bragg, University of Illinois; However, the situation is not as bleak for aerospace as it is for other Philip Hattis, Draper Laboratory; Mark S. STEM fields. Researchers at the National Institute of Aerospace have been Maurice, AFOSR; Laura McGill, Raytheon; compiling data on aerospace student enrollments dating back over two Merri Sanchez, National Aeronautics and decades, and the results are encouraging. In 1989, the various aerospace Space Administration; Mary Snitch, Lockheed Martin; David W. Thompson, Orbital undergraduate programs enrolled roughly 350 students per program; by 1996 that number had fallen to about 130. But since 1997, these enroll- EDITORIAL BOARD ments have shown a steady rise, such that by 2008 they had returned al- Ned Allen, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics; most to the late 1980s levels and continue to grow. Graduate enrollments Jean-Michel Contant, EADS; Eugene Covert, are even more encouraging, with U.S. programs now reporting 50% more Massachusetts Institute of Technology; L.S. students than in the late 1980s. Last year, the 57 aerospace programs par- “Skip” Fletcher, Texas A&M University; Michael Francis, United Technologies; ticipating in the survey reported total enrollments of over 20,000 students. Christian Mari, Teuchos; Cam Martin, Think we’re not attracting top students from around the globe? A recent NASA Dryden; Don Richardson, Donrich National Academy study suggests the opposite. The quality of aerospace Research; Douglas Yazell, Honeywell students across the board remains second to none. Our biggest challenge is not one of supplying the next generation of ADVERTISING aerospace engineers; rather, it is in having sufficient demand. Program National Display and Classified: Robert Silverstein, 240.498.9674 cancellations, starts and stops, and facility closures all mean fewer oppor- [email protected] tunities for our graduates. Students come to aerospace seeking the chance West Coast Display: Greg Cruse, to contribute to meaningful progress in air and space transportation and 949.361.1870 / [email protected] exploration. If our society does not provide those, they will eventually go elsewhere. Send materials to Craig Byl, AIAA, 1801 The benefits of educational outreach hardly require justification—we will Alexander Bell Drive, Suite 500, Reston, VA 20191-4344. Changes of address should be always want to recruit the best and the brightest. To do so, we must convince sent to Customer Service at the same address, decision makers to create lasting opportunities, so that we don’t lose this gen- by e-mail at [email protected], or by fax at eration’s talents and enthusiasm. In securing the future, the greatest contribu- 703.264.7606. tion we can make to education is to provide inspiration. Then we can all look Send Letters to the Editor to Elaine Camhi with pride at the many ways aerospace technology has already transformed at the same address or [email protected]. our world, and extrapolate to a future where it continues to bring value to March 2011, Vol. 49, No. 3 our lives while opening new avenues of knowledge and understanding. Mark Lewis Willis Young Professor, University of Maryland AA-layout-BEAT0311_Layout 1 2/11/11 12:44 PM Page 2

Europe confronts intel capability shortfalls

EUROPEAN MILITARY ALLIES WILL HAVE operational environment, and a need cluding the operation of C-160 Gabriel to dramatically increase their levels of for more precise and reliable informa- aircraft with recently upgraded Thales cooperation if they are to make up for tion,” said Attila Simon, research and electronic surveillance systems. In a potential shortfall in intelligence, technology project manager within the September 2008, Thales was awarded surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR), European Defense Agency (EDA), at a a contract to upgrade the aircraft’s signals intelligence (SIGINT) and elec- September 2010 Paris conference. The ELINT system, to enter service in 2011. tronic intelligence (ELINT) capabilities drivers for improved sensor technol- The C-160 Gabriel is due to be re- as a result of increasing pressures on ogy also include increased levels of RF placed by an A400M version when the defense budgets. Given the complexi- interference and increased pressure new aircraft type becomes available. ties of the tasks and the multitude of for commercial use of the spectrum, France remains committed to de- platforms European nations use to according to Simon. veloping its capabilities in these areas; meet their requirements for intelli- the country’s June 2008 strategic de- gence gathering, it is highly likely they France leads technology push fense review included a doubling of will become increasingly reliant on During the 1991 gulf war, Europe had expenditures to approximately $1 bil- mature U.S. technologies. to rely on U.S. assets for many of their lion a year on space-based ISR capa- The cancellation last October of intelligence-gathering and SIGINT/ bilities by 2012. the U.K.’s BAE Systems Nimrod MRA4 ELINT operations. France, in particu- program and the planned phase out lar, was at the forefront of a push for Sharing rather than gathering of the Sentinel Airborne Stand-Off Re- Europe to develop its own capabilities Elsewhere in Europe, however, the fo- connaissance (ASTOR) system once not just in ISR but SIGINT and ELINT cus has been on developing new ways U.K. troops leave Afghanistan are just as well. That country has been the of sharing, rather than gathering, intel- two recent examples of the removal of special-mission platform capabilities. The Sentinel incorporates a Raytheon dual-mode synthetic aperture/moving target indication (SAR/MTI) radar mounted on a Bom- bardier Global Express long-range business jet, Yet most service chiefs acknowledge that these capabilities will play an increasing role in future conflicts and that new ways will have to be sought to share intelligence-gathering as- France’s considerable ﬁxed-wing sets. New ways will also intelligence-gathering capabilities include the C-160 Gabriel. have to be found to finance and develop new capabilities in these areas—improved sensors, more accurate analysis capabilities, and better driving force in Europe behind several ligence. For example, back in May sharing of information. generations of military satellites and 1991, Western European Union (WEU) “The main capability drivers of RF airborne SIGINT/ELINT programs. ministers agreed to create the Euro- sensor research and technology activi- Along with a network of satellite pean Union Satellite Center in Torre- ties include a great diversity and un- and UAS platforms, France has also jón de Ardoz, to share imagery intelli- predictable circumstances of military developed considerable fixed-wing gence from satellite operators. Over missions, changing threats, a changing intelligence-gathering capabilities, in- the last few years, the center’s acitivies

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have grown considerably in support autonomous intelligence capabilities, erational control of COMISAF [Com- of EU missions, providing images to “without prejudice to actions by mander of ISAF, the International Se- EU security operations in the Congo, NATO.” curity Assistance Force],” according to Chad, Georgia, Rafah, Kosovo, Guinea Lt. Col. Mark Exterkate of the Royal Bissau, and most recently to EU naval Institutional and ﬁscal challenges Netherlands Air Force, writing in assets targeting Somali pirates. However, this political will has been NATO’s Joint Air Power Competence But because of the complexities of undermined by technical and institu- Centre Journal in 2006 of the ISAF op- the technologies involved, the differ- tional obstacles on the ground. So al- eration in Afghanistan the previous ent views by national governments on though Europe’s ISR capabilities, in year. “It was embedded into the Ger- the priority for such assets, and dimin- particular, increased in the early years man Kabul Multi-National Brigade ishing defense budgets, European co- of the last decade, even when they contingent for German force protec- operation in this area has been a chal- were operating in-theater, valuable in- tion purposes and not integrated into lenge. In general, it is only the larger telligence has not always been avail- ISAF’s Command, Control and Com- countries such as France, the U.K., and able to coalition partners. munication infrastructure.” Germany that have identified these in- “Although German land-based According to Adam Sowa, deputy telligence-gathering technologies as a SIGINT was present in the Area of Op- chief executive of the EDA, speaking priority, which has led to further com- erations, the system was not under op- in June 2010, “The problem with EU- plications in sharing the costs of devel- NATO relations [is that it] is, as we all oping pan-European capabilities. know, of a highly political nature. Un- The other major issue is, which is fortunately, it does also affect the rela- the best forum for sharing capabili- Europe’s military surveillance tions between EDA and its NATO ties—there has been a danger of dupli- satellite programs counterparts. The fact is that we can- cating efforts for intelligence gathering France launched its Helios-1 imagery intelligence not exchange information formally. already under way within NATO, the satellites in 1995 and 1999, in cooperation with Clearly, this is hampering work on European Defence Agency, and the Italy and Spain, providing 1-m optical imaging concepts, doctrine, and standards resolution but with no infrared capability. For the WEU, and between individual states. second-generation Helios program, Helios-2, where ‘copy and paste’ should be the Sharing accurate intelligence—espe- which included an infrared capability, France tried line to take and not reinventing the cially in the sensitive areas of SIGINT, to form a partnership with Germany, to no avail. wheel.” human intelligence, and measurement Instead, it partnered with Belgium. Helios-2A, Joint intelligence surveillance and and signature intelligence—is fraught built by EADS-Astrium, was launched in December reconnaissance have been targeted by with political complexities. 2004; Helios-2B was orbited in December 2009. the EDA as a priority for improved But there is considerable political According to CNES, Helios-2 “will operate in EDA and NATO cooperation. But this will to improve intelligence sharing. the visible and infrared portions of the spectrum will require individual European na- The 1998 St. Malo agreement between to deliver imagery to the French military night and tions to rethink their capability priori- France and the U.K. announced a day. France also has an agreement to exchange ties, according to the EDA. “Member some of Helios-2’s optical observing capacity for need for Europe to improve its intelli- future radar observation capacity now under States will have to further reform their gence-gathering capabilities, which development in Germany and Italy, thus affording armed forces,” explained Alexander opened the door to new cooperative it an all-weather imaging capability. Weis, EDA chief executive, in a July agreements within the continent. Enhancements provided by Helios 2 include 2010 speech. “They will have to shift “In order for the European Union significantly improved resolution, more imaging the capability focus even more than in to take decisions and approve military capacity, and faster access to imagery.” the past to areas such as deployability; action where the Alliance as a whole The German and Italian programs referred to particularly strategic and in-theatre is not engaged, the Union must be are Germany’s SAR-Lupe and Italy’s Cosmo-SkyMed transport; intelligence, surveillance and given appropriate structures and a ca- systems. SAR-Lupe comprises a constellation of reconnaissance; force protection, and pacity for analysis of situations, five X-band SAR satellites in three polar orbits command and control.” that became operational in 2008. Cosmo-SkyMed sources of intelligence and a capabil- is a constellation of four satellites with X-band The complexities of developing ity for relevant strategic planning, SAR capabilities. The first satellite was launched strategic cooperative arrangements without unnecessary duplication, tak- in June 2007 and the full constellation was and robust international technology ing account of the existing assets of reported to be operational early this year. programs which, when delayed, will the WEU and the evolution of its rela- France also launched four Essaim (Swarm) withstand fluctuating economic pres- tions with the EU,” ran the words of experimental ELINT satellites in December 2004. sures have made it difficult to develop the agreement. The country plans to launch the first of two pan-European intelligence gathering St. Malo was followed by the 1999 very-high-resolution civil/military observation programs. Cologne agreement to support the satellites called Pleiades at the end of this year, For example, the Multinational EU’s new common foreign and secu- with the second satellite planned for launch in Space-based Imaging System for Sur- mid-2012. rity policy with the development of veillance, Reconnaissance and Obser-

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vation—an international program in- milestone was reached in December cluding France, Italy, Belgium, Greece, 2010 when Northrop Grumman deliv- Germany, and Spain to share imagery ered the first production multiplatform from various military satellites—was radar technologyinsertion program cancelled last May. sensor to Edwards AFB for integration Last June Denmark pulled out of on the initial USAF Block 40 Global AIIAAA the NATO Alliance Ground Surveil- Hawk, one of the key technologies on lance (AGS) program to provide an which AGS will be based. FORMMS ISR capability based on the Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Block 20 Global Transatlantic solutions NEWW EARTTH Hawk that would enable NATO to Where European technology pro- perform persistent surveillance over viders have developed mature ISR, OBBSERVATTIOON wide areas from high-altitude, long- SIGINT, and ELINT technologies, there endurance, unmanned air platforms have been problems in finding a suit- TAASK FFORCEE operating at considerable stand-off able platform. Where a platform has distances and in any weather or light been found, the appropriate European condition. technologies have been lacking. AIAA has created a new The program began in 1995 and As a result, European nations have was originally developed as a broad looked increasingly across the Atlantic task force to assist in the network of manned and unmanned for solutions to their short-term re- formulation of a national platforms—including an Airbus A321— quirements. This year, for example, road map for the U.S. to with both national and shared assets. Germany should take delivery of its However, in November 2007, “due to first Euro Hawk UAV from Northrop address investments in the declining European defense budgets, Grumman equipped with a SIGINT Earth-observing industry NATO chose to move forward with a mission built by EADS. The program is to adequately inform future UAV-only solution based on an off- a transatlantic one—Northrop Grum- climate change debates the-shelf Global Hawk RQ-4B and the man and EADS have established a 50- multiplatform radar technology inser- 50 joint venture company in order to and decisions. Composed tion program (MP-RTIP),” according to pursue it. The political framework for of leading experts on policy NATO. In January 2009, the North At- the program was laid back in May and climate-monitoring lantic Council selected Sigonella Naval 2006, when the German ministry of Air Station in Italy to host the UAVs defense and the U.S. Dept. of Defense technology from within and the ground segment (flight control signed a memorandum of understand- AIAA and in collaboration capabilities and necessary command ing establishing conditions for cooper- with other organizations, and control systems). ation on Euro Hawk. As of early 2011, the program was The U.K.’s Royal Air Force will op- the task force is developing continuing to progress. A key project erate three RC-135V/W Rivet Joint sig- a strategy to come up with recommendations to help The RAF will operate Rivet Joints provided by the USAF.. reach this goal.

For more information, contact Craig Day at 703.264.3849 or [email protected].

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ment, the age of some of the airframes and engines involved makes further delays difficult to contemplate. There will also be a much closer realignment of intelligence gathering and dissemi- nation agreements among NATO, the EU, and individual states. In the meantime, Eu- rope still risks the technology gap between the continent and the U.S. growing if the The Northrop Grumman-built Euro Hawk to be delivered to Germany will be equipped with a SIGINT suite built by EADS. appropriate agreements are nals intelligence aircraft supplied un- ISR, SIGNIT, and ELINT capabilities. not reached soon. der a Foreign Military Sales deal with While some of these countries have Philip Butterworth-Hayes the U.S. government. The aircraft are been able to delay the upgrade of air- Brighton, U.K. based on KC-135 airframes, which borne platforms carrying this equip- [email protected] form part of the USAF tanker fleet. The first copy is to be delivered in 2014. L-3 Communications, which handles airframe and mission-system Events Calendar modifications on the Rivet Joints, will MARCH 5-12 modify, refurbish, and install mission 2011 IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, Mont. systems for the U.K. aircraft. Contact: David Woerner, [email protected]; www.aeroconf.org MARCH 15-16 Looking ahead To meet future intelligence needs, Eu- 2011 AIAA Congressional Visits Day, Washington, D.C. ropean nations will seek to increase Contact: Duane Hyland, 703/264-7558; [email protected] cooperative efforts in new long-term MARCH 21-23 technology programs. The EDA has Ninth Annual U.S. Missile Defense Conference and Exhibit helped pioneer a number of ISR pro- (SECRET/U.S. only), Washington, D.C. grams recently, including the SPACE- Contact: 703/264-7500 BaSAR project2 to research high-reso- MARCH 28-30 lution, wide-area angle-of-coverage 3AF 46th Symposium of Applied Aerodynamics, Orleans, France. research for a next generation of mili- Contact: Anne Venables, [email protected]; www.aaaf.asso.fr tary SAR satellites, and the Tactical Im- agery Exploitation Station study to in- MARCH 29-31 vestigate joint capabilities for tactical Infotech@Aerospace 2011 Conference, St. Louis, Mo. imagery exploitation. A key compo- Contact: 703/264-7500 nent of this will be the development APRIL 4-7 of dual-use satellite imaging concepts, Fifty-second AIAA/ASME/ASCE/AHS/ASC Structures, Structural Dynamics, to help the spread of cost of imple- and Materials Conference; 19th AIAA/ASME/AHS Adaptive Structures menting very-high-resolution imaging Conference; 13th AIAA Nondeterministic Approaches Conferences; techniques. 12th AIAA Gossamer Systems Forum; Seventh AIAA Multidisciplinary As well as developing strategic in- Design Optimization Specialist Conference; including AIAA Dynamics telligence gathering programs, there Specialists Conference. Denver, Colo. will likely be closer collaboration be- Contact: 703/264-7500 tween the armed forces of individual states for tactical surveillance and SIG- APRIL 11-14 NIT/ELINT operations, especially in Seventeenth AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems the coordination of UAV operations. and Technologies Conference, San Francisco, Calif. This will probably mean that smaller Contact: 703/264-7500 European nations will develop more APRIL 13-15 data-sharing agreements with coun- First CEAS Specialist Conference on Guidance, Navigation, and Control, tries such as Spain, France, Italy, Ger- Munich, Germany. many, Sweden, and the U.K. with the Contact: DGLR, +49 228 30 80 5-0; [email protected] appropriate airborne and space-based

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Space, stealth, and Spartans

“WITHMIXEDSIGNALSANDMICRO- Republicans, who managing, Congress is making a mess took control of the of the U.S. space program,” reads an House of Representa- editorial in the January 20 Orlando tives last November Sentinel. Observers of the aerospace in part by promising scene fear that NASA is imprisoned in to rein in spending, a kind of limbo; but the administration are now saying they is as likely as Congress to catch the will seek to trim as heat for what one NASA scientist calls much as $1.4 billion “confusion in terms of projects and from NASA’s budget priorities, and where we’re heading.” before an overdue Across the globe, China was mak- appropriations bill is ing headlines as well, as it introduced passed. A cut this size a new fighter, just when the U.S. sec- would take the retary of defense was paying a visit. agency below FY10 levels and would NASA faces fiscal woes roughly equal the en- Like most of the U.S. government, tire cost of the HLV. NASA has been operating under a Such cuts probably continuing resolution (CR) since Octo- would not survive in ber 1, without an appropriations law the Democratic-con- that covers FY11. But NASA is under trolled Senate, but a greater constraints than other govern- standoff could mean ment agencies. The administration an- that no spending bill nounced it would abandon Constella- The space shuttle Discovery’s final flight was originally scheduled is enacted at all. That, tion, the Bush administration’s for last October. It was on the launch pad when the first of its too, would threaten Moon-Mars program, and develop a problems was detected. the HLV. new rocket for human space explo- Critics in Wash- ration. But Congress—prompted by effect, drive the final nail into Constel- ington see a disconnect between Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), who has lation’s coffin. Meanwhile, NASA has spaceflight goals and hometown jobs, many Constellation jobs in his home had to publicly acknowledge that its with lawmakers focused more on the state—inserted into the FY10 budget a goal of fielding a new heavy-lift latter than the former. Some critics ac- sentence requiring the agency to con- launch vehicle (HLV) by 2016 is now cuse NASA’s administrator, Charles tinue spending on the program. out of reach. Bolden, of not playing a large enough Because the FY10 budget still ap- A NASA document, Preliminary role in representing his agency on plies as long as a CR remains in effect, Report Regarding NASA’s Space Launch Capitol Hill, and even of failing to NASA would be allowed to spend as System and Multi-Purpose Crew Vehi- enunciate a vision for the agency’s much as $215 million on Constellation cle, delivered to Congress on January future. by the end of February, even though 11, asserts that because of budget con- While struggling to look ahead, the program had been offi- straints, a first flight by the NASA workers are also looking toward cially canceled and the term Sen. Richard Shelby HLV “this early” does not the end of the spectacularly successful ‘Constellation’ banished from “realistically appear to be shuttle program. The first of three final the agency’s Washington, possible.” With respect to shuttle flights, the STS-133 mission by D.C., headquarters. a crew vehicle to replace Discovery to the ISS, has experienced Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), the canceled Orion, the significant delays. The mission, as of who will face a difficult re- report says, “none of the this writing, was scheduled for Febru- election campaign next year, design options studied ary 24, to deliver the permanent mul- is introducing legislation to thus far appeared to be af- tipurpose module, an external plat- repeal the 2010 requirement. fordable in our present fis- form that holds large equipment and Nelson’s measure would, in cal conditions.” critical spare components for the sta-

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tion, as well as Robonaut 2, the first human-like robot in space. For the penultimate launch, NASA named Marine Col. Frederick W. ‘Rick’ Sturckow as backup to Navy Capt. Mark Kelly to command the planned April 19 Endeavour STS-134 mission. Kelly’s wife, Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.) was gravely wounded in a Tucson shooting that killed six and in- jured 14. However, after several days of discussion and deliberation, Capt. The prototype of the Chengdu J-XX made its ﬁrst ﬂight on January 11. Kelly decided to carry out his mission. Kelly’s twin brother, Scott, was serving Chinese technology ing and capabilities of the J-XX, al- on the space station as commander at Two high-profile January visits—by though Gates acknowledged that the the time of the shooting. U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates to Chinese “may be somewhat further For the “really, truly very last shut- Beijing and Chinese President Hu Jin- along” than U.S. intelligence previ- tle flight,” as one observer put it—but tao to Washington—have prompted ously believed. with no FY11 budget yet, and hence many in the nation’s capital to take a Several China experts wrote that no way to fund the mission—NASA an- closer look at China’s trade advan- there are no coincidences in that coun- nounced in January that it has set a tages, technological competitiveness, try, dismissing the notion that the tim- target launch date of June 28 for the and aerospace progress. Always the ing of the flight resulted from miscom- shuttle Atlantis to embark on the final beneficiary of a distorted trade bal- munication between Beijing’s civilian mission of the program. The newly ance, China until recently was hugely and military leaders. “The Chinese scheduled Atlantis STS-135 flight, led dependent on the outside world when wanted that plane to fly while Gates by Navy Capt. Christopher Ferguson developing and producing aircraft. was in town,” said a former State Dept. and with a crew of just four, will carry Now, however, the U.S. may be China analyst. the Raffaello multipurpose logistics losing the influence it was able to module, supplies, and spare parts to wield on Chinese activities in the aero- the ISS and return a faulty pump. space field. Already widely seen by the outside world in controlled ‘leaks’ of still Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates shakes hands with Chinese President and Chairman of the Central Military Commission Hu Jintao photography, the proto- at the Hall of the People in Beijing, China, on January. 11. DOD photo type of the Chengdu J- by Master Sgt. Jerry Morrison, USAF. XX or J-20 Black Eagle very-low-observable su- perfighter made its first flight on January 11 dur- Although the C919 has so far been purchased only by domestic carriers, it is expected to do well on ing the secretary’s visit to the world market. China. A Chinese Internet Some defense analysts dismissed source reported that the the J-XX by saying the Chinese super- J-XX “combines the inno- fighter is using heisted U.S. technol- vative harmonization of ogy. China, they wrote, gained access ‘extreme plus’ agility, su- to the U.S. F-117 Nighthawk stealth personic cruise, long fighter that was shot down in Serbia range and persistence, during fighting over Kosovo in 1999. and stealth.” Hu assured But the kind of stealth used by the Gates that the maiden F-117 was entirely different from that flight of the fifth-genera- of the J-XX and F-22. House Armed tion competitor to the F- Services Committee chairman Buck 22 Raptor during his visit McKeon (R-Calif.) charged the Chinese was “coincidence.” Some with copying foreign technology but U.S. officials hastened to said it was Russian rather than U.S. play down both the tim- know-how they had lifted.

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Italian manufacturer Alenia pledged to build an assembly plant in Jack- sonville, Florida. The buy of JCAs has since been cut to 38 aircraft, and the Florida facility is no longer part of the plan. The Air National Guard will operate the planes, the first time guardsmen have flown an aircraft not used by the active-duty force. An operational Guard unit will have just four C-27Js, a total some critics say is too small to justify keeping a squadron in service. Home- town Guard units enjoy tremendous support on Capitol Hill, and many legislators have sought to get C-27Js in their constituencies. A C-27J Spartan Joint Cargo Aircraft waits at the 179th Airlift Wing at Mansﬁeld Lahm Airport in Ohio. The C-27J fleet was grounded at Credit: Ohio ANG/SrA Joseph D. Harwood. the end of December 2010 after main- tainers discovered metal shavings in- The charge that China lacks the pects much time to pass before the side the fuel cells of all eight aircraft engineering and scientific skills to de- company sells C919s overseas. currently in inventory. The on-line velop its own stealth fighter reminded “China’s grand ambitions extend trade journal airforce-magazine.com some observers of a popular myth: literally to the Moon,” wrote Keith reported that officials believe the that Japanese aircraft designer Jiro Richburg in the Washington Post on problem was caused during manufac- Horikoshi had stolen from the U.S. January 23. At the time of Hu’s Wash- ture. Following the grounding, three when he created the incomparable ington trip—again, say observers, there C-27Js at a temporary joint Army/Air Mitsubishi A6M Zero fighter in the late was no coincidence—Chinese news Force training facility at Warner Rob- 1930s. Very much homegrown, the media reported a new program to train ins, Georgia, were returned to flight. Zero outperformed even the best U.S. astronauts, or ‘taikonauts,’ for missions But three at the Guard’s 179th Airlift fighters in the early part of the Pacific to an orbiting Chinese space station Wing at Mansfield Lahm Airport in war. A Communist Party newspaper planned for 2015. China is also ac- Ohio and two aircraft undergoing pre- in China insisted the J-XX is an indige- tively working toward its first manned delivery modifications in Waco, Texas, nous design and quoted test pilot Xu Moon landing. remained grounded while workers Yongling as calling it “a masterpiece waited for spare parts. of China’s technological innovation.” Joint cargo aircraft The commander of the 179th, Col. Long dependent on U.S. and Euro- The Pentagon continues to confront Gary McCue, said in an interview last pean industry in the commercial aero- problems with the C-27J Spartan Joint fall that he was being tasked, paradox- space field, China is now developing Cargo Aircraft (JCA), the twin-turbo- ically, to achieve initial operating ca- its own domestically built large pas- prop airlifter meant to supply troops pability in 2012 but to deploy C-27Js senger jet. The Commercial Aircraft near the front lines by carrying small to Afghanistan this year. McCue and Corporation of China (COMAC) C919 payloads to unprepared airstrips. other officials say they are still plan- will compete head-to-head The JCA, originally ning to take the C-27J to the war zone with the Boeing 737 and Col. Gary McCue known as the Future in March, but the grounding clearly Airbus A320/321—the two Cargo Aircraft, began delayed much-needed training time most successful and nu- as an all-Army program for the Air National Guard crews. merous airliners in the to replace that service Changes in the JCA program have oc- world. The Chinese plane- branch’s fleet of aging curred so rapidly that many of the C- maker announced last No- C-23 Sherpa transports. 27Js now in inventory are still painted vember that it has signed Following interservice in obsolete Army colors. orders to sell more than debate and, ultimately, Robert F. Dorr 100 C919s to three domes- agreement, the Air [email protected] tic carriers—Air China, Force took over the Robert F. Dorr’s book Mission to Berlin, China Southern Airlines, program in 2007. At about B-17 Flying Fortress crews in and China Eastern Airlines. that time, the plan was WW II, will be published this month by No one in Washington ex- to acquire 78 airframes. Zenith Press.

10 AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 10-0527

With New representatives, new goals, and new priorities in Washington, D.C., taking part in the 2011 Congressional Visits Day Program is more important than ever. Come to D.C., and share your passion for aerospace. Let your representatives hear how vital our community is to our national and economic security, and take an active role in helping shape the future of that community. On Wednesday, 16 March, AIAA members will share their passion about aerospace issues on Capitol Hill. Join us as we meet with legislators to discuss the importance of science, engineering, and technology to our national security and prosperity. AIAA Congressional Visits Day 2011

To register for AIAA Congressional Visits Day 2011 please visit www.aiaa.org/events/cvd, or contact Duane Hyland at [email protected] or 703.264.7558 AA-layout-VIEW0111_Layout 1 2/11/11 2:22 PM Page 2

Mapping a course to the asteroids

LAST DECEMBER, TUMBLING SILENTLY To propose a way forward, NASA’s in its endless fall around the Sun, as- Exploration Systems Mission Direc- teroid 2010 JL33 swept to within 8.5 torate (ESMD) has for nearly a year million km of Earth, about 22 times been evaluating possible combina- the Moon’s orbital distance. Discov- tions of technologies, schedules, and ered by the Catalina Sky Survey in budgets that might produce a national Tucson on May 6, 2010, the 1.8-km- capability to reach the asteroids, wide JL33 is one of millions of small Moon, and eventually Mars. HEFT, the asteroids and comets that cruise the Human Exploration Framework Team, inner solar system. During its close ap- issued a status report in January, to be proach, JL33 came within range of the followed by a full report this spring. Goldstone solar system radar, which This 2003-2004 Hubble image of asteroid 1 Ceres The January HEFT results were not bounced a tightly focused radar beam suggests surface material variations on this encouraging, with the NASA team not- off the asteroid. A JPL team recorded a 980-km-wide NEO. Ceres probably has a layered ing that no combination of heavy-lift series of images covering nearly a full, interior of rocky inner core, an icy mantle, and a boosters, deep-space craft, in-space 9-hr rotation of JL33’s impact-scarred thin, dusty outer crust. propulsion, and projected technolo- surface, revealing its irregular topogra- gies enabling beyond-LEO exploration phy, precise orbit, and axis of rotation. could be produced by the 2016 con- Ghostly JPL/Goldstone images re- Budget barriers gressional deadline or within long- veal a prominent impact crater gouged President Obama declared last April term budget projections. At best, NASA from the pebble-shaped asteroid. The that the U.S. would launch an astro- could achieve a solution that satisfied portrait adds to our small but growing naut expedition toward a near-Earth only two of the three specified high- body of knowledge of these ancient, asteroid by 2025. Specifics were few, level constraints, traded among per- enigmatic near-Earth objects (NEOs). however. Now, with the Constellation formance, schedule, or budget. Comprised of near-Earth asteroids program effectively ended by the pres- The agency’s sobering assessment (NEAs) and the much rarer near-Earth ident and Congress, asteroid explora- echoes the Augustine committee’s 2009 comets, they represent a long-term tion appears to be the only long-range conclusion that relatively static funding hazard to Earth, a rich source of scien- human deep-space activity NASA has levels and traditional procurement tific information on the solar system’s approval to pursue. Yet with the FY11 practices would doom Constellation’s formation, and a source of potentially budget still in limbo, and talk circulat- lunar return plans. valuable space materials. And last year ing that NASA’s exploration office will Senators Bill Nelson (D-Fla.) and they rose to prominence in NASA’s soon merge with its space operations Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) re- plans for future human exploration. mission directorate, an ‘asteroid pro- sponded quickly that NASA should get gram’ has yet to take shape. on with producing both the heavy NASA’s Goldstone solar system radar captured Although last October’s authoriza- lifter and Orion. Nelson told Adminis- these images of asteroid 2010 JL33, obtained on tion bill terminated Constellation, re- trator Charles F. Bolden that “he has to December 11 and 12, 2010. The Goldstone and lease of funds to other exploration ac- follow the law, which requires a new Arecibo radars perform important follow-up investigations of NEOs discovered by other tivities, such as NEA missions, awaits rocket by 2016,” adding, “and NASA ground-based facilities. Image courtesy final appropriation action by the Con- has to do it within the budget the law NASA/JPL CalTech. gress. The authorization also directed requires.” The HEFT stated it will con- NASA to develop and fly a heavy-lift tinue to study combinations of vehicle rocket by 2016. Such a booster, based architecture, systems, propulsion, and on shuttle and Constellation heritage, technology that can deliver a human is a key requirement for human explo- deep space exploration capability. ration beyond the space station. The heavy lifter will presumably Asteroid recon carry an Orion spacecraft, but neither If NASA aims for a human NEA capa- the White House nor Congress has ap- bility, it will need much more informa- proved any hardware architecture or tion about possible asteroid destina- schedule for a true deep-space mis- tions. To date, just two spacecraft have sion capability. explored NEAs in detail: NASA’s NEAR-

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Shoemaker probe landed on 433 Eros mation 4.5 billion years ago. in 2001, and Japan’s Hayabusa mission Large asteroids like Ceres and returned a microsample of asteroid Vesta are probably the parent bodies 25143 Itokawa to Earth last June. of many smaller objects fed into the New asteroid data should arrive inner solar system by collisions and this summer from NASA’s Dawn mis- gravitational nudges from massive sion. The ion-driven Dawn spacecraft Jupiter. NEAs are objects whose peri- will visit the two most massive ‘proto- helion distances are less than 1.3 AU; planets’ in the main asteroid belt be- a subset with Earth-approaching orbits NASA’s Dawn will orbit around asteroid 4 Vesta, tween Mars and Jupiter, the source of are potential targets for robotic and then depart for a rendezvous with 1 Ceres. the Earth-approaching population. The human exploration. spacecraft will thrust into orbit around Both NASA’s Science Mission Di- asteroid 4 Vesta this August, map its rectorate (SMD) and ESMD may pur- albedo (about 5% reflectivity) makes surface in detail, then depart for a ren- sue missions to NEAs in the coming them difficult to study from Earth, and dezvous with the largest asteroid, 1 decade, to learn more about their var- spacecraft have provided only distant Ceres, in February 2015. ied properties, compositions, and ori- glimpses of two main belt C-types. Spectroscopic observations and gins. NASA is studying the Osiris Re- The Amor spacecraft is designed to meteorite studies suggest that 580-km- golith Explorer, aimed at returning a study this enigmatic C-type system at wide Vesta is a dry, differentiated 150-g sample from the volatile-rich extremely close range, taking science body surfaced with lava flows. Mineral NEA 1999 RQ36. JAXA’s Hayabusa II to the surface. composition varies across Vesta’s sur- sample return mission, just approved, Amor will launch aboard an Atlas face, suggesting interior layers are ex- will complement NASA efforts. V booster in January 2017 to begin its posed; an apparent impact crater 460 I serve as principal investigator on nearly five-year journey to SN263. Fol- km in diameter lies near the south a new NEA mission concept called lowing an Earth gravity assist and sev- pole. Fragments excavated by that im- Amor, currently under evaluation for eral asteroid flybys, the spacecraft ar- pact may have arrived on Earth in the NASA’s Discovery robotic exploration rives at the triple system in November form of once-molten igneous mete- program. The Amor mission is de- 2021. Eight months of detailed study orites called HED achondrites. Dawn’s signed to address NASA’s solar system follow, including high-resolution map- orbital survey should yield clues about science priorities and obtain physical ping and landings on at least two of what heat source and style of volcan- measurements vital to human explo- the asteroid components. Amor will ism produced these impact-welded as- ration plans and future efforts to de- return answers to questions high on semblages of lavas. flect a rogue asteroid. NASA’s list of science priorities: Ceres, some 980 km across and Amor will rendezvous with, land •What are C-type asteroids? only slightly farther from the Sun than on, and explore a remarkable triple •Are these asteroids truly linked to Vesta, appears radically different. Its asteroid system. The C-type (carbona- the primitive, carbonaceous chondrite surface exhibits the spectroscopic sig- ceous) NEA 2001 SN263 is accompa- meteorites? nature of water-bearing clays. Ceres’ nied by two small moonlets. The pri- •Are C-types truly rich in water and north pole may host a thin cap of wa- mary object, Alpha, is 2.8 km wide. organic compounds? ter frost, fed from a subsurface reser- Satellites Beta and Gamma are 1.1 and •How do multiple asteroid systems voir of ice incorporated during its for- 0.4 km across, respectively. Beta is out- form? ermost, its orbit around Alpha span- •How could we avert an impact ning some 30-35 km. from a C-type NEA? The SN263 system’s elliptical orbit •What resources do C-types offer to circles the Sun once every 2.8 years, future human exploration? inclined about 7 deg from the ecliptic. As it stationkeeps with the SN263 The orbit crosses that of Mars and system, Amor will use the NEOCam swings deep into the main asteroid color imager to map the three compo- belt. At its inward reach, the system nents, develop a detailed shape model comes as close as 0.06 AU to Earth. of each body, and choose landing sites Ground-based spectra classify SN- on Alpha and one of the two satellites. 263 as a C-type asteroid, the dominant After several practice approaches en- The Sioux City eucrite meteorite, an amalgam of pulverized silicate fragments and dark basalt type in the main belt; the C-types are abling a detailed look at the landing lava, is linked to melting, differentiation, and thought to be volatile and organic-rich terrain, Amor will maneuver onto a tra- impact processes experienced on Vesta. Image objects relatively unaltered since for- jectory that matches asteroid rotation courtesy Arizona State University, J. Kurtzmen. mation 4.5 billion years ago. Their low (Continued on page 17)

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MPAs: Statements of global power

INTHE U.S. ANDELSEWHERE, THE procurement hiatus and a fixed-wing maritime patrol aircraft badly aging P-3 fleet. But (MPA) market has recently made a Boeing’s P-8 Poseidon, comeback. Spurred by the availability chosen in June 2004 as the of new equipment and a growing P-3’s second replacement awareness of MPA utility in projecting under the MMA (Multimis- force in contested waters, the market sion Maritime Aircraft) pro- has returned to life. Until India’s early gram, has had a relatively 2009 P-8 buy, the high-end MPA mar- successful development. P3 ket had seen no new orders in almost The P-8 made its first flight two decades. in April 2009; the first test Yet while the P-8 represents a new plane arrived at Patuxent catalyst for market growth, the two River in April 2010. Emerging powers biggest markets outside the U.S. have Current plans call for the Navy to The P-8 program received a major taken widely divergent paths. And purchase 117 P-8As, to be used for boost in December 2008, when the In- China’s minimal MPA force represents ASW, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, dian navy placed the first export or- the biggest mystery on the market. surveillance, and reconnaissance mis- der—eight P-8s for delivery by 2016. sions. Initial operational capability is Cost of the deal was estimated at $2.13 The U.S. ﬁnally gets it right planned for 2013. billion. In December 2010, Boeing be- During the Cold War, the U.S. Navy Notably, the Navy’s MMA Analysis gan fabricating parts for the first In- acknowledged that Lockheed Martin’s of Alternatives clearly ruled out a UAV- dian P-8. P-3 Orion was indeed the optimal based approach; however, it did state After the P-8 order established In- MPA design. In fact, the long-range air that UAVs should be part of a long- dia’s intention to create a robust MPA anti-submarine warfare (ASW)-capa- term MMA architecture. This has led to force, the country abandoned plans to ble aircraft P-3 replacement program the BAMS (Broad Area Maritime Sur- buy a select adjunct force of small tur- resulted in Lockheed’s P-7, which, in veillance) effort, a P-8 adjunct. North- boprop MPAs. Instead, in October effect, was a rejuvenated P-3. Unfor- rop Grumman’s Global Hawk won 2010 the country announced plans to tunately, serious technical problems this contract in April 2008. The first buy four more P-8s. Clearly, India has and the end of the Cold War resulted two BAMS test aircraft and a ground made blue water MPA capability a key in a decision to cancel the P-7 in July station will be delivered in 2012. The part of its strategic ambitions. of 1990. Navy has plans to procure about 40 This led to a multidecade MPA aircraft. Y-8X

P-8

In contrast with India’s blue water MPA ambitions, China, Asia’s other key emerging power, fields a remarkably small fixed-wing patrol force. The People’s Liberation Army Naval Air Force (PLANAF) uses the Shaanxi Y-8X MPA (X is for Xun—surveillance). A Chinese copy of the Soviet/Russian Antonov An-12 transport, the Y-8 is a four-turboprop design. In its MPA in-

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carnation it is unarmed, but carries a capable array of avionics and sensors. Sh-5 Some of this equipment is Western, including a Litton Canada AN/APS-504 search radar. It has been in service with the PLANAF since 1985. The PLANAF also uses the Harbin SH-5 maritime bomber, an amphibious design capable of ASW and search and rescue operations. It, too, has been in service for about 25 years. 3s and P-3 variants, with most of these program, and there is no denying that China’s only other MPA is Harbin’s Y- still in service with the JMSDF. this is a very ambitious effort. Not only 12, a small twin turboprop with mini- As a follow-on to the P-3, the is it one of the largest aircraft ever mal sensors and no weaponry. It is JMSDF plans to procure Kawasaki’s built in Japan, but it also has a high primarily used for observation duties. P-1 (formerly P-X), a four-engine jet level of concurrency, with all-new en- China’s MPA fleet has received re- using new Ishikawajima-Harima F7-10 gines and a new mission control sys- markably scant resources. The two engines and a Japanese mission con- tem being developed alongside an all- primary fixed-wing aircraft have cer- trol system. Kawasaki Heavy Indus- new airframe. There are a number of tainly been in service long enough to tries was selected to lead the program technologically advanced new fea- be described as ‘mature’ systems, yet in December 2001, and the airplane tures being developed for the plane, just a handful have been deployed. made its first flight in September 2007, including a Toshiba active electron- Just four Y-8s and another four SH-5s with flight tests scheduled through ically scanned array radar and a fly-by- constitute the entire MPA fleet, and 2015. The Japanese military wants to light control system, the first such con- one of the SH-5s has been fitted as an buy 80 P-1s, plus 40 C-2s (formerly trol system for a production aircraft. aerial firefighter. C-Xs), a Kawasaki-built transport air- All of this adds a great deal of techni- There are also no new Chinese plane that will be designed with some cal risk to the program. MPA programs currently in develop- commonality with the P-1. Develop- Still, the FY11 Japan defense ment. While there have been rumors ment costs are estimated at $3 billion budget provides ¥5.5 billion for three over the past decade of a PLANAF in 2007 dollars. P-1s, up from the one aircraft funded deal to buy 20 Beriev Be-200 amphibi- in FY10. That first plane is scheduled ous jets for search and rescue duties, to be delivered in March 2012. P-1 nothing firm has materialized. Fewer Japan’s FY11 budget also calls for than 10 Be-200s have been built since a life extension program for the cur- the type made its first flight in Septem- rent P-3 fleet, with ¥600 million in ber 1998. funding for the first aircraft modifica- In short, for all the chatter about tion. This reflects a commitment to China’s intentions to become a serious maintaining a strong MPA fleet, as well maritime power, there is no evidence as a hedge against a P-1 program fail- of this in its MPA force. The 2001 ure or any program delays. Since the Hainan Island incident, which saw the Four XP-1 test aircraft were built Japanese constitution prohibits de- collision between a U.S. EP-3 surveil- through late 2009, with another two fense exports, all P-1 program ex- lance plane flying near several key built in 2010. There has been a relative penses will be borne by the Japanese Chinese military bases and a Chinese absence of news about the flight test government. fighter jet highlighted a significant dif- ference between the two countries in terms of global reach. Notably, South Nimrod Korea and Taiwan both field P-3C fleets that are considerably more capable than China’s MPAs.

Japan goes it alone The Japan Maritime Self-Defense Force (JMSDF) is historically the second largest MPA fleet operator, after the U.S. The country procured 110 P-

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The U.K.’s shortfall By contrast with Japan’s decision to prioritize maritime patrol, the U.K., historically the third biggest MPA market, has basically announced plans to eliminate its fixed-wing MPA force. There is considerable uncertainty sur- rounding this move, and no way of telling whether it represents a permanent decision or merely a temporary deferral of fleet recapitalization needs. In October, the U.K.’s Strategic De- fence and Security Review (SDSR) killed the Nimrod MRA4 MPA project. This rather extraordinary decision capped a long and unpleasant effort to ATR-72 develop a follow-on to the original Nimrod MPA, which had served in the Royal Air Force since the late 1960s. BAE Systems won this contract in alternative for the MPA future force. 7000 program, with likely procure- July 1996 with its Nimrod 2000 design, SDSR also scrapped the RAF’s airborne ment of 8-9 P-8s. Canada, too, will using new Rolls-Royce engines, new stand-off radar (ASTOR) force, a fleet likely replace its P-3s with P-8s. Italy systems, and a new Boeing-designed of five Bombardier Global Express has also expressed strong interest in a mission control system. This locally business jets used for surveillance. P-8 acquisition, but budget cuts mean created alternative won against a new Since these had just entered service in this will likely need to wait a few version of Lockheed’s P-3. The U.K. June 2007, the clear implication has years, at least. planned to remanufacture 21 older been that intelligence and surveillance For countries without an Atlan- Nimrods to this modern configuration, aircraft of all kinds will receive a very tique or a P-8, there are many less ca- designated MRA4. low priority in the U.K. budget. pable choices. UAVs and adaptations Due to problems with the existing of twin turboprop aircraft and smaller airframes and the need to maintain Other markets, other possibilities regional jets (such as Embraer’s ERJ commonality, this quickly became a Most other countries have a more co- 145) have a strong utility for adjunct largely new-build program. By the herent vision for their MPA fleet fu- MPA duties, such as search and res- time the SDSR killed it, the MRA4 was ture. For example, France has an- cue, fisheries protection, and maritime 10 years late. Also, there was about nounced a new upgrade program for zone surveillance. They are also useful $1.5 billion in projected cost overruns, its fleet of Dassault Atlantique 2 MPAs, for operations in the shallower coastal and the procurement objective had and a plan to procure a force of Das- regions that do not need the deep wa- been slashed to just nine production sault Falcon 2000 business jets modi- ter sensors and long range of a P-8 or aircraft, plus three prototypes. fied for MPA duties as an adjunct its equivalent. And of course they are Immediately after the SDSR deci- force. Since the SDSR was announced useful for countries that cannot afford sion, the existing MRA4s were de- in conjunction with a U.K. govern- a high-end blue water MPA fleet. In stroyed, removing any hope of a re- ment plan to cooperate on certain de- late 2008 the Italian government ap- versal. Also, the decision was not fense missions and roles with France proved the purchase of four firm and accompanied by any discussion of an as an austerity measure, it is conceiv- one option ATR 72 MPAs. These might able that the Atlantique/Falcon force be an interim force until funds be- may become a shared fleet. come available for the P-8, or they The other key MPA mar- might become an adjunct force. Atlantique kets will likely wind up But because of the MPA4 cancella- procuring P-8s. Even New tion, we cannot rule out the prospect Zealand, a small power but of the U.K. winding up with a force of one with a key maritime these smaller planes. Compared with role, has discussed procure- the Royal Navy and RAF’s historically ment of four P-8s, and the strong naval presence, that would be country is upgrading its the saddest MPA market change of all. present P-3C fleet. Australia Richard Aboulaﬁa is leaning toward a P-8/ Teal Group BAMS solution under its AIR raboulaﬁ[email protected]

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Asteroids (Continued from page 13) in personal spacecraft whose handling qualities had been checked out years and brings the spacecraft to a point earlier at the ISS. just 10 m above the surface. The 3- These ‘multimission exploration axis-stabilized vehicle, built by Orbital vehicles,’ or MMEVs, would ease the Sciences, then free falls to the surface jobs of surface anchoring and asteroid under the few micro-gs of local gravi- sampling. Should science require- tational acceleration. Lockheed Martin’s Plymouth Rock mission concept ments or problems on the surface de- Once on the surface, held fast by a would use a pair of Orion spacecraft to take an mand it, astronauts could conduct set of auger-like anchors, Amor begins astronaut crew to a nearby asteroid. The vehicle space-suited EVAs, but mobility, pro- a week of intensive surface investiga- would support a crew for about 6 months, ductivity, and reduced fatigue favor including a two-week exploration phase at the tion. Operations and science teams at asteroid. Image courtesy Lockheed Martin. use of the MMEV, with its shirt-sleeve NASA Ames deploy both the NEONS environment and stationkeeping auto- (neo spectrometer package) for major require more crew consumables and pilot. ESMD has been studying MMEV element composition and the CHAMP habitation space than sortie-class lunar concepts derived from work on its lu- (camera hand-lens and microscopic missions lasting just a few weeks. A nar electric rover. probe) macro/microscopic imager. hab module, either derived from ISS During a two-week exploration The articulating, 2-m-long robot arm experience or a TransHab-style inflat- phase, the MMEVs should enable carries CHAMP into close contact with able design, would be added to pro- more wide-ranging, sustained surface the surface to characterize surface pulsion and crew reentry modules as- investigations than spacesuits alone. A mineral texture and structure down to sembled in LEO or at a Lagrange point. major activity would be physical prop- submillimeter scales. CHAMP’s strobe- Together the reentry, propulsion, and erties measurements aimed at devel- lit color images, along with bulk ele- hab components would form a space- oping deflection techniques. After mental composition from NEONS, will craft capable of multimonth asteroid stowing NEA samples totaling tens of test the suspected link between the C- expeditions. kilograms aboard the reentry vehicle, type surface and carbonaceous chon- A few known asteroids offer and deploying science packages and drite meteorites. If confirmed, the link round-trip delta-V requirements equal resource extraction demonstrators, the will enable us to use terrestrial mete- to or less than a lunar expedition, but crew would prepare the cruise vehicle orite samples to assess the mineralogy, propulsion for a crewed NEA mission for Earth return. thermal history, and practical re- might call for refueling from an orbital sources of C-type asteroids. depot or multiple propellant tank Sustained exploration launches. Minimizing required propel- After a multimonth cruise to Earth, the Astronauts to asteroids lant costs creates a large incentive to astronauts would undock their reentry Missions like Amor, Hayabusa II, and start a thorough search for accessible module for a direct entry into the at- others would scout the properties of a asteroids as soon as possible. mosphere, while the deep space vehi- variety of NEAs and assess techniques Last fall, a NASA Advisory Council cle maneuvers into a high Earth orbit for proximity operations, resource task force on planetary defense recom- for refueling and refurbishment. This prospecting, and anchoring to varied mended that NASA launch a space- concept preserves the hab, personal asteroid surfaces. A series of robotic based search telescope into a Venus- exploration craft, and propulsion missions over a decade should be suf- like orbit to catalog NEOs. The modules for reuse. Later asteroid ex- ficient to inform the details of an as- hundreds of thousands of asteroids plorers might return with their cruise tronaut expedition. Constellation pro- and comets discovered would greatly vehicle to a Lagrange point, transfer- gram studies and industry concepts aid NASA’s science, exploration, and ring with their samples to a waiting like Lockheed Martin’s Plymouth Rock planetary defense programs. reentry transport. have outlined how an early NEO mis- Although more costly initially than sion might be conducted. Encounter a minimalist approach using, for ex- A piloted asteroid mission capabil- The hab module would house con- ample, coupled Orion spacecraft, re- ity would have at its core a heavy sumables, radiation shielding, exercise usable exploration vehicles can be launch system and a beyond-LEO gear, and docking ports for EVA suits adapted for repeated use throughout spacecraft (Orion). Following a flexi- or small exploration craft. Following the Earth-Moon system, to nearby as- ble path toward deep space, NASA Earth departure and several months of teroids, and eventually to the Martian could add the hardware components cruise, a three- or four-person crew moons. Addition of a lander for lunar needed to enable visits to asteroids, would rendezvous with the chosen as- surface sorties or descent to Mars itself Lagrange points, or the Moon’s sur- teroid, already scouted by a robotic is a natural evolution of this sustained face, depending on national priorities. explorer. Following a few days of sur- approach to exploring deep space. Asteroid missions could do with- face reconnaissance using a small tele- Thomas D. Jones out the expensive lander or habitats operated probe, a pair of astronauts [email protected] sited on the lunar surface, but they do would translate to the asteroid surface www.AstronautTomJones.com

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ICESat 2: Laser eyes on Earth’s changing ice

WHEN CLIMATE SCIENTISTS BEGAN US- Accomplishing the required passes 2009 and reentering the atmosphere in ing the laser-equipped ICESat space- turned out to be harder than ex- August 2010. ICESat depicted the sub- craft to measure the thickness of the pected. The first ICESat laser fizzled in sidence and uplift that occurs when Earth’s ice sheets in 2003, they en- just 37 days because of what engi- water flows beneath glaciers, and it countered a series of technical and sci- neers suspect was electronic erosion measured sea ice freeboard, the dis- entific problems. Engineers hope to caused by solder. Because ICESat’s tance between the surface of the ice overcome these by shifting to a com- goal was to look for changes over and the water. pletely new design for ICESat 2. time, NASA was forced to conserve That mission is now in its defini- ICESat’s laser power by turning the in- Fresh start tion phase for a January 2016 launch strument on just three times a year— At an instrument science requirements and is one of NASA’s top Earth science typically February, June, and October. review in December 2010, NASA engi- priorities. The device was operated on 33-day neers finalized the basic outline of ICESat was equipped with three collection campaigns and at lower their plan to avoid the pitfalls encoun- lasers that were turned on in succes- temperatures to slow the erosion. tered during the first ICESat effort. Just sion as each wore out. Forty times a “We had to collect five years of about everything will be different on second, ICESat bounced lasers off the data to get good solutions,” laments the follow-on mission, from the fre- ice, received the reflections through its NASA glaciologist Jay Zwally, who quency of the laser signals to the num- telescope, and used the transit time to came up with the basic concept be- ber of beams. calculate the height of ice sheets in hind ICESat in the 1980s. Even with its “We’re using a completely different Greenland, the Arctic, and Antarctica. shortcomings, ICESat delivered valu- kind of laser,” says NASA Goddard Formally known as the Ice, able data before losing laser power in systems engineer Tony Martino, the Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite, it took atmo- ICESat data swath over Antarctica shows ice sheet elevation and clouds. spheric readings and studied forests. But its primary mission was to help determine whether the planet is in fact losing ice due to global warming, information that could improve predictions of sea level rise. With ICESat, scientists knew that they would need about 12 passes over a location to assure themselves they were measuring actual changes caused by melting or accumulating ice. Ice sheets are often sloped, and when the lasers landed a few meters uphill or down- hill on subsequent passes— as is inevitable when a laser is pointed earthward from 600 km in orbit—readings could look like changes in thickness. The only way to subtract the changes would be to determine the slope first by making multiple passes.

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architect for ICESat 2’s advanced topo- path and track along the surface like a ICESat 2, engineers plan to capitalize graphic laser altimeter system, or AT- push broom. Originally, the scientists on improvements made in the tele- LAS. “The big challenge is, we’ve never wanted 16 beams, but in 2009 they re- communications industry, which uses flown an instrument like this in space duced the number to nine, then to six diodes to help transmit data through before,” he says. last year. “In order to get cost down, fiber optic cables. “The telecommuni- The original ICESat made altimetry we had to do a number of descopes, cations industry is helping out here measurements by transmitting pulses and that was one of them—reducing because they have developed highly of laser energy 40 times a second in a the number of beams,” Neumann says. reliable pump modules that have es- single beam, with a power of 75 mJ The mission’s $650-million target sentially zero failure rate in the field,” for each pulse. For ICESat 2, engineers cost includes three years of operation. Yu says. “The workmanship and qual- plan to transmit not one but six It far exceeds the $300-million “rough ity are much better.” beams. The pulses will be rapid-fire, cost estimate” envisioned for ICESat 2 Engineers also think they have a bouncing off Earth at a rate of 10,000/ in 2007 by NASA’s first decadal survey solution to a separate problem that sec, which is what makes the effort of Earth science priorities. “The deca- cropped up when scientists began unique for a space mission, Martino dal survey numbers were a challenge running ICESat’s second laser. The en- says. To make the overall power de- to a lot of folks because they didn’t in- gineers suspect this laser lost power mands achievable, the pulses will be clude things like launch vehicle costs, rapidly, because hydrocarbons in ad- 1,000 times weaker than ICESat’s al- which are large and growing,” he adds. hesives vaporized in the vacuum of timetry pulses, creating a need for Even with the six-beam compro- space and accumulated on the laser highly sensitive detectors in the craft’s mise, scientists expect ICESat 2 to de- crystal, darkening it. telescope. Three of the six beams will liver more and better readings. With On ICESat 2, “that module is going have an energy of 150 µJ per pulse, the original satellite, measuring the to be pressurized with clean, dry air to and the others about a quarter of that slope of an area took years, but “with mitigate that problem,” Yu says. energy, “with the exact value to be de- ICESat 2, we’ll be able to measure the termined,” he says . slope on each pass,” says Neumann. New challenges Engineers are banking that send- Scientists would be able to devote The decision to turn to a rapid-rate, ing thousands of lower energy pulses more time to looking for changes in low-energy approach solves some en- every second will be less taxing on the ice cover. gineering issues but creates others. On laser system than sending dozens of “We are hoping from this ap- ICESat 2, the detectors that receive the more powerful ones. proach we can take care of the prob- reflected energy via the spacecraft’s “Since there’s less stress on the lems on ICESat,” adds laser physicist telescope must be extremely sensitive components, these lasers should last Anthony Yu, a member of the laser because of the low energy. longer,” explains Tom Neumann, the team at Goddard. The problem is, the most sensitive ICESat 2 deputy project scientist. detector materials are designed for the Although the measurement ap- Technical solutions green portion of the spectrum, but proach is new for a space instrument, As for workmanship issues, NASA en- laser light is easiest to generate in the the technologies behind it are not con- gineers plan to build the instrument infrared. “You end up with this mis- sidered to be particularly risky. “There themselves with lasers procured com- match between what the lasers are is very little that is incredibly new,” mercially. In the case of ICESat, inves- good at and what the detectors are says Matthew McGill, the principal in- tigators concluded that excessive in- good at,” Neumann explains. vestigator for the ICESat 2’s ATLAS in- dium solder was used to attach the The solution will be to generate strument. Using all the components laser’s heat sink, the device that was infrared laser energy but use a set of together may be new (or not),” he supposed to protect the laser electron- optics called a frequency doubler that adds by e-mail. He says the Dept. of ics by absorbing excess heat. The in- will shift the 1,064-nm IR wavelengths Defense has used the approach. dium caused a metallurgic reaction to higher frequency 532-nm green that eroded the gold wires that fed wavelengths. The first ICESat space- Multiple beams current to the laser diodes. Those craft’s signals were strong enough that Primarily, the switch to six beams is diodes were critical, because they engineers had the luxury of making meant to improve the science read- pumped energy to the laser source the altimetry readings in the infrared. ings. When a new measurement lands known as yttrium aluminum garnet, or The main purpose of that satellite’s from a single beam, “you don’t know YAG. After the first laser failed, engi- frequency doubler was to create green whether it’s because you hit a differ- neers theorized that the gold would light for atmospheric measurements, ent place, or whether the ice has erode faster at higher temperatures, so Yu says. grown or shrunk,” Martino says. ICESat managers lowered the operat- With 10,000 pulses arriving at the In the new approach, six beams ing temperature. detectors every second, the detector will land perpendicular to the orbital To avoid something like that on material will have little time for elec-

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tromagnetic recovery be- ity. “We’re looking at a tween pulses. The light ar- smaller spot,” a 10-m foot- rives so quickly that ICESat print compared to 70 m 2 must measure the transit for the original ICESat, “so time of individual photons. adjustment is more critical By contrast, the original for us,” Martino says. ICESat received lots of photons measured as voltage. Looking ahead “The detection system To test ICESat 2’s multi- gets a little more compli- beam concept, NASA has cated because we’re re- put together an airborne sponding to individual pho- instrument called the mul- tons rather than the higher tiple altimeter beam ex- light levels,” Martino says. perimental lidar, or MA- The bottom line is that ICE- BEL. It is not a prototype Sat 2 will require detectors of ICESat 2, Martino cau- that are “sensitive, with a tions, but “it’s going to be short dead time. That was Mike Kapitzke, ER-2 lead engineer, inspects the MABEL installation in preparation very useful for characteriz- most of the trade right there.” for the initial ﬂight. ing what the surface and The rapid-fire speed-of-light pulses have 40 pulses in flight at any given atmosphere look like when we’re us- also create a data-handling issue for time. So you have to keep track of that ing this technique.” the instrument’s processor. “Because many.” This will be a major hardware In December, NASA installed the of the 4-msec transit time, you will and software challenge. “It’s not like instrument in the nose of its high-fly- it’s intrinsically hard, but it is new,” ing ER-2 and flew it over five targets in Martino says. the Southwest to collect elevation data As for the multiple beams, the ba- similar to what they expect to receive sic approach is nothing new for a from ICESat 2. space instrument. The Lunar Recon- With the instrument science review naissance Orbiter is equipped with a behind them and the MABEL flights five-beam instrument called the lunar under way, ICESat 2 engineers have orbiter laser altimeter, or LOLA, whose plenty of work ahead. Size, power, data are turned into 3D maps of the and mass are extremely important on Moon. A single beam is transmitted any satellite, but at the moment, engi- through a diffractive optical element neers do not know how big to make consisting of a flat piece of glass with ICESat 2 because they do not yet a hologram. The hologram divides the know which rocket will launch the light into separate beams. satellite. “We have made some alloca- LOLA is far from a precursor to tions, but they’re somewhat arbitrary ICESat 2, however. It sends pulses 28 because we don’t have a launch vehi- times a second, each with an energy cle,” Martino says. of 3 mJ. Engineers also do not have to Few Delta 2 rockets are left in the cope with atmospheric distortions. inventory, and NASA’s satellite builders A more accurate pointing mecha- do not yet have permission from the nism for the laser was not considered agency to consider a SpaceX Falcon 9 a viable option. The original ICESat or an Orbital Sciences Taurus 2. Atlas- had a 30-m control accuracy, and so class rockets would be too large to will ICESat 2. That is about the best launch ICESat 2 alone, so engineers that can be done for a reasonable cost, are discussing the possibility of Yu says. Martino cautions that control launching it into orbit in tandem with accuracy is not the same as knowing another satellite. where the laser landed. The knowl- Scientists expect today’s engineer- edge accuracy will be about 6 m for ing work to pay off in the years after ICESat 2, he says. 2016. “With ICESat 2, knock on wood, One planned improvement will be all will go well, and we’ll run it contin- the ability to adjust the direction of the uously. We won’t turn it off for half the outgoing beam after launch to ensure year,” says Neumann. the telescope catches the reflected Ben Iannotta light. ICESat did not have that capabil- [email protected]

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Roundup 2011

oday, companies in nations most quickly attainable, affordable, most around the globe are building— versatile, able to use an integrated ground or at least designing—some type control station (one that can control multi- of UAV, both for their own mili- ple UAVs and/or types of aircraft), and able taries and for a fast-growing to be easily integrated into a multiservice, Tworldwide market. Their many benefits— multination networked battlespace. multiple suppliers, relatively low cost, and The past two decades have seen almost demonstrated abilities for widely varying every conceivable type of craft and propul- applications (persistent ISR, command and sion system thrown into the air in hopes of control, communications relay, and ‘hunter- being ordered. UAVs have gained enough killer’)—have made most nations eager to technological maturity and user acceptance add UAVs to their military fleets. to move from revolutionary concept to evo- lutionary development. Technology This is not to say that DARPA and its Operational experience and tighter defense counterparts around the world will not con- budgets have reduced warfighter and ser- tinue to push the envelope on every aspect vice chief wish lists to what is most needed, of UAVs—materials, shape, propulsion sys-

Because UAVs are inexpensive, easy to maintain and, most important, eliminate risk to human pilots, they are now on the wish lists of many nations. Although many countries are building their own systems or seeking such capability, some find it more eﬃcient to buy UAVs from the world's leading manufacturers. Either way, the growth in sales of these aircraft is projected to continue at a brisk pace worldwide.

J.R. Wilson Contributing writer

tems, sensors, artificial intelligence, scalable Designated UCAV projects now include lethality (including the ability to change in the Northrop Grumman/USN X-47B naval mid-mission), guidance, operating environ- unmanned combat air system, which made ment), and size. its first test flight on February 4, BAE Sys- The past two years, for example, have tems/U.K. Taranis, the six-nation European seen new efforts in the development of un- nEUROn, Russia’s MiG Skat, and multiple manned helicopters. These aim at meeting (but unverified) Chinese programs. a Marine Corps requirement for a system to Interest in UCAVs has grown as the resupply forward units (especially with wa- likelihood of a non-U.S. near-term fifth-gen- ter) while relieving manned rotorcraft for eration manned fighter remains remote, de- other missions, without increasing the despite Russian and Chinese claims to be on mand on—and dangers to—ground convoys. the verge of producing such aircraft. A fleet At the same time, the MQ-1 Predator has of UCAVs would be far easier—and less ex- seen its last procurement, with future acqui- pensive—to acquire. But they also have sition going to the MQ-9 Reaper. It has a grown more important to the U.S., espe- strong Predator lineage (it was once called cially given predictions the combined U.S. Predator B), but was designed from scratch air fleet will fall short of requirements be- to be a true hunter-killer, using an ex- cause of delays in the F-35 and a signifi- panded weapons set and advanced sensors. cantly reduced buy of F-22s. The Navy, for Some consider the Reaper the first true example, sees UCAVs as a way to put more UCAV (unmanned combat air vehicle), be- strike aircraft with longer range and en- cause its size, flight envelope, and weapons durance to sea in less time. capability—including GPS-guided joint direct attack munitions, Paveway laser-guided Manufacturers bombs, and Sidewinder air-to-air/air-to- The numbers in the accompanying chart ground missiles—give it precision-strike and have changed significantly with each bien- ground-support capabilities far exceeding nial edition. The last one, in 2009, showed those of the Predator. far more companies in far more countries

MQ-9 Reaper (USAF photo by Tech. Sgt. Efren Lopez.)

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on the legitimate major players, both nations and companies These will be UAVs built for their own militaries, for allies and alliances, and for general sale. It also will include as much information as possible on ‘black’ programs— the DARPA-level efforts that continue the UAV revolution. In some cases, little more than a name is known—and, often, even that may not be real. In this category, special care has been taken to verify, validate, and confirm the information presented. We will also look at end users—nations that plan to buy and use one or more types of UAV, or have already done so, rather than attempting to develop an indigenous The X-47B is expected to manufacturing capability. Even the most demonstrate carrier-based working on many more UAVs than did its prolific manufacturers fall into this category, launches and landings in the predecessor. as do some nations that have sufficiently 2013 timeframe. But it also reflected the beginning of a advanced infrastructure to develop their consolidation of design and development own UAVs but have decided not to ‘reinvent efforts, a new concentration on specific the wheel,’ instead spending their scarce de- mission types and capabilities, and a falling fense R&D funds on other projects. away of those ‘manufacturers’ who were of- Even so, the Teal Group’s 2010 UAV fering little more than remote-controlled market study predicts a worldwide demand hobby airplanes carrying new small cam- of more than $80 billion for UAVs and re- eras and data transmission systems based lated systems through the coming decade, on commercial technology (primarily ad- with expenditures more than doubling from vances in smartphones). a current worldwide level of about $4.9 bil- That consolidation has continued, at all lion per annum to more than $11.5 billion. levels. And although this report reveals as And despite increasing global interest in the much information as we could gather—sur- technology, the report also predicts the U.S. prisingly little in response to direct requests will be responsible for 76% of all RDT&E to more than 500 companies, universities, spending on UAV technology and about labs, and so on—the discussion will focus 58% of all procurement through 2020.

Boeing took the basic design While Israel was the first to send UAVs of the X-45A and B to produce into situations where it was unwise to risk the X-45C Phantom Ray. a human pilot, the U.S. has become—after a decidedly slow and reluctant start—the most prolific developer, producer, and user of UAVs of all types and sizes. Although budget constraints have sent some early concepts back to the drawing board and many companies have dropped away, the number of manufacturers and UAVs remains high. Perhaps more important for the future is the continued growth in academic involvement, not only in train- most public of those—and black programs ing the next generation of scientists and en- in this area are a given—is the X-47B. Boe- gineers, but also in pushing the envelope ing and Lockheed Martin also continue to on such areas as nano- and pico-UAVs. pursue the technology, while companies One area that has progressed far more such as Predator/Reaper prime contractor slowly than some had expected is UCAV General Atomics can be expected to build programs, although RDT&E continues. The on existing hunter-killer platforms.

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While the USAF has an official lock on The Global Hawk can ﬂy halfway around the world without refueling. all current, and presumably future, large UAVs, the Navy is back in the hunt for a carrier-based UCAV. Cancellation of J-UCAS temporarily stalled Navy efforts, but, as with ‘joint’ programs in the past, the with- drawal of one service revealed the real de- sire of the other to push forward. From the ashes of J-UCAS rose UCAS-D (demonstration), with an ultimate down- select to the X-47B, which the Navy sees as precursor to a strike-fighter-sized, carrier- capable, transformational UAV capable of ISR, target acquisition, and strike missions. A brief history The need for a carrier-based UCAV has Advances in military aviation technology historically follow a two-war development phase. grown even greater with the decrease in The first heavier-than-air combat aircraft were introduced in WW I, but their varieties and U.S. aircraft carriers and fully equipped air massive use during WW II earned that conflict the title of the world’s first ‘air war.’ wings. Also spurring Navy efforts is China’s A handful of helicopters saw use in WW II, but their first real application was during public stance that, in any future armed con- the Korean conflict, primarily for medical evacuation and resupply. But the next major U.S. war, in Vietnam, saw thousands of combat helicopter sorties by gunships, as well as their flict with the U.S., its goal would be to de- medevac and logistics missions, making Vietnam the first true ‘helicopter war.’ stroy U.S. military airfields and carriers be- Israel introduced the concept of UAVs for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance fore they could launch manned aircraft applications in the 1980s, but these planes did not earn worldwide attention until the first toward China. Having a fleet of long-range, gulf war. The primitive (by today’s standards) Pioneer UAV became so closely attached to preferably stealthy UCAVs that could be air- attacks by ship guns and rockets, as well as air strikes, that Iraqi soldiers eventually tried to surrender to the flying robot. borne long before any such attack—and But it is the second gulf conflict that has become known as the ‘UAV war,’ because of possibly help thwart it—is rapidly becoming the vast numbers and varieties involved, including the centerpiece of the conflict, the MQ-1 a Navy ‘urgent need.’ Predator. This was the first UAV to be armed, its Hellfire air-to-ground missile originally The Air Force, while less public in its designed for helicopters. The skies over Iraq and Afghanistan have been filled with UAVs pursuit of UCAVs than the Navy, nonethe- operated by multiple nations. They range from the tiny hand-launched Wasp to the massive less did not abandon interest in them with Global Hawk. the end of the J-UCAS. With that in mind, UAVs became so numerous that pilots of manned combat aircraft flying through the Boeing took the basic design of the X-45A same battlespace sometimes referred to them as ‘aerial FOD’ (foreign object debris). UAVs now come in multiple sizes, carry varied payloads, and use different propulsion (J-UCAS) and X-45B (its UCAS-D effort) and systems. Launch methods range from slingshot-style hand-launched to rocket-launched and pushed forward with internal development long-range, from home basing to target zone—Global Hawks can fly halfway around the of the X-45C—which came out of Boeing’s world without refueling, while Predators routinely are ‘flown’ by pilots at air bases near Phantom Works in 2010 as the Phantom Las Vegas while performing missions over Southwest Asia. Ray. In response to one major UCAV con- Although they require highly skilled, well-trained pilots and sensor operators, UAVs typically are less manpower-intensive than manned aircraft. But most important, they do cern—aerial refueling for extended range not put these operators at risk of death or capture. Thus, they can be flown into situations and endurance—Boeing is under contract that might otherwise be considered too dangerous. Depending on the type of aircraft and on several key R&D programs. mission, they also can be ‘swarmed’ against a well-defended target, increasing the likelihood The service also plans to take delivery that at least one will get through. of its last Predator this year. While it will Future UAVs may replace most of the manned fighters in an attack formation, with continue to fly both armed and unarmed one piloted aircraft controlling multiple UAVs. A mixed formation of unmanned combat air Predators for some time—as will several vehicles and F-35 Lightning II stealth ground attack fighters could significantly enhance the other operators, from allied militaries to the survivability and mission capability of the JSF, which has only marginal stealth attributes. U.S. Border Patrol—the emphasis for this decade will be on the Reaper. The Reaper was built by General Atomics from scratch west Asia, piloted (as is Predator) by crews to be a hunter-killer; to some, that makes it based near Las Vegas, Nevada. the first true UCAV. Reaper already has an upgrade—the jet- The Reaper can fly twice as fast and powered Predator C Avenger. With signifi- twice as high as the Predator, carries 10 cant weight, payload, speed, and other ad- times the payload (including a far wider vantages, the Avenger—which also boasts a range of weapons), and has enough addi- version of the F-35’s electrooptical targeting tional on-board power to handle a broader system—also has been proposed by General array of new or improved sensors. The first Atomics to meet the Navy’s requirement for USAF Reapers entered service in 2007 and an “unmanned carrier-launched airborne have been flying combat missions in South- surveillance and strike (UCLASS) system.”

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Meanwhile, the Army has a variety of killer UAVs in the network-centric battle- new and upgraded unmanned aircraft sys- space now being implemented in South- tems (UAS—which include both the aircraft west Asia and planned as the future center- and its ground control station) in develop- piece of allied military operations. ment and testing. A major demonstration— Another major factor in the future of the manned/unmanned systems integration UAVs will be the ability of U.S. allies and concept, or MUSIC—is scheduled at Dug- coalition partners to share useful informa- way Proving Ground, Utah, in September. tion in real time. Ongoing efforts to inte- An MQ-1C Grey Eagle/Sky Warrior, grate NATO and other allies into a distrib- RQ-11 Raven, MQ-5B Hunter, and RQ-7B uted common ground system for UAVs Shadow UAVs will exchange information enhance their capabilities for dealing with with AH-64D Apache Block III attack heli- regional threats and mitigating the risks to copters, with the Apache crew taking con- all involved. A key to achieving that will be trol of the UAVs in flight. the 2012-2014 delivery and implementation That level of manned/unmanned inter- of the NATO Alliance Ground Surveillance operability is considered crucial to the system, jointly developed by 21 nations future integration of both ISR and hunter- since 2007.

Although a number of European Union porate resources. For example, CEO Louis nations have their own, often robust, UAV Gallois, while vowing EADS would con- R&D and production programs, defense tinue developing the French/German/Span- manufacturing is one of the primary areas ish Talarion MALE (medium altitude/low in which EU cooperation is a reality. endurance) UAV with its own funds, de- A leading example of that is nEUROn, a manded that Europe “make a choice” about B-2 lookalike designed to be a European its MALE UAV requirements. Gallois was re- UCAV technological demonstrator. While ferring to the competing BAE Systems Man- France’s Dassault Aviation is prime, the craft tis UAV, claiming that continuing both de- gains its EU label from Dassault’s five part- velopments was a ‘risk’ to BAE and EADS. ners: Alenia (Italy), SAAB (Sweden), Hel- EADS has offered the Talarion to meet lenic Aerospace Industry, or HAI (Greece), the U.K.’s Scavenger ISTAR UAV require- EADS (in Spain), and RUAG (Switzerland). ment, which also is being competed by two EADS has recently led the charge to get U.S. firms—General Atomics (Avenger) and Europe to focus on specific UAV programs Northrop Grumman (Global Hawk). Pub- rather than allowing many competing pro- lished reports have indicated the U.K. Min- grams to drain scarce government and cor- istry of Defence’s ultimate decision will be based as much on politics as military re- The Talarion is being developed by EADS to meet Future European needs for a UAV quirements—a not uncommon occurrence for reconnaissance and surveillance. with military acquisitions, especially those involving international competitors. But the U.K. is not alone in trying to make such choices. The French government is weighing competing offers on the Das- sault/Thales Systeme de Drone MALE and Sagem’s Patroller UAV. Gallois has suggested that the various EU nations considering future UAV requirements come together with a multinational industry effort to design and develop a single system—an ‘Airbus for UAVs.’ “We have to avoid having two MALE programs,” Gallois says, adding that EADS plans to jump-start the multinational approach by forming associations with some of its competitors to market UAVs around the world. “We are going to partnership. If we want to sell in Brazil or India, we need

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to have a partner. We are discussing with a lot of them,” he says, while declining to re- veal any details of what he calls a “three pillars” approach to dealing with the UAV market and competition in Europe, the U.S., and emerging nations. At the same time, France and the U.K. are going head-to-head in developing a European UCAV despite similar warnings from Dassault that within two decades Eu- ropean industry could ‘compete’ itself out of The initial Watchkeeper platform existence while the U.S.—already ahead in is based on Elbit Systems’ Hermes UAV technologies—dominates the market. 450 UAV platform. Mirroring EADS’ position, Dassault is calling for a pan-European ‘combat aircraft than a million man-hours. It represents a program’ to replace the continent’s existing significant step forward in this country’s manned combat fleet. In the absence of fast-jet capability,” according to Nigel such a program, the firm is pushing accept- Whitehead, managing director of BAE Sys- ance of the nEUROn as a way to keep mul- tems’ Programmes & Support Group. “This tiple European companies involved and technology is key to sustaining a strong in- pushing UAV technologies. dustrial base and to maintain the U.K.’s The nEUROn technology demonstrator leading position as a center for engineering is scheduled to begin flight tests in 2012, al- excellence and innovation.” most a decade after its launch. While draw- Iinitial flight testing for Taranis, another ing heavily on commercial off-the-shelf B-2 look-alike about the size of the BAE avionics and computers, it was intended to Hawk, is planned for this year. It is in- be the first major stealth platform designed tended to validate technologies needed to entirely in Europe. However, it now faces a develop an intercontinental stealthy UCAV British competitor: the Taranis. by the end of the decade. It has two inter- As with Germany, France, and other nal weapons bays for bombs and missiles, members of the EU, it is sometimes difficult and is expected to be capable of using fu- to separate British UAV developments from ture directed-energy weapons, either high- those of the EU as a whole. One distinct ex- power microwave- or laser-based. ception, however, is the Taranis UCAV con- Other European nations are striving to cept demonstrator, on which the MOD has develop indigenous capabilities within one invested over $227 million with a British in- or another UAV niche. Most of these industry team (BAE Systems, Rolls-Royce, GE volve small, comparatively basic aircraft for Aviation, and QinetiQ). ISR applications, often centered on border “Taranis has been three-and-a-half years patrol or sales to less industrially developed in the making and is the product of more markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.

In the past two decades, this communist gi- occasional video of an aircraft ‘taxiing,’ ant has emerged as one of the world’s most there is little to prove—or disprove—any successful capitalist nations, in many ways claims China makes about its aviation capa- returning to its mercantile roots. Because of bilities, including UAVs. its massive economy, manufacturing base, China has proudly displayed models and status as both a nuclear power and just that bear a striking resemblance to the most the third nation to launch its citizens into advanced U.S., European, and Israeli UAVs, space, China has earned its place as a re- but there is little evidence to prove any of gional superpower and global great power. their claimed capabilities. However, given However, some things remain un- the country’s known prowess in other areas changed, including a 21st-century ‘Great of high tech—from nuclear weapons to mi- Wall’ China maintains around its military crochips, spacecraft to consumer electron- technologies and capabilities. Aside from ics—it would be foolish to dismiss their still photos, static airshow displays, and an UAVs as pure fiction.

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Israel was the first nation to put UAVs into actual military use, telling the world in the 1980s it was far more reasonable to use flying robots for ISR missions than to risk Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) human pilots being killed or captured. In over 30 years of use and develop- Israel’s Hunter ment, Israel has continued to maintain a UAV is exported leadership role in both capabilities and worldwide. global sales. As with many nations, however, analysts can only speculate about what marketers of UAVs, but also perhaps the may exist within the IDF’s ‘black’ programs. most sought-after partner for those nations What is widely known, however, is that wanting to develop an indigenous manufac- Israel is not only one of the world’s leading turing capability.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union— “In the next two or three years, there with at least a decade of decay in its tech- will be a breakthrough in the Russian UAV nological infrastructure and the loss of sen- market regardless of the Israeli position on ior scientists to other countries—Russia has this issue,” Vladimir Verba told reporters struggled to regain its status as a technol- last fall during an international exhibition, ogy leader. In some ways, it has moved adding that the government had approved back ahead of the U.S.—shortly only Russia his company’s “comprehensive develop- will have the ability to carry humans to the ment program,” set to run through 2025. international space station. It also has seen Verba also claimed Russia’s Federal Se- some success in resurrecting its fighter air- curity Service (FSB) is “quite happy with craft industry, although the actual perform- the quality of our equipment. The FSB is ance capabilities of its latest jets—despite giving us new orders and we are cooperat- Prime Minister Putin’s claims of fifth-gener- ing successfully.” Even if the defense min- ation status—are questionable. istry did decide to buy UAVs abroad, he In terms of UAVs, however, Russia had said, “there is nothing terrible about that.” expected to rely heavily on assistance from His confident remarks, however, did Israel. But that relationship appeared to fall not mesh with the words and actions of the apart in the fall of 2010 because of Israeli government. Apparently dissatisfied with anger at a Russian decision to supply Yak- the progress of Russian industry, and hav- hont naval missiles to Syria. However, the ing seen the need for UAVs during recent director general of Vega, Russia’s leading conflicts with Georgia and Chechnya, the UAV manufacturer, claimed Israeli assis- military already has bought a few Israeli The Russian military has already tance was not necessary. Bird Eye 400 reconnaissance, I-View MK- purchased several Israeli UAVs, including the Searcher Mk II. 150 tactical, and Searcher Mk II multimission UAVs, with follow-on contracts for three times as many. More to the point, in April 2010, Rus- sian Deputy Defense Minister Vladimir Popovkin admitted that indigenous UAVs the government had spent about $172 million to develop had failed in testing. And in November 2010, the head of the Russian air force, Col. Gen. Alexander Zelin, said Rus- sian UAVs had failed to meet the military’s speed and altitude requirements, among other shortfalls. The agreement jeopardized by the missile sale had called for a UAV joint production effort, with Israel helping Russia upgrade its domestic capability. The nation also reportedly is looking to France for a similar joint venture.

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meet their goals and objectives far better than a linear and asymmetric solution could,” he wrote. “Pakistan’s aircraft manu- It is difficult to discuss military develop- facturing industry would remain relevant ments in one of these nations without in- rather than become outdated and relegated cluding the other. While India has by far to obsolescence. the larger economy and industrial infra- “Pakistan does not have the technology structure, as well as a more stable govern- or the resources to build an expensive and ment, Pakistan has managed to maintain a complex fifth-generation plane. A UCAV, degree of equilibrium with its neighbor. however, is a far more achievable goal. The Although primarily a buyer of military technologies involved allow far greater technology, Pakistan has put considerable flexibility and can be said almost ideally effort in recent years into building an in- suited to Pakistan’s military-industrial com- digenous UAV capability. But with India an- plex’s strengths.” nouncing plans to field a fifth-generation Such an effort would not necessarily fall manned fighter (coproduced with Russia) entirely to native industry, Hussain added. A by 2015, Pakistan will face technological UCAV adequate to counter India’s larger and numerical challenges it cannot match. and more advanced manned air fleet could As a result, the Pakistani government is be built in partnership with China, Turkey, pushing industry to develop a UCAV capa- Malaysia, South Africa, Brazil, Iran, Italy, or ble of reducing any new advantage India any combination of those or other nations. may gain in the realm of air combat. In- For Pakistan, UCAVs could “become deed, some in Pakistan seem convinced the foot soldier of the skies, lightly armed any future sixth-generation fighter will be a and yet overwhelming in their numbers,” stealth UCAV, such as Boeing already has said Hussain. “UCAVs are an emerging tech- proposed to the USAF. But rather than rely nology that has the potential to revolution- on foreign suppliers, Pakistan wants to de- ize air warfare....[they] provide an interest- velop its own capabilities, not just for ing paradigm shift that cannot be ignored UCAVs, but also all other levels of UAVs. by those entrusted with the defense of their Most nations pursuing UCAV develop- nations and peoples.” ment are working on aircraft that can fight India is not ignoring the value of UAVs, their way into a target zone and back out. either, but is pursuing that element along- However, Pakistan appears to be embracing side advanced manned aircraft and missiles. the concept of a suicide aircraft that, if nec- Along with increased purchases—primarily essary, would simply crash into its target. from Israel and Europe—India has spent Even in air-to-air engagements against a part of its defense budget increases in re- fifth-generation fighter, Pakistani researchers cent years on development of such plat- believe a reasonably capable UCAV, operat- forms as the Autonomous Unmanned Re- ing in a ‘swarm,’ could overpower and de- search Aircraft, a flying-wing design with feat the manned aircraft. alleged stealth capabilities developed by the While not claiming to be the techno- Aeronautical Development Establishment. Jasoos is designed and logical equal of Europe or the U.S., Pak- In April 2010, a contract to build the manufactured by SATUMA istan believes it can avoid the political and Rustom MALE UAV—in the same class as the of Pakistan. The Jasoos II Bravo+ variant is currently interservice conflicts that have slowed west- U.S. Predator and U.K. Watchkeeper—was operational with the ern development of both UAVs and future Pakistan air force. UCAVs. The result, they agree, may be more akin to an F-4 than an F-35, but it should also be less expensive and thus easier to field quickly and in large numbers. In a December 2010 paper on UCAVs and the future of Pakistani-Indian conflict, Malaysian defense analyst Meinhaj Hussain called unmanned aircraft the “golden opportunity to pull ahead” for Pakistan and many other nations. “If the Pakistan air force can do better and avoid institutional and political barriers that the West is plagued with, they can make a relative leap in capabilities and

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A contract to build the Rustom was awarded to state-run awarded to state-run Hindustan Aeronautics corporations rather than private industry. and Bharat Electronics. The decision marked another in a long line of lost programs In- dia’s civil industry has suffered at the hands of government-run competitors. The Defence Research and Develop- ment Organisation (DRDO), India’s premier defense research agency, also has been working on a number of new platforms, including the 1.5-kg Netra, intended for anti- terrorist and counterinsurgency operations. Although well-equipped by foreign suppliers, India is looking to DRDO and both its government and civil infrastructure to provide an independent advanced UAV capability before the end of the decade.

training. Pehpad has been called a stealth craft, a claim Iran has made about numer- While everything that happens inside ous UAVs for several years. But some re- Iran is cloaked in secrecy and subject to ports claim the ‘stealth’ aspect of the Peh- speculation—often started by the govern- pad consists of USAF markings on a ment in what might be considered a platform designed to look like a Predator. smoke-and-mirrors campaign—its techno- Iran also has claimed it soon will be logical capabilities cannot be denied. It is able to control UAVs from submarines, will the reality of deployable systems that re- equip all border stations with a variety of mains in doubt. such aircraft, has developed long-range In 2010, for example, the commander UAVs that could sink the U.S. fleet in the of Iran’s air force announced large-scale Persian Gulf, and so on. The U.S. report- production would soon begin on the new edly did shoot down an Iranian UAV in Pehpad UAV, which Brig. Gen. Amir-Ali Ha- Iraqi airspace in 2009, although details re- jizadeh said was undergoing field tests and main sketchy.

Across Asia’s broad expanse, nations pushing development of its own systems, large and small are seeking to purchase the led by the military’s Chung-Shan Institute of latest UAV technology available from Israel, Science and Technology (CSIST). Both in- the U.S., Europe, Russia, and elsewhere. But dustry and academia have been working on in most cases these countries are also de- UAV prototypes for several years, and it veloping at least a minimal indigenous now appears CSIST has been tasked with manufacturing capability. providing the Taiwanese air force with ad- High on that list is South Korea. A ma- vanced systems it had been expected to jor share of increases in its defense budget, buy from Israel or the U.S. a reflection of increasingly belligerent acts In Singapore, the air force UAV com- and statements by its neighbor to the mand—actually a joint command staffed by north, has gone toward the purchase of personnel from all three services—is re- UAVs. At the same time, added emphasis sponsible for overseeing both domestic de- has been placed on becoming at least par- velopment efforts and the use of existing tially self-reliant in what is seen as a top UAV assets, purchased primarily from Is- priority. rael. Singapore also is working hard to de- Similar concerns about potentially ag- velop an indigenous capability. In August gressive neighbors have made Taiwan and 2010, Singapore raised its profile by de- Singapore active import markets as well. ploying a UAV task force to Afghanistan as Recently, however, Taiwan has begun part of its contribution to the effort there.

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The nations of these two continents run with South Africa led to any improvement the gamut from the poorest to (potentially, in the status of either. at least) some of the richest. They also host As a result, Israel has found a solid sales a wide range of technological infrastruc- opportunity in Africa (and South America), ture, with some countries capable of pro- and China is working hard to break into ducing competitive ISR UAVs—and nearly both markets. But the biggest owner/user of all in the market for such devices. Applica- UAVs in Africa for now may be the newly tions range from counterdrug and coun- created U.S. African Command. terinsurgency ISR to border patrol and an- While Africa’s interest is waning, sev- tipiracy efforts. eral Latin American nations are using their In Africa, the lead in UAV development growing fleets of UAVs as a weapon in the and manufacturing has belonged to South war on drugs. Mexico, Chile, Brazil, and Africa. But what had appeared a promising others are now flying Israeli UAVs on such area of development has now faded. A lack missions, while Brazil has formed a joint of interest in UAV acquisition by that na- venture with Israel in an effort to develop a tion’s military has led programs at leading native infrastructure. companies, such as Advanced Technologies With technological capability growing & Engineering and Denel Dynamics, to in the region, there have also been efforts stall. Nor have efforts by Russia to boost its to combine internal capabilities, such as a own sagging UAV capability by partnering joint program by Chile and Argentina.

The Air Force will take delivery of its last Predator this year, as the UAV gives way to the Reaper and Avenger upgrades.

Every nation is a potential buyer when it and more advanced adversary. For such na- comes to UAVs, including the U.S. and Is- tions, cheap and plentiful UAVs have been rael. UAVs, and someday, perhaps UCAVs, referred to as ‘aerial IEDs’ (improvised ex- are far less expensive to acquire and main- plosive devices), the inexpensive, low-tech tain than manned aircraft or satellites for weapons of choice for Iraqi and Afghani in- ISR, while offering the added potential of surgents and the primary cause of deaths weaponization at no risk to human pilots. and injuries to U.S. and coalition forces. Wars may be won by superior technol- What the future may hold for UAVs and ogy, tactics, numbers, or money. UAVs can UCAVs remains to be seen. What is certain, be an equalizer, even for a small, relatively however, is that the demand for unmanned poor nation with limited technological in- systems will continue to grow, whether natively frastructure facing a larger, more powerful, produced or purchased from others.

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hina’s surging military space program is poised to challenge U.S. aircraft carrier operations in the Pacific, as Chinese military spacecraft already gather significant new radar, electro- C optical imaging, and signal intelligence data globally. During 2010, China more than doubled its military satellite launch rate to 12. This com- pares with three to five military missions launched each year between 2006 and 2009. Since 2006, China has launched about 30 military related spacecraft. Its total of 15 launches in 2010 set a new record for China and for the first time equaled the U.S. flight rate for a given year. Most U.S. public and media attention has focused on China’s occasional manned flights and its maturing unmanned lunar program. But China’s military space surge reveals a program where more than half of its spacecraft are like ‘wolves in sheep’s clothing,’ posing a growing threat to U.S. Navy operations in the Pacific. India’s navy is also concerned.

Expert analysts say China is accelerating its military space program to target U.S. aircraft carriers. The surge in development and launch activities has caught the attention of the U.S. secretary of defense and has begun to aﬀect DOD planning. Yet very little U.S. or political and media attention has focused on this trend, which some are calling “a new space race with only one participant.”

MY First liftoff from Jiuquan Gobi Desert launch site of the Long March 4C with restartable third stage in late 2010 also marked ﬁrst launch of three co-orbital Yaogan

CY spacecraft, 9A/B/C, that maneuvered into an ocean surveillance constellation to track U.S. carrier battle groups. Credit: U.S. Naval Institute.

CMY

K “This is a really big deal. These military environment where other countries [China spacecraft are being launched at a very specifically] will have the capability, be- rapid pace” says Andrew S. Erickson, a tween their missile and satellite capabilities, Naval War College expert on China’s naval to knock out a carrier,” Gates said recently and space forces. China is becoming a mil- at Duke University. “How do you use carri- itary space power within a global context.” ers differently in the future than we’ve used At least three or four different Chinese them in the past?” he asked. military satellite systems are being networked to support China’s 1,500 km+ range The space arena DF-21D antiship ballistic missile (ASBM) Some analysts say the basic DF-21 two- program, say U.S. analysts. The DF-21D is stage solid propellant ballistic missile could being designed to force U.S. Navy aircraft also play a role in Chinese antisatellite de- carrier battle groups and other large U.S. al- velopment. As former Director of National lied warships to operate hundreds of miles Intelligence Adm. Dennis Blair testified be- farther away from China or North Korea fore Congress in 2009, “counter command, than they do today. control, and sensor systems, to include The ASBM “has undergone repeated communications satellite jammers, are tests and has reached initial operational ca- among Beijing’s highest military priorities. pability,” Adm. Robert Willard, commander China continues to pursue a long-term proof the U.S. Pacific Command said recently gram to develop a capability to disrupt and in Tokyo. The new Chinese space capabili- damage critical foreign space systems. ties, combined with development of the Counterspace systems, including antisatel- DF-21D, are already having an effect on the lite weapons, also rank among the coun- planning of future operations in the Pacific, try’s highest military priorities.” says Secretary of Defense Robert Gates. Detailed analyses of China’s military “I’m trying to get people to think about space program have been done by Erick- by Craig Covault how do we use aircraft carriers in a world son at Harvard University, where he is com- Contributing writer

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A mobile version of the DF-21 Racing alone missile is being tested as a ﬁxed China is accelerating its military satellite DF-21D version of aircraft carrier launch and networking operations so rap- killer ballistic missile, linked to multiple Chinese military idly that personnel at U.S. Strategic Com- satellites to track and target U.S. mand (STRATCOM), Offutt AFB, Neb., refer carriers hundreds of miles to “the new space race that seems to have farther away from China than only one participant.” Sources say that is in the past. not a criticism of U.S. space capabilities, but rather a comment by Air Force officers on how little media and political attention there is about China’s military space surge. STRATCOM oversees U.S. military space operations as well as its strategic deterrent. “China’s military space program is pleting a book entitled Great Power Aero- moving at a rapid pace and has to be taken space Development, China’s Quest for the very seriously,” says Erickson. Highest High Ground. Yaogan spacecraft form the core of Grandson of the late Joe Gavin, who Chinese military space operations. But this led Apollo lunar module development at designation is a cover to maintain secrecy Grumman, Erickson has also written for the for at least four different military designs, U.S. Naval Institute at Annapolis, where his including satellites with electrooptical digi- piece “Eyes in the Sky” in the institute’s tal imaging cameras, a totally different Proceedings lays out a detailed picture of spacecraft with synthetic aperture radar im- China’s growing military space program. aging, a third type with signal intercept, Work from Erickson’s research is included and a fourth with electronic eavesdropping in this analysis, as are his findings from an- capability. A fifth version is for formation other major research project on Chinese flight and has ocean surveillance sensors. military small satellites and microsats. Thirteen Yaogan satellites launched “An emerging network of space-based since 2006 are engaged in military space ac- sensors promises to radically improve the tivity, and most remain operational, says Er- targeting capabilities of China’s Navy and ickson. Only Yaogan 1 has expired. This first other services,” says Erickson. This is also Chinese imaging radar satellite appears to giving the country a major new capability have exploded in orbit in February 2010 af- to image and eavesdrop on U.S. aircraft and ter four years of service. Four digital imaging ships basing at key Pacific locations like Yaogans and four imaging radar satellites Guam and Japan. have been launched.

By mid-decade, China plans to launch a small nuclear-powered lander carrying a ‘pathﬁnder’ Moon rover that will descend to the surface, then periodically plug in to recharge, along with also using a small solar array. Missions like this are showing other countries China’s growing high-technology leadership.

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“This is the most rapid launch se- A small man-tended Salyut- quence of anything I have yet seen. It is type spacecraft will be used to particularly significant because [although explore Chinese military space technologies, as well as minor they clearly have military missions] they are science projects. They will lead officially billed as satellites for civilian ap- to a larger station, and are being plications like crop monitoring.” used to inspire China's youth to Analysts ask which People’s Liberation pursue math and science for space-related careers. Army entity is managing the multimillion- dollar military satellite development and launch capability and the daily operation of these spacecraft. One says “there is an ongoing struggle for control of the new military space assets, with perhaps the PLA air force in the lead.” He muses that there appears to be “a big food fight” in the PLA Ian Easton, a research fellow at the Ar- over the new military space capability. lington, Va.-based Project 2049 Institute, Most Yaogans fly in 400-mi. orbits in- has studied these coorbital missions. The clined about 98.8 deg. These high inclina- institute is a think tank dedicated to study- tion orbits involve ground tracks that fly ing Chinese national security issues. Easton from south to north. The orbits have been writes in the “Asia Eye” blog that the first used since the cold war by the U.S. and So- (and perhaps most strategically significant) viet Union because spacecraft eventually of the coorbital satellite constellations to pass over every point on Earth as the planet form in 2010 was launched in March. One rotates east to west under the polar orbit constellation makes use of three Yaogan satellites’ ground tracks. radar and eavesdropping spacecraft. “Unlike previous electrooptical and Quality and quantity radar imagery satellites deployed in the se- China appears to have very advanced capa- ries, the Yaogan 9 launch positioned three bilities in both electrooptical and radar im- satellites [A/B/C] orbiting in a highly chore- aging, with very high resolution,” Erickson ographed triangular formation, suggesting points out. “These seem to be exactly the that China had deployed a dedicated Naval type of capabilities for which to further de- Ocean Surveillance Satellite system to bol- velop space-based information, surveillance ster the ASBM program. Space-based sur- and reconnaissance to support precision veillance and cueing capabilities represent weapons.” an essential (and previously underdevel- Two large spacecraft developed by oped) element of the ASBM program,” Eas- China and Brazil under the China Brazil ton writes. Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) program The next coorbital development came also provide a diverse array of imaging in August 2010 when China’s Shi Jian-12 products for both military and civil applica- satellite conducted a series of sophisticated tions. Two spacecraft are operational and a maneuvers to rendezvous with Shi Jian 6F, third is planned. All have advanced cam- one of several suspected electronic intelli- eras and other imaging scanners. Erickson gence satellites. But the rendezvous ended says that, as a whole, China has about 15 in a collision. Whether deliberate or acci- reconnaissance-relevant imaging spacecraft, dental, the Chinese remained mum on the spread between the Yaogans, CBERS, and incident,” Easton says. However, the dean numerous small satellites. In fact, China has of China satellite analysts, Joan Johnson launched some 40 small satellites (weighing Freese at the Naval War College, does not 500 kg or less) to date, he says. believe it was an ASAT test. “More recently, the September 2010 Coorbital choreography launch of the three-satellite Yaogan 11 con- Such satellites have been involved in coor- stellation and the October 2010 launch of bital spacecraft formations like triangles or the two-satellite Shi Jian-6 Group-04 con- echelons that can detect ships and calculate stellation have expanded China’s coorbital location, speed, and direction of travel. Ac- portfolio,” Easton says. His sources believe quisition of such constantly updated posi- that Yaogan-11A/B/C are radar imagery tions can give the Chinese navy extremely satellites with all-weather, day/night capa- accurate information as to the actions and bility and can play a role in tracking carrier intensions of U.S. warships and allied ships. strike groups. Likewise, the Shi Jian-6 group

AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 35 036_r1_Aerospace_MAR2011.pdf 2/16/11 11:30:43 AM

launched in October were reported to be Three satellites will be launched in intended for an electronic intelligence role, 2012, 2017, and 2022, according to an also perhaps as part of China’s ASBM pro- analysis by Eric Hagt and Matthew Durnin, gram,” he says. Easton says key personnel “China’s Antiship Ballistic Missile: Develop- like Li Yandong have been involved in sev- ments and Missing Links.” eral of the coorbital flights. And an analysis published by Taiwan’s “Ultimately, it appears that these coor- navy says the Haiyang satellites are part of bital programs, when viewed in the context an “ocean monitoring system that has of their underlying military missions, have strengthened the PRC military’s knowledge worrisome security implications for both of a potential Pacific Ocean battlefield.” the space and the maritime segments of the Also relevant to maritime surveillance global commons in the coming years,” he will be the eight-satellite Huanjing disas- points out. ter/environmental-monitoring constellation. It is envisioned to contain satellites capable Ocean monitoring of visible, infrared, multispectral, and SAR In addition to intelligence and targeting for- imaging. Two initial satellites in the series, mations, China is also moving aggressively Huanjing-1A and -1B, will provide real-time with ocean monitoring satellites that pro- multi- and hyperspectral imaging, respec- vide militarily important coastal and sea tively, at 30-m resolution. condition data. Among the spacecraft planned are 15 Small size, big payo additional Haiyang satellites, in three sets, China is especially pursuing constellations over the next decade. The initial HY-1 se- of relatively small but high-resolution elec- C ries will monitor ocean color using an opti- trooptical and imaging radar spacecraft, as

M cal radiometer and sea-surface temperature well as electronic intelligence constella- with a medium spatial-resolution optical tions, says Easton. Erickson has also con- Y sensor. Erickson says a total of eight satel- ducted a detailed study of Chinese military CM lites, designated HY-1C-J, will be launched small sats and microsats, both of which MY every three years, in pairs, between 2010 may aid China’s intelligence gathering.

CY and 2019. The HY-2 series will then intro- “What is especially intriguing is that by duce a Ku/C dual-frequency radar altimeter, employing diverse small satellite designs CMY a tri-frequency radiometer, a Ku-band scan based on common buses, or standardized K radar scatterometer, and a microwave im- platforms, China may not need to develop ager to monitor sea surface wave field, superior heavy spacecraft technologies, but height, and temperature. end up with military space capabilities Four additional satellites, HY-2A-D, will greater than the sum of its parts,” Erickson be launched every three years over the says. “That may suit their purposes quite ef- same period. In addition, the coming HY-3 fectively, although quite differently from series will use SAR sensors with 1-10-m res- the U.S. military space program, which uses olution and X-band radar to monitor mar- larger individual spacecraft.” itime resources, pollution, and coastal zones. China may have discovered very sweet ‘knees on the curve’ (points of maximum benefit) in terms of capability versus cost. The Hope 1 communications relay satellite also has an imaging Looking forward, if they are able to con- system. Such spacecraft are tinue to develop and succeed with reason- becoming a key element of the ably priced satellites updated with the latest China military space program. off-the-shelf technologies, they may have a potent modular, affordable, adaptable, and replenishable military satellite nucleus the U.S. will not have, Erickson says. “With this strategy, China may be able to come up with something that is increasingly more than the sum of its parts,” Erick- son says. He points out that Chinese specialists almost uniformly view microsatellite technology as essential for 21st century military development. In the assessment of one major Chinese aerospace journal, “The successful develop-

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ment of reconnaissance, monitoring, sur- Spacecraft developed by China veying and mapping, communications, and and Brazil under the China other satellite systems can provide compre- Brazil Earth Resources Satellite [CBERS] program provide imaging hensive, accurate and timely strategic and products for both military and tactical information for high technology civil applications. warfare.” Another argues that “microsatel- lites will play an indispensable role in future information warfare,” which reflects a view widespread in China’s defense industrial sector. Having recognized that “space control provides the key to military victo- ries in modern warfare, Chinese defense is deploying a 35-satellite Beidou 2/com- analysts are focusing on developing im- pass navigation satellite system that will proved methods for entering space, using have five spacecraft in geosynchronous or- space, and controlling space.” bit and 30 medium-altitude spacecraft. It They already credit indigenously devel- should achieve global coverage capability oped satellites for substantially improving in 2015-2020, Erickson predicts. the nation’s military communications. Erick- Chinese military satellite communica- son points out that “Chinese researchers are tions has been hampered in recent years studying not only how to attack other na- with failures in the DFH-4 bus. But overall, tions’ satellites, but also how to defend several other geosynchronous orbit designs their own.” He says a detailed study of are providing China with reliable encrypted satellite defense methods by researchers at communications. According to the authori- the Shijiazuang School of Ordnance Engi- tative Global Security.org, China’s most ad- neering predicts that, “As microsatellite vanced military satcom series is the Feng technology advances, small high-energy Huo-1 (FH-1) satellite, the country’s first lasers or high-power microwave systems space-based communications platform to may be incorporated for self-defense or provide military units with both C-band and satellite protection.” UHF communications. First launched in 2000, it is the first of Protecting assets several military communications satellites The study further noted that, “at the present for the Qu Dian C4I system, China’s first in- moment, we should significantly reinforce tegrated command, control, communica- the top level design of satellite protection tions, computer, and intelligence system. to address specifically the status of satellite The new system gives the PLA new capa- protection in China. By combining counter- bilities for coordinating and supporting its measures against ‘soft kill’ and ‘hard de- growing terrestrial forces. The PLA de- struction,’ the concept of ‘system-based scribes the new Tactical Information System countermeasures’ should be practiced by as similar to the American Joint Tactical In- taking a variety of measures. We should ac- formation Distribution System, or JTIDS. tively engage in the development of all When fully deployed, the Qu Dian system kinds of protection technology and initiate will allow theater commanders to commu- preliminary research on low cost, novel nicate with and share data with all forces protection technology. under a joint Chinese command. “On the other hand, we also must China launched a smaller military com- closely monitor progress made by foreign sat in November 2010. A Long March 3A militaries in satellite protection technology launched the Zhongxing-20A military com- in order to adjust and alter our focus and munications satellite from Xichang. A new direction of our countermeasure technol- navigation satellite followed in mid-Decem- ogy correspondingly. ber as the 15th and final mission of the year “We have to know ourselves as well as and the 12th with military capability. our enemy in order to win every battle,” As China continues to keep its three says the Chinese internal assessment. existing launch sites busy, huge construction crews continue to work at the giant Navigation and communications new Wenchang Satellite Launch Center on In satellite navigation, China’s 2007-era Bei- Hainan Island, scheduled for completion in dou 1 four-satellite constellation has its ca- 2013. It will launch the new oxygen/hydro- pability limited by its latitude and longitude gen-powered Long March 5, similar to the area of service. To improve on that, China American Delta IV.

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Aircraft and the environment

PART ONE Quieter flight: A balancing act

quipped with an ever-expand- the FAA. In recognition of the need to ing suite of new developmental meet these goals, the Obama adminis- tools, NASA’s aeronautical re- NASA is working to achieve tration requested FY11 funding of $580 searchers are exploring innova- million, an increase of $83 million from tive concepts in jet engine and aeronautical engineering the FY10 request. As of this writing, Eairframe technology, all to help achieve Congress had not yet approved NASA’s specific ‘green aviation’ goals related to breakthroughs that will enable funding package. fuel burn efficiency, noxious emissions, “During these tough economic and nuisance noise. development of technologies times, when difficult choices have to be Integrating these efforts into the made, it is gratifying to see NASA’s Next Generation Air Transportation that make airplanes better aeronautics program will receive more System, or NextGen, will follow as funding this year,” says Winston Scott, ideas are refined, proven, certified, and for the environment. a former astronaut who is now dean of then adopted into the commercial mar- the College of Aeronautics at the ketplace during the next 10-30 years. Among the most challenging Florida Institute of Technology. “At the NASA’s direction toward these same time, when you consider the im- goals comes from the National Aero- problems researchers face portance of aviation research to mak- nautics Research and Development ing airplanes safer and more environ- Plan, a White House Office of Science is reducing aircraft noise, mentally friendly, you wonder and Technology Policy document most sometimes why aeronautics doesn’t re- recently updated in February 2010. It from both engines and airframes. ceive even more.” clearly sees the federal government’s role as one that “advances aeronautics Design features that successfully Aircraft should be seen and not heard research to improve aviation safety It was not until commercial jet opera- [and] air transportation, and reduce the lower noise in one area, tions began in 1958 that complaints environmental impacts of aviation.” An- about noise really started to become a other requirement demands that the however, can raise it in another, problem for the aviation community. aviation research community promote The combination of urban sprawl and “the advancement of fuel efficiency.” making the task an extremely expanding suburbs shrank the distance Achieving these national goals will between residential neighborhoods require adequate and sustained fund- delicate balancing act. and airport property. A Boeing 707 on ing for NASA’s Aeronautics Research final approach was an impressive sight, Mission Directorate and for other rele- but if it flew over your house, even vant government agencies, including while still a mile high, you would be

A ﬁsheye view of the anechoic AeroAcoustic Propulsion Lab at NASA Glenn highlights the overhead microphone array that encircles the Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig in the center of the chamber.

by Jim Banke Public Affairs writer, NASA Ïdquarters; President, MILA Solutions, a NASA subcontractor

AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 39 BANKElaout0311_Layout 1 2/14/11 12:21 PM Page 4

subjected to 106 dB of “There’s a lot of work to do on all noise—approximately fronts to get the objectionable noise within the same level as a the airport boundary,” says Brian Fite, chief jackhammer. of the Acoustics Branch in the Aeropropul- Since then, NASA sion Division of NASA Glenn. “We’ve prob- has worked with other ably harvested all the low-hanging fruit to government agencies quiet a number of noise sources indepen- and industry to signifi- dently. And now we’ve really started to cantly reduce the level look at it in an integrated way. We’re able of nuisance noise made to work on a few key areas and make by aircraft, especially progress, but eventually you have to start during takeoff and addressing interactions between compo- landing. Now the bar is nents, including the airframe.” set even higher: Con- fine objectionable noise Testing for the right blend within the airport One of those integrated solution ap- perimeter. That means proaches is to consider how best to bring quieting all sources of together the airframe and the propulsion Gold-colored foam wedges shield airframe and engine noise enough that system. Will the overall noise be reduced test subjects from outside noises during an acoustics test at NASA people living or working near an airport in the most by placing the engines on top of Langley. NASA researchers study 2035 would not hear any noise they might the aircraft, under the wings, in the tail, or people’s perception of aircraft consider a nuisance. in some other place that results in an air- sounds in an indoor setting and Eliminating the noise problem is a tall frame shape very different from the stan- investigate the role of rattle noises and vibration. They use order by itself. But noise, emissions, and dard tube and wing used today? If a differ- this information to help design fuel-burn reduction technologies are not ent airframe is the choice, how will the quieter aircraft. Credit: NASA mutually exclusive. A concept that mitigates wings and tail be blended into the design? Langley/Sean Smith. one problem might exacerbate another. For And will the resulting improvements in en- instance, one good solution for fuel burn gine noise now worsen the noise made by and emissions problems is to equip jet en- the aircraft body itself, or add drag and gines with a dual-propeller system known weight issues that hamper fuel efficiency? as an open rotor to generate thrust. But To help determine the ultimate answer, then, as Ruben Del Rosario, manager of NASA researchers are preparing a series of NASA’s Subsonic Fixed Wing Project, notes, wind tunnel tests to learn more about “You have the challenge of noise, because acoustic shielding, a design approach that these blades are spinning in the open air.” uses parts of the airplane to prevent engine So NASA’s biggest hurdle is in develop- noise from reaching the ground. ing technologies that can strike the right Charlotte Whitfield, head of the Aero- balance among multiple performance goals acoustics Branch at NASA Langley, says one and meet them simultaneously. “At the end, of these tests will involve Langley’s 14x22- the ultimate challenge is to find solutions ft wind tunnel. This activity is funded by that significantly reduce the airplane’s fuel NASA’s Environmentally Responsible Avia- consumption, thus decreasing carbon di- tion Project. A generic hybrid-wing aircraft oxide emissions, while minimizing the ob- body, scaled to fit into the test stand, will jectionable noise and mitigating negative be outfitted with a pair of propane-pow- effects on air quality around the airports,” ered jet engine simulators. Cameras, sen- says Del Rosario. sors, and other instrumentation wired When it comes to what produces noise throughout the test area of the wind tunnel on airliners and how to suppress it, NASA will record data about the interaction of the researchers are considering everything, not engines and airframe. just engines. Landing gear, flaps, the aircraft Beginning in 2012, several runs will be shape, the kinds of materials used, engine made with the jet engine simulators moved types and placement, the flight paths used to different positions, and all the data will during takeoff and landing—even the prob- be fed into NASA’s publicly available Air- lems associated with eliminating the nui- craft Noise Prediction Program (ANOPP) sance factor of sonic booms from super- software to see how accurately ANOPP can sonic aircraft—are all on the table. Each predict the noise of these advanced, highly noise source could have its own quieting integrated propulsion and airframe config- solution, so the trick is to find the best way urations. Validating the accuracy of ANOPP to balance all of those considerations. is an important prerequisite for its use in

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guiding the design of new low-noise air- NASA has partnered with industry craft concepts. many times during years of chevron testing, including these “I don’t expect we’ll wind up with one tests of nozzles on a specially solution here. We’re still going to have to adapted GE engine mounted on look at our multiple options and try to un- a Boeing 777. Chevron nozzles will be seen on more engines in derstand their relative strengths and weak- the coming years. Credit: Boeing/ nesses,” Whitfield says. “It’s very simple to Bob Ferguson. say that we should all go to blended wing bodies, but that’s not going to happen. So we need to do more than just look at the effects of shielding from a blended wing body. We need to see what we can do with and...a lot of very small efforts that all come a conventional tube-and-wing design.” together, often across many scientific disciplines,” says James Bridges, an associate A look at the airframe principal investigator responsible for coor- While discussion continues on the best way dinating NASA’s aircraft noise research. to bring propulsion and the airframe to- One type of propulsion system requir- gether, the airframe itself as a source of ing big advances in noise reduction is that noise is also being studied. ”We’ve reduced used on airplanes capable of vertical take- the noise from jet engines so much through offs and landings. NASA is looking hard at the years that now we find airframe noise rotorcraft for civil transport, because sys- holds a greater potential for further noise tems studies have shown this configuration reduction than we have had to think about can improve air capacity by 30-60%, says C before,” Whitfield says. Susan Gorton, manager of NASA’s Subsonic

M Moving a body as large as an airframe Rotary Wing Project at Langley. Improving though the air sets up any number of air air capacity is a key feature of NextGen. Y currents that result in turbulence and the Gorton says the type of civil tilt-rotor CM creation of noise. envisioned would be able to haul 90 pas- MY “We understand a great deal, not ab- sengers at speeds of 300-350 kt with a

CY solutely everything, but a great deal about range of 1,000 n.mi. A rotor wing aircraft how airframe noise is generated. What we would have to hover in the terminal area CMY end up with is a problem to a certain extent only a short time, would avoid delays K in practicality,” says Whitfield. “We know caused by waiting on a taxiway for a run- how it is generated, but we also know that way to be available, and could land directly it takes a remarkably small amount of en- on the spot where it unloads. ergy to create a remarkably large amount of “There’s nothing in the industry’s cur- noise. You work on streamlining, especially rent inventory that has that kind of passen- for landing gear. You have to work on it ger capacity. To make that kind of vehicle very carefully, because you can end up a reality, we have to address certain tech- with something you think is going to be nologies,” Gorton explains. Approaches to great flying, but while it reduces one noise making the rotor blades quieter include source it introduces another.” modifying the shape of the blade, employing technologies that would allow it to Giving teeth to engine e orts change shape during flight, or slowing Like airframes, jet engines also are under study for additional noise suppression technology. Further improvements are expected even for one of NASA’s more recent noise reduction success stories, chevrons. Boeing recently introduced chevrons on its 787 and 747-8 aircraft, whose jet engine nozzles sport a distinctive saw-tooth pattern on their trailing edges. The teeth help to enhance the mixing of hot air from the engine core and cooler air blowing through the engine bypass fan, thus reduc- NASA and its industry and government partners used a modiﬁed F-5E jet to show that ing turbulence that creates noise. changing the shape of an aircraft’s nose can reduce the intensity of a sonic boom. The 2003 ﬂight test done was a precursor to current Fundamental Aeronautics supersonics “Successes like chevrons are the result technology low-boom research. Credit: NASA/Northrop Grumman. of a lot of different, hard-working people

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down the blade. Slowing it could be done sign in which the sonic aftereffect is more by simply reducing power, redesigning the whisper than boom. blade to provide more lift at slower speeds, “From a technologist’s viewpoint, I or shortening the blade, which would slow would say there are a great many of us the tip speeds. Blade tip speed is a major who have always dreamed of having an variable for rotor noise. economically viable supersonic airplane. “Right now the NASA research is target- And in order to do that we have to be able ing technologies for large civil tilt-rotor de- to fly it over land, which means reducing velopment. But at the same time we realize the sound level of a sonic boom so it is not the nation currently has a helicopter fleet annoying,” says Peter Coen, manager of that will certainly continue for many years NASA’s supersonics project. “It’s a real chal- to come,” Gorton points out. She notes that lenge for us moving forward to clearly NASA’s objective is to have any technology identify and explain to the public that the advances and breakthroughs apply to both sonic boom we’re talking about now is tilt-rotor and helicopter applications. completely different from what has ever been heard in the past.” Sonic whisper? Whether made by an X-1 rocket plane, NASA is also exploring the fundamentals of an F-22, or the space shuttle, a sonic boom how noise is made in the first place, as well results when supersonic shockwaves are as its impacts. “Our research concentrates produced by the aircraft’s nose, then its in the physics of the source of the noise,” canopy, then its tail, and even the handle to Gorton says. “How do you model where open the cargo hatch. Just about any the noise is generated? How do the blades change in the aircraft’s geometry will set off interact with the wake? How does the noise a shockwave. Because all of these are pro- propagate through the air? What does it duced at different times by different shapes sound like when it hits the ground? How and under minutely different air tempera- do you minimize the footprint of the noise tures and pressures, the shockwaves travel when it hits the ground?” away at different speeds. But within a few The rotorcraft story—improving an thousand feet, those independent shock- older technology to better fit an evolving waves coalesce, creating two pressure aircraft—is similar to that told by NASA re- spikes. When these spikes pass over the searchers working on technology to enable ground, you hear a sonic boom. (There are the FAA to change current policy prohibit- always two booms, but usually the aircraft ing commercial supersonic flight over the is so small that both booms arrive at the U.S. because of worries about sonic booms. same time. The space shuttle, at 120 ft long, Those laws are left over from the days is big enough that the ear can clearly pick when the nation first attempted to build its up a double boom.) own supersonic transport and then aban- As Coen explains, “the theory of sonic doned the project. That left Great Britain boom reduction says if those waves, those and France to field the Concorde, which independent shocks, are approximately the could fly only to cities along the U.S. coast, same strength, they will not coalesce. They and only at subsonic speed when flying will travel to the ground as separate waves. overhead. Now U.S. business jet manufac- And all the way through the atmosphere turers are asking for a supersonic option, the magnitude of them attenuates. So if you and NASA may soon come up with a de- can design an airplane such that the shocks are relatively the same strength, and relatively equally spaced, instead of getting two A view upstream looks into the pressure pulses on the ground, you will get NASA/Rolls-Royce variable-cycle nozzle with a lobed mixer, something else.” Some have called it a mounted on the jet rig in the ‘sonic puff,’ but Coen says he does not like Nozzle Acoustic Test Rig that term and is open to other ideas. during acoustic testing in the To get an ideal shockwave signature AeroAcoustic Propulsion Lab at NASA Glenn. that would not be noticed on the ground, the aircraft would have a long, slender nose and tail. But with the need for control surfaces on the tail, and possibly for a pair of engines hanging on or jutting out some- where, this design becomes impossible. “We’re coming to the conclusion that

42 AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 043_r1_Aerospace_MAR2011.pdf 2/16/11 11:39:56 AM

the best thing to do is really not try to get This hybrid wing body concept that completely smooth pressure rise on the (N2A HWB) has the engines mounted on top of a body back end, but break the shock on the back that deﬂects noise upward end up into several pieces so you get the instead of toward the ground. attenuation without the coalescing,” Coen The concept was generated by Boeing under a Subsonic says. “So we know what needs to be done Fixed Wing Project study and to shape the airplane to mitigate the boom. is planned for testing in 2012 But we also need to reduce drag, we need by NASA’s Environmentally to reduce takeoff noise, so it’s really about Responsible Aviation Project. Credit: NASA. understanding how to manipulate the shape of the airplane in three dimensions engineering challenges ever. The prospect to produce the design that achieves multi- of meeting the goals of simultaneous reduc- ple, hard performance goals. tions in noise, fuel burn, and emissions, “The real challenge has been integrat- along with safely integrating the resulting ing all the pieces of the sonic boom with all aircraft into an ever-expanding air trans- the components of the aircraft and coming portation system, is daunting, to say the up with a robust approach to reducing the least. Some aeronautics researchers have aft signature to acceptable levels. We’ve compared this challenge to NASA’s 1960s- made some improvement but we’ve had to era effort to land humans on the Moon. go back and look at other approaches.” But unlike the historic Apollo goal, this one will not be achievable by the end of ✈✈✈ the decade—in part because of the time and With nearly 100 years of experience in effort industry must now invest in adopting C bringing innovative solutions to the skies, green technologies and certifying their

M aeronautics is now faced with its biggest safety for flight.

Y Editor’s note: This is the first of four features that will describe the challenges associated with trying to invent a truly ‘green’

CM airplane. Future articles will cover work on technology to curb emissions, boost fuel efficiency, and enable the nation’s air traffic management system to handle aircraft in a more environmentally responsible manner. MY

CMY

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25 Years Ago, March 1986

March 8-28 During its closest approach to Earth since reaches a speed of 2,905 mph at an 1910, Halley’s Comet is observed from space at various altitude of 77,450 ft, or Mach 4.4. D. distances by ESA’s Giotto spacecraft, the USSR’s two Baker, Flight and Flying, p. 374; The Vega craft, and Japan’s MS-T5 and Planet-A spacecraft. Aeroplane, March 17, 1961, p. 277. Nothing is sent by the U.S., although the ICE, launched in 1978 as the ISEE-3 (International Sun-Earth Explorer March 8 A new around-the-world 3), is repositioned in its solar orbit to make observations. record is set by Max Conrad when he Planet-A approaches closest at 120,000 mi., but lands his light plane in Miami, Florida, Giotto passes through Halley’s tail. Vega-1 takes the after completing a 25,527-mi. global first close-up photos of the famous comet, revealing it flight of 8 days 18 hr 40 min in his to be peanut-shaped and 3-4 mi. across. ICE also becomes the first spacecraft specially equipped Piper Aztec light to intercept a comet, passing through the tail of Giacobini-Zinner on its way to twin aircraft. The flight, which also Halley. NASA, Astronautics and Aeronautics, 1986-90, pp. 4-5, 21, 23; F. Winter, carries NBC reporter Richard Jennings, Comet Watch, pp. 47, 56-57. began on Feb. 27. Aerospace Year Book, 1962, p. 470; The Aeroplane, 50 Years Ago, March 1961 March 1, 1961, p. 275. March 1 NASA announces the Saturn vehicle configuration known as the Saturn March 13 Britain’s Hawker P 1127 C-1. The first stage has eight H-1 engines with 1.5 million lb of thrust. The second VTOL strike fighter makes its first stage has four LR-119 engines with 30,000 lb of thrust. The third stage has two conventional flight in a test at the LR-119 engines with 35,000 lb of thrust. Eventually, the Saturn evolves into the much larger, more powerful Saturn V vehicle that takes men to the Moon. The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology, Vol. I, p. 76. March 1 The first Russian-built Antonov An-12 four-engine turboprop transport aircraft (the military version of the An-10 airliner) arrives at New Delhi for delivery to the Indian air force. Eight planes have been ordered, and there are reports that 100 Indian pilots are in training in the USSR. The An-12 is to be used Royal Aircraft Establishment at Bed- for supplying construction projects in ford, England. Flying the plane is North India. The Aeroplane, March 17, Hawker’s chief test pilot A.W. (‘Bill’) 1961, p. 278. Bedford, who had flown it in tethered and untethered hovering trials. Power- March 3 Cessna Aircraft announces that its new light twin-engine, twin-boom, ing the aircraft is a single Bristol four-seat Skymaster, Model 336, has achieved its first flight at Wichita, Kansas. Siddeley BS.53 lift-thrust turbofan Aerospace Year Book, 1962, p. 470; The Aeroplane, March 10, 1961, p. 265. of 15,000 lb thrust. The Aeroplane, March 17, 1961, p. 276. March 6 Boeing’s B-52H strategic bomber, developed to carry a Douglas Skybolt air-to-surface missile, makes its first March 23 The Saunders-Roe SRN.1 flight. The Skybolt is later canceled, and the B-52H instead Hovercraft carries Hound Dog missiles, among other weapons. D. Baker, makes its Flight and Flying, p. 374. longest nonstop March 6 The British two-stage solid-fuel Skylark sounding rocket is fired from journey to Woomera, Australia. In an experiment, it emits a sodium cloud to determine date, a 70- winds and temperatures in the upper atmosphere. The cloud appears about 50 mi. circuit times the size of the Moon. The Aeroplane, March 17, 1961, p. 300. of the Isle March 7 North American X-15 rocket research plane No. 2 becomes the first of Wight, in plane to fly faster than Mach 4. This is also the aircraft’s first flight with its XLR-99 1 hr 30 min. The Aeroplane, March 30, Pioneer engine, with 59,000 lb of thrust. The pilot is Capt. Robert M. White, who 1961, p. 335.

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An Aerospace Chronology by Frank H. Winter and Robert van der Linden

March 25 From Cape Canaveral, a successfully from Friedrichshafen after removal from its 650-yard-long hangar. Delta vehicle launches Explorer X, a Hugo Eckner, father of the zeppelin, takes command and completes a 3-hr flight satellite designed to make the first over Lake Constance. Cmdr. Ernest Peck, USN, is among the guests on board during detailed measurements of Earth’s outer the maiden flight. Powering the Hindenburg are four Daimler-Benz diesel motors radiation belts. Some measurements with cruise ratings at 800-900 hp each. The Aeroplane, March 11, 1936, p. 310, are made, revealing higher radiation and April 29, 1936, pp. 525-531. levels than expected, but signals cease on March 28. D. Baker, Spaceflight March 5 Spitfire prototype K5054 and Rocketry, p. 115. makes its first flight, with ‘Mutt’ Summers as test pilot. The plane And During March 1961 proves to be a superb machine with great growth potential. Dur- —Astrometrics develops a new sound ing WW II the Spitfire becomes reproducing system for transmitting Britain’s fastest and best fighter the human voice from space. Aircraft airplane and the backbone of the & Missiles, March 1961, p. 158. RAF’s Fighter Command. Supermarine Aircraft Since 1914, pp. 216-217.

—The Israel Astronautical Society March 9 Flight Lt. Thomas Rose beats the Capetown-to-England flight record by establishes an optical satellite tracking 5 hr 12 min when he flies the 7,904-mi. trip in 6 days 7 hr 5 min in his Miles Falcon. system on the roof of the Aeronautical This was slower, however, than his outbound trip to Capetown in February, accom- Engineering Building at the Technion- plished in 3 days 17 hr 37 min. Nonetheless, Rose also sets a record for a two-way Israel Institute of Technology at Haifa. flight between Capetown and England, beating Amy Mollison’s outward record by The society will operate the tracking 13 hr 16 min. Aero Digest, April 1936, p. 156; Flight, March 22, 1936, p. 278. system in conjunction with the Astro- physical Observatory of the Smithson- March 12 Soviet pilot P.M. Stephanofsky claims a record for the greatest height ian Institution at Cambridge, Massa- reached by a glider. On the flight, started at Moscow, his glider is towed by a chusetts. The Aeroplane, March 23, propeller-driven airplane to 34,989 ft and is then cut loose and makes a successful 1961, p. 322. landing. Edgar Premen pilots the tow plane. Aero Digest, April 1936, p. 156.

March 14 Weekly airmail service between Hong Kong and London begins. Flight, March 19, 1936, p. 314.

March 16 The Smithsonian Institution publishes Robert H. Goddard’s classic report, “Liquid-Propellant Rocket Development,” which covers his work from 1920. Perhaps not coincidentally, this date also marks the 10th anniversary of Goddard’s first flight with a liquid-propellant rocket. The report contains his first 75 Years Ago, March 1936 public mention of that 1926 flight. E. Emme, ed., Aeronautics and March 3 Six Blackburn Shark float Astronautics 1915-60, p. 34. planes are demonstrated in acceptance trials before the Portuguese mission at 100 Years Ago, March 1911 Blackburn’s factory at Brough, England. Portugal is acquiring the planes as March 3 Flown by Philip Parmelee torpedo-bombers. They will also serve and navigated by Capt. Benjamin as reconnaissance aircraft. The Aero- Foulois, the Wright Type B aircraft plane, March 11, 1936, pp. 324-325. sets an official U.S. cross-country record, flying from Laredo to Eagle March 4 Germany’s newest zeppelin, Pass, Texas, in 2 hr 10 min. U.S. the LZ 129—to be named the Hinden- Centennial of Flight Commission burg on March 25—is launched Web site.

AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 45 AA_MAR2011_COPP_Layout 1 2/11/11 3:01 PM Page 2

The Department of Mechanical, Aerospace and Biomedical Engineering (MABE) invites applications and nominations for an As- sistant/Associate Professor in the area of ÀXLG mechanics with specialty in ÀXLGVWUXFWXUH interactions. The position will be located at the University of Tennessee Space ,QVWLWXWH (UTSI) in 7XOODKRPD TN, and will LQFOXGH a competitive compensation package com- PHQVXUDWH with experience and TXDOL¿FDWLRQV For additional information DERXW the ,QVWLWXWH and the Department, visit web sites at www. XWVLHGX and ZZZHQJUXWNHGX.

'XWLHV and Responsibilities: The VXFFHVVIXO candidate will be expected to establish and maintain a scholarly, externally IXQGHG research program; to VXSHUYLVH JUDGXDWH VWXGHQWV to develop and teach FRXUVHV in the appropriate discipline; to participate as appropriate in estab- OLVKHGFRXUVHVRIIHUHGE\WKHGHSDUWPHQWDQGWRSURYLGHVHUYLFHWRWKHLQVWLWXWHGHSDUWPHQWXQLYHUVLW\DQGWKHSURIHVVLRQ

5HTXLUHG 4XDOL¿FDWLRQV An earned doctorate in PHFKDQLFDODHURVSDFHDHURQDXWLFDO engineering with experience in FRPSXWDWLRQDO ÀXLGV is UHTXLUHG A strong commitment to teaching excellence at the JUDGXDWH level and appropriate SXEOLFDWLRQV in leading scholarly MRXUQDOV are expected. The VXFFHVVIXO applicant also will have appropriate problem-solving and FRPPXQLFDWLRQ skills and the ability to work in an interdisciplinary environment. In addition, the ability to obtain approval to work on DOD projects is essential. Preference will be given to LQGLYLGXDOV with experience in ÀXLGVWUXFWXUH modeling and XQGHUVWDQGLQJ of the interaction theory and modeling relationship between ÀXLG ÀRZ and VWUXFWXUDO behavior. Expertise and interests that complement existing departmental research in experimental ÀXLGG\QDPLFVDHURG\QDPLFVÀRZFRQWURODHURDFRXVWLFVDQGPXOWLSK\VLFVÀows are also desired.

$SSOLFDWLRQ ,QGLYLGXDOV interested in applying VKRXOG VXEPLW as a single PDF ¿OH a letter of interest addressing TXDOL¿FDWLRQV research interests and teaching interests; FXUULFXOXP vitae; and the names and contact information for at least 3 professional references to the search chair, Dr. Ahmad Vakili, at DYDNLOL#XWVLHGX . 4XHVWLRQV DERXW the position VKRXOG be addressed to Dr. Vakili. Review of ap- SOLFDWLRQVZLOOEHJLQRQ0DUFKDQGFRQWLQXHXQWLOWKHSRVLWLRQLV¿lled.

The University of Tennessee is an EEO/AA/Title VI/Title IX/Section 504/ADA/ADEA institution in the provision of its education and employment programs and services. All TXDOL¿HG applicants will receive equal consideration for employment without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, pregnancy, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, physical or mental disability, or covered veteran status.

46 AEROSPACE AMERICA/MARCH 2011 AA_MAR2011_COPP_Layout 1 2/11/11 3:02 PM Page 3

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